The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Retire #Taxby Chambliss

Posted on | November 26, 2012 | 32 Comments

Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss can blame no one else for his self-destructive decision to repudiate his pledge to Georgia taxpayers. His foolish decision to demonize Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform virtually guarantees that Chambliss would face a well-funded and well-organized primary challenge in 2014, if Chambliss were to choose to run for re-election in 2014.

But he won’t.

Mark my word, the handwriting on the wall will become clear enough pretty soon and, by mid-2013 at the latest, Chambliss will announce that he will retire rather than seek re-election.

Georgia is one of the most solidly Republican states in the country. Especially in a mid-term election, no Georgia Democrat can hope to win statewide office. Whoever gets the GOP nomination in 2014 will be the state’s next senator, and there are probably a dozen leading Republicans in Georgia craving an opportunity to take on Chambliss in the GOP primary. Nothing that Chambliss does now can save him from his inevitable fate.

He is doomed beyond all hope of redemption.

Here’s the point: A Republican in a purple state can go wobbly without much fear of reprisal. But if a Republican in a deep-red state like Georgia is permitted to get away with flaunting his “bipartisanship” on such a fundamental issue, then every GOP Senator might be tempted to join the RINO Caucus, becoming a bunch of treacherous self-serving sellouts like Arlen Specter and Lisa Murkowski.

A clear matter of principle is at stake, and no personal considerations should prevent conservatives from uniting in this crucial cause. It doesn’t matter whether you like Grover Norquist or not. This isn’t about Grover. This is about preserving the integrity of the Republican Party.

Just as it was necessary to prevent John Cornyn and Jim Greer from “anointing” Charlie Crist as the Florida GOP Senate nominee in 2010, so now it is necessary to retire Saxby Chambliss.

So let it be written. So let it be done.

FURTHER READING:

UPDATE: Linked by Bob Belvedere — thanks! — and the suggestion that Saxby Chambliss should be given a retirement party inspired this:

 

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Category: Georgia, Republicans, Senate, Taxes

Comments

  • Pingback: The conservative backlash at ‘Taxby’ begins | Jay Bookman

  • jwallin

    “Integrity”? “Republican”?

    Those two words should not be in a sentence together.

    They have none. The party has none. The members of the party may have some but have lost faith.

    I’m waiting for the implosion and/or everyone to catch up to me. I’ve seen this movie too many times. I know how it turns out. The handwriting is on the wall and it’s been engraved.

    Republicans NEVER stand their ground. NEVER stand up to Democrats. They always have caved and it’s happened so often, I am willing to state that they always WILL cave.

    They are big government solves everything politicians just like Democrats.

    They just want to boil the frog a little slower.

    They fooled me over Reagan. Gave me hope that with the right guys/gals in there, we could reverse the slide into socialism and for 25 years I’ve had my heart broken and my faith shattered.

    It’s worse than rooting for the Cubs. Because one has to believe that the Cubs want to win.

  • http://evilbloggerlady.blogspot.com/ Evi L. Bloggerlady

    Stacy just loves tweeting #Taxby.

  • http://theothermccain.com smitty

    It’s almost as though the GOP is just the Progressive shock absorber for lingering tremors of liberty in the U.S.

  • matthew w

    Is there a virus going around that causes gutless RINOitis??

  • indyjonesouthere

    Get rid of “taxby” the same way Indiana got rid of Lugar. The first and foremost step is to get rid of the rino. The next is to replace them with a conservative. It may require more than one election to do so but rinos are killing this country. Off with their fricking heads.

  • McGehee

    Maybe Herman Cain would like to take another crack at running for the Senate?

  • http://leatherpenguin.com/ TC_LeatherPenguin

    STFU with the Twitter screen grabs.

  • Pingback: GOP Delenda Est – Now Is The Time « The Camp Of The Saints

  • http://thecampofthesaints.org Bob Belvedere

    Huh?!?

  • http://thecampofthesaints.org Bob Belvedere

    No point. It’s time for the conservatives, classical liberals, and small ‘L’ libertarians to leave the GOP…

    GOP Delenda Est – Now Is The Time .

  • http://thecampofthesaints.org Bob Belvedere

    Yeah…the Gluttony Virus.

  • jwallin

    It’s like in the matrix where Zion is necessary because the misfits have to have somewhere to go.

    Then when they reach a certain density, they are subsumed back into the matrix for another cycle.

    I think we’re about to get a big subsuming right in our you-know-where.

  • jwallin

    It’s in the water they serve at those cocktail parties.

  • http://www.leftbankofthecharles.com/ Charles

    The Grover Norquist strategy of holding the line on tax increases while running up huge federal deficits in the hope that several years down the line Democrats will agree to comparatively modest spending increase reductions does not work. Spending = Taxation so any pledge to freeze the second without freezing the first is bound to fail.

    The pledge would only be credible if the political party making it is prepared to stiff the creditors who finance the deficits by defaulting on the federal debt.

  • http://leatherpenguin.com/ TC_LeatherPenguin

    You–not “you”, per se, Captain Belvedere–are no better than them if you are bitching about what they said. Screw what was said. The matter is about what will be said TODAY.
    Stop fighting yesterday.

  • http://evilbloggerlady.blogspot.com/ Evi L. Bloggerlady

    What twitter screen grabs? RSM’s?

  • CPAguy

    Herman Cain!

    He needs to run. Even if he doesn’t have a shot, he’ll ensure that anybody who gets in the race actually has substance reducing the chances of another GOP retread getting in.

  • http://twitter.com/richard_mcenroe richard mcenroe

    It’s not gutlessness, it’s simple greed. The RNC will defend every one of its aging spineless incumbents against primary challenges because as they have publicly stated, their mission is to support Republicans in office… and as they have repeatedly demonstrated, they take that to mean especially against Republican voters.

  • sheryl

    Did the democrat party disregard their pledge for no new spending? Oh wait…

  • Wombat_socho

    It ain’t over until we say it’s over. And I’m not done here.

  • http://profiles.google.com/rob5136 Rob Crawford

    WTF are you trying to say?

  • Pingback: Time for Senator Saxby Chambliss to retire « The Daley Gator

  • Adobe_Walls

    “….preserving the integrity of the Republican Party.” should be fairly easy what with such a small perimeter and such shot interior lines.

  • http://twitter.com/ThatChristyChic Christy Waters

    Chambliss is my senator. I voted for Herman Cain when he made his Senate run against Johnny Isakson, and I’ve already written old “Turncoat Taxby” that I would work diligently to primary a true conservative against him in the next go round, if he caves. I’ve had enough of this RINO crap.

  • http://wizbangblog.com/ Adjoran

    Quite right. For example, the question in the primary debate about trading $1 in tax increases for $10 of verifiable spending cuts (presumably passed simultaneously). No candidate could agree to it because of the Norquist nuts. But any sane President would jump on the deal.

    Milton Friedman pointed out long ago that the federal budget is ALWAYS balanced in an economic sense. At any given level of spending, either it is all financed by directly taking the money out of the market through taxation or indirectly by borrowing and reducing the total capital available.

    The point has always been to learn from past experience and demand spending cuts be enacted, not promised. The spending level is the most important factor, the specifics of the tax system are important but only in the manner of financing the given spending level.

  • http://wizbangblog.com/ Adjoran

    I’m no fan of Chambliss, but throwing Norquist under the bus is a very sensible thing. The stupid pledge gives Democrats ammo to paint Republicans as uncompromising and cover for their own failure to consider cutting any spending.

    I suppose it is racist to mention Norquist is also the author of Dubya’s silly “muslim outreach” and the PC attitudes which have pervaded federal enforcement activity since 9/11. Virtually every muslim leader who was invited to the White House and later found to be connected to islamist extremism was introduced and recommended by Grover Norquist.

    As to the idea that “any” Republican wins the Georgia seat, tell that to Senator Mourdock. Oh, wait.

  • Pingback: Larwyn’s Linx: Mark Levin Slams Republican Sell-Outs on Taxes | Preppers Universe

  • McGehee

    …gives Democrats ammo to paint Republicans as…

    That’s hilarious, that you think they need ammo. Have you not noticed that if they are not given ammo, they’ll make it up out of whole cloth?

  • Adobe_Walls

    Georgia ain’t Indiana.

  • Pingback: R. Stacy McCain, to Rebecca Diserio: Let's reason like reasonable people, in trying to figure out GOP's problems - Lowering the Boom

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