Georgians: You Still Want This Guy As Your Senator?

We all know how Saxby Chambliss swift-boated decorated Veteran Max Cleland to win his Senate seat in 2002 and those of us involved in covering the Senate know that Saxby's not considered, well… the finest legislative mind in the chamber. But it's important that people in Georgia who will be voting in the December 2nd run-off election between Chambliss and Democratic challenger Jim Martin know just how thin Chambliss is on the economy and the plight of unemployed workers.

Leaving alone for a minute that Chambliss has for years fought tooth and nail against every bill to increase the federal minimum wage rate, ThinkProgress tells us about how Chambliss didn't even care to show up for last week's Senate vote on extending benefits for the unemployed and instead stayed Down South to give a campaign speech on… Unemployment!

Here's ThinkProgress:

On Thursday, Georgia’s Department of Labor announced that the state’s unemployment levels rose to 7 percent in October, the highest in 16 years; approximately 43,093 unemployed Georgians are looking for work. That same day, Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), who is locked in a tough run-off election battle with Democrat Jim Martin, gave a campaign speech on the state’s economic troubles:

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.” Chambliss was one of just four senators to miss the vote. WCTV reported that Chambliss later sent out a press released praising “the passage of the law and [said he] hopes it will help laid-off workers get by while seeking a new job.”

Please go here to read more.

And here's a great video on Saxby Economics that shows that this guy doesn’t even have the knowledge of a freshman Economics student, much less a United States Senator:



Good thing Georgians will have had another month to think this through before voting again.