Saxby Chambliss – Death Panel Denier?
27 08 2009Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss from Georgia had a few interesting things to say about health care. You’ll recall that Sarah Palin was credited with Chambliss’ re-election and was quickly cast in the role of Republican Kingmaker…the secret weapon…the fairy godmother in shiny red shoes whose nifty glitter wand could tap you on the head and simultaneously fill your coffers and win you the election.
The scene begins as you might expect. Imagine a hot sultry day. You’re in Atlanta, Georgia. You’ve gathered with others at the Augusta Museum for a chamber of commerce forum on health care reform with Senator Saxby Chambliss. You know what’s coming.
A woman speaks.
Here we go. Death Panels, right off the bat. But wait…
The death panel rumors were given credence by Sarah Palin who campaigned with Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss in Augusta back in November. Chambliss is looking to distance himself from Palin on his latest trip to Augusta.
“I don’t agree with her that there will be death panels created by any of the plans that are out there,” said Chambliss.
“I commend the president for spending political capital to bring this issue to the forefront,” said Chambliss. “We’ve talked about reforming health care for years, but we’ve never gotten around to it.”
Chambliss reached across the aisle as Senator Ted Kennedy, a champion for health care reform, loses his battle to cancer.
“The Senate is a family,” said Chambliss. “We are all good friends within the Senate, and Senator Kennedy was a great legislator.”
Well, pass me a fan and a glass of sweet tea. I do believe I am overcome.
August 27th, 2009 at 3:17 PM
So far today a KS Republican has called for a “Great White Hope”, a white guy to run against Obama (racist reference to Jack Johnson circa 1910) a WA Repub has congratulated a town hall meeting protestor who identified himself as a “right wing terrorist”, and an ID Repub has joked about an “Obama tag” a hunting license to kill Obama.
I literally expect a Republican politician to show up tomorrow wearing a hood, a sheet and a noose, and he or she will fit right in with the rest of the party.
August 27th, 2009 at 3:28 PM
tlgeiger – I received a reply from McChinless (KY), and I can’t even begin to figure out how to make a coherent reply. He has so much BS in the letter, that I simply cannot figure out where to start. And I guess, what he does not understand, is that insurance tells us which doctors we can see, which procedures we can have (I know from experience). I would dearly like the insurance that he has including their drug plan. Medicare Plan D with its donut hole stinks. Each year the premiums and copays go up. Have you heard of “expensive generics” which put you in Tier 2? Yeah. OK, enough rant. I will still contact my hopeless congress people (Chandler & Yarmouth excluded) at least so far.
August 27th, 2009 at 3:31 PM
Saxby’s ego is probably still smarting from the perception that he only won because Palin “delivered” the votes with her campaigning for one day on his behalf. (At least that’s the perception that Palin and her minions have tooted about liberally.) It must have chapped his arse royally that people were giving her most of the credit for his winning when the win was already in the bag, ostensibly from his own efforts.
Now that her star has fallen precipitously since those heady days during and immediate post-election, I suspect his death panel disagreement with his “Patroness” was a politically enjoyable way of showing everyone he’s not a lap dog beholden to the now disgraced flake of the GOP.
He might lose a few points for not going along with party line of the death panel lie but he was able to kill two birds with one stone: 1) Tell the truth….it will come out anyway. 2) Give the appearance that he’s really his own man.
August 27th, 2009 at 3:53 PM
WHAT??? I have called and emailed his office and no one has EVER cared about my concerns re healthcare.
They’ve all but laughed in my yankee face for daring to call at all, and now…
Now, the man whose connections to a sugary refinery which exploded and killed many people in GA, is denying Death Panels?
Well, I might could feel a bit faint. I have NO idea what’s going on with him. None, whatsoever. OH, but I will add that all of the Palin helping him get elected meme seemed at odds with the reality I saw when she came to GA. No media even covered her events in some areas.
I mean, it’s the south – not a graveyard for morons. Only some people like her in the south. She’s hardly “popular”.
August 27th, 2009 at 4:03 PM
Chambliss, who seems an unlikely candidate for bipartisanship, is either being sincere or he sees the handwriting on the wall. Republicans complained about Medicare back in the 60’s when it was being proposed, but when it was clear that it would be a historic vote, some Republicans did indeed forget their party’s objections and vote for the measure. I suspect that healthcare reform could end up playing out the same way. Several R Senators have spoken in glowing terms about Ted Kennedy. Will Hatch honor his friend’s memory and back a bill Kennedy would have liked or will Hatch simply march lockstep with the imbecilic clods that constitute the Republicans in congress?
With the support for a genuine public option at about 75%, any senator or rep. who ignores that kind of support does so at their own peril. They would merely be providing campaign ad fodder for their would be opponents.
August 27th, 2009 at 4:08 PM
I’m sorry, I know many want to feel good about this- and I think we can feel great that he denounced lies. That is a good step! But to think it reflects on his true character or intentions is a huge mistake.
He is the guy who ran against a triple amputee Iraq war vet and branded him a “coward”. There was also election fraud there that year, which many suspect got Chambliss into office, as the exit polls were quite different from the final result.
The reason he won the run-off was not because he’s so wildly popular: the original election results were so close (2008) that a run-off was called for. The Obama voters did not come out for the vote, AND many conservatives were motivated to vote, knowing that their lives had just been turned upside down by Obama’s win.
Alaska and Georgia have quite a bit in common.
August 27th, 2009 at 4:09 PM
PS My last post was not in response to anyone in particular– I had just finished reading all of the page 1 comments, which I somehow missed when I first posted.
August 27th, 2009 at 4:12 PM
Isn’t Saxby Chambliss being decent and making sense one of the signs of the Apocalypse??
August 27th, 2009 at 4:17 PM
My mom still lives in Georgia. Take whatever a Saxby Chambliss (old southern family) says with a BIG grain of salt. What can be gleaned from Chambliss comment is this: Republicans fear health care reform. Saxby Chambliss cares about reelection, and he has rightly ascertained that the pendulum has swung in favor of health care reform. He too will swing in favor of health care reform. That is fine. At least he listens to his constituency.
We cry in the Wilderness for leadership. We are the leadership. We will be the voice of change. Let them come to us for their answers. Ignore the polls. They don’t reflect the truth. Stick with your gut feeling. Chambliss is sticking with his, and his gut says that health care reform will break him if if bucks popular opinion.
August 27th, 2009 at 4:27 PM
nsfnCA I read thru and this is a republican congressma who in no way supports either a public option nor anything any democrate has put forth.If it wasn’t for that I would sign because our taxes pay for their health care and like Senator Kennedy said if it is good enough for them it should be good enough for the rest of us and I don’t see that in his site.
August 27th, 2009 at 4:53 PM
Tlgeiger62 I got the same exact message from my republican congress person.Apparently I live in a more red than blue, not state cause we went blue but area.Chambliss reminds me of McCain trying to put the genie back in the bottle when it is to late.The damage is done.McCain is doing the same thing now saying cool down but that he does not agree we need the kind of change asked for and I had to laugh when someone asked him how much the insurance industry gave him for his campaigns and he feigned innocence.tewise I used Part of your post to show someone a differant prespective on the insurance industry because thought they may thnk we need some kind of reform they do not see the need for a public option.
August 27th, 2009 at 5:03 PM
Unfortunately, Saxby is still a shi(r)t. Making a little bit of nice and disputing a QuitterLie isn’t going to make me forget the despicable lying campaign he ran against Max Cleland.
August 27th, 2009 at 5:06 PM
@51 Bystander: I’m sorry to have to correct you, but that was a CA congressshmuck, not WA.
August 27th, 2009 at 5:07 PM
@52 weaver57: Thank you for “McChinless”. I think I will probably still use “Kermit” most of the time, but it’s nice to have some variety at hand.
August 27th, 2009 at 5:30 PM
#62 Strangelet
Thank you for “shi(r)t”. Clever way to get that in. I believe I’ll borrow that from you.
August 27th, 2009 at 5:31 PM
60 jojobo1 Says: August 27th, 2009 at 4:27 PM
nsfnCA I read thru and this is a republican….I would sign because our taxes pay for their health care and like Senator Kennedy said if it is good enough for them it should be good enough for the rest of us and I don’t see that in his site.
———
The guy that sent it to me is an R and second home neighbor. I was just shocked that the people were all in the TO section and not the BCC section of the email, not just on his to us, but all the people before us who were forwarding. Just bad, because now I have the contacts for his different board of directors, NASA contacts, etc., in addition to the committee members that I know from our neighborhood. Also, in the 2004 election, stuff about fund raising and the company he works for were on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. I’ll leave it at that.
I agree that “because our taxes pay for their health care and like Senator Kennedy said if it is good enough for them it should be good enough for the rest of us” and think that would be an approach to writing our elected representatives, using the HamletsMill compilation of contacts, etc.
August 27th, 2009 at 5:40 PM
Rachel Maddow just ran a clip of an old b/w video of Ted Kennedy delivering a speech at the 1968 Alaska state Democratic Convention, only days after the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King.
One can only imagine how Alaska state politics would have panned out if Ted Kennedy had decided to settle down there instead of fulfilling his family destiny in Massachusetts…
August 27th, 2009 at 5:42 PM
#35nswfmCA
What a great idea. i’m headed over to sign Congressman Fleming’s petition right now.
August 27th, 2009 at 6:14 PM
LOL, I’ll skip the sweet tea and just grab a shot of Jack Daniels instead!
August 27th, 2009 at 6:31 PM
libby Says:
August 27th, 2009 at 11:34 AM
Careful, folks…Chambliss is a rat. He will always be a rat. I wouldn’t believe anything that came out of his mouth.
I’ll celebrate the fact that he publicly denied Palin’s claims but I won’t give that a whole lot of weight.
I agree, Winski, he is a dangerous man.
—————————————————
My first thought was it’s about to be exposed that he has cost $300,000 in complications following a dose of the clap.
I can’t think of any other reason he would want to spread “reasonableness” and be offering kudos to the President.
August 27th, 2009 at 6:36 PM
Aussie, you have a nasty mind. I like that.
August 27th, 2009 at 6:45 PM
well….color me suprised…..A Repub being…..honest? And decent? Are the 4 Horsemen on their way as we speak?
I like what I see but I will hold my applause if Chambliss makes it thru tomorrow and the weekend without a retraction or back pedal of his comments or an apology to Rush for defying party lines.
August 27th, 2009 at 6:47 PM
Sorry….correction…..I will hold my applause UNTIL he can make it thru the weekend without a retraction =D
August 27th, 2009 at 7:28 PM
I have no respect for Chambliss. He tried to hitch his wagon to her glutes and for that he needs to do some serious penance.
August 27th, 2009 at 8:18 PM
I would like to be more optimistic, but I just can’t.
First off, “we just didn’t get around” to fixing healthcare? Umm, yeah, methinks not. That makes it sound like we’ve just been busy with other stuff, like when you’ve been meaning to call your mom back, and you just haven’t found a spare minute.
Second, he disagrees with Palin on death panels. There’s nothing to disagree with! It’s not like Palin said “hey, that sounds like a death panel!” and someone else said “no, no, it’s a [whatever].” THERE ARE NO DEATH PANELS. They do not exist! You can’t agree or disagree with something that doesn’t exist! *smacks head on table*
August 27th, 2009 at 9:42 PM
KaJo–ooo, Rachel had that video? It can be found, directly from the source, here: http://vilda.alaska.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/cdmg21&CISOPTR=10053&REC=2
August 27th, 2009 at 9:51 PM
Now that we have Beck on the run, we need to work on getting rid of Hannity.
As far as beck still on the booze–I think he is also in Rush Limbaugh’s medicine cabinet. I swear that man needs to be put in a “home”.
August 27th, 2009 at 10:57 PM
Ooooo, we saw the Kennedy clip on Rachel; very cool! (PM me on the Forum if you want to know why I think it’s so cool!)
August 28th, 2009 at 5:24 AM
Didn’t mean to take the wind out of anyone’s sails with my previous comment about Saxby. False hope is never a good thing, IMO.
You can bet that his recent statement benefits him in some way…and ONLY him.
I have to agree with E in New England…”You can’t agree or disagree with something that doesn’t exist!”
The hope I’m hanging onto is in watching folks like Beck et al being backed into their dark little corners.
August 28th, 2009 at 12:10 PM
Agreed, Chambliss is a lying weasel and should not be trusted. However, at some point on some issue, the Republicans will not be able to keep all of their soldiers in line. There will be a/an issue(s) which will force elected Republicans to look to their own electoral realities even if it means breaking rank. Self interest will dictate that Republicans will support popular issues if they feel not doing so will jeopardize their positions.
Could healthcare reform be the issue? If President Obama and the Dems play this right it sure could. How many other issues in front of them enjoy 75+% popularity? If Specter can switch parties, it is probable that some Republicans will not toe the party line if the issue is big enough.