Finally Some Good News (Maybe) for Republicans

Fortunately for the country, there will be no filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. Sen. Saxby Chambliss won his runoff election in GA, a firmly set red state.

I added "maybe" in the title because Sen. Chambliss has a couple of problems with his Senate voting record. He voted for the $700 billion bailout (sellout) and for the 2007 guest worker program. In some conservative circles that was getting him plastered with the RINO (Republican in Name Only) label.

However, seeing the threat of handing the Democrats a blank check to do as they will in Washington, DC, the people of GA thought about the good of the country.

One wonders if there is more of a message in Jim Martin's loss? Obama's absence from this campaign was obvious, except for some robocalls and a single radio ad.

Did Obama suddenly forget all those lessons learned in his rough and tumble days working the Chicago political machine?

Has he already lost his coattails? Is the vaunted Obama coalition sustainable or is it truly, as some have suggested, simply a cult of personality? Is there something beyond Obama the man?

Maybe there isn't. Chambliss captured 60% of the votes to Martin's 40%. Admittedly, turnout for this run-off was light. The GA Secretary of State estimated turnout to be 18 to 20% -- a huge drop from the 65% turnout on November 4th.

However, the stakes here were just as high and maybe higher. The ability to solidify a supermajority in the Senate was in the balance. Looks like Republicans took that much more seriously than the Democrats did.

Donald Fowler, a former DNC chairman said Obama "has a political army that is truly impressive, but that kind of loyalty to a person rather than to an institution is not as transferable." Martin's campaign should have listened more closely, since he chose to wrap himself in everything Obama for his campaign. He ran ads that included footage of Obama's victory speech in Chicago and borrowed lines from several Obama speeches, trying to make them his own.

Looks like it didn't work for him. One cannot try to become the Obama.

Seems more like a cult of personality all the time.

Despite his win, Chambliss should take note of the message GA Republicans sent him. Analysts believe the main reason for the runoff was that a large number of Republicans voted for the Libertarian candidate to protest Chambliss' support for the immigration reform compromise and financial services bailout.

However, given the prospect of a 60-vote Democrat supermajority in the Senate, the Republicans returned to the polls to soundly prevent that tragedy.

We'll have to see if the Obama Machine can get itself in gear to hold onto their Congressional seats in 2010. If history is any indicator, they may have a tough time.