Will It Take Another Civil War for Georgia To See Red?

It’s imperative that we continue down the road of putting liquidity, integrity and confidence back in the financial marketplace so that we can see the credit market free up and people having the ability to borrow money to to operate and expand their businesses.

- Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss in a campaign speech last Thursday (he is in a run-off election against Democrat Jim Martin.

From Think Progress:

However, Chambliss was so busy campaigning that day that he actually skipped the Senate’s vote on the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2008, which extended unemployment benefits “by 13 weeks in states with an unemployment rate of at least 6 percent.” (Georgia's is 7%)

The Georgia U.S. Senate race has now become one of the biggest cause celeb events almost as contentious as the Presidential election. It seems that Chambliss is not new to openly running severe attack ads against opponents: when Chambliss first ran against Democratic Senator Max Cleland - a triple amputee from the Vietnam War, he ran an ad that included Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein and accused Cleland for being soft on terror.

Since Chambliss himself had not served in Vietnam (shades of G.W. B**h) he drew harsh words from both Republican and Democrats.

Yesterday, a PAC called Freedom’s Watch released an attack ad Chambliss' opponent,HJim Martin saying he “failed to look out for Georgia’s families.”

The problem? Martin’s own daughter was kidnapped when she was eight years old. In a new ad, he states,

You never forget the horror of coming face-to-face with violent crime. … I never forgot the way she trembled when she faced her kidnapper in court. That’s why I fought so hard to crack down on violent crime.

John McCain has now gone to Georgia in support of Chambliss while President-elect Barack Obama has cut a commercial for Martin.

Chambliss is also backed by Family Research Council. As far as civil rights legislation is concerned, however, the ACLU rate Chambliss with a very low 27% (out of 100%).

So how nasty will Chambliss get to retain his seat? Who knows?

Stay tuned.