This is intended to be a short diary, but one that hopefully speaks volumes the the nature of both hypocrisy and just how much Republicans want to hold onto the seat on Georgia. With many, like Nate Silver, predicting pickups in Alaska and Minnesota as very realistic, Georgia may very well be the battleground for our 60th Senate seat. Realizing this, Republicans are pulling out all the stops to win, even sending Senator McCain (it sure is nice to have had him kept that title) into the state to campaign for Saxby Chambliss.
Back in 2002, many in the Senate denounced the Cleland-bin Laden-Saddam ad as nothing short of despicable. Ironically enough, John McCain was one of those senators. Back then, he said, and I quote:
"I'd never seen anything like that ad. Putting pictures of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden next to the picture of a man who left three limbs on the battlefield -- it's worse than disgraceful. It's reprehensible."
So why is McCain now traveling to Georgia to defend the very man who approved of the garbage that lost Max Cleland that election? Does he no longer consider that ad reprehensible? Disgraceful? McCain, in what I thought was a magnificent and gracious speech on Election Night, spoke about the importance of this country and moving forward. Those words now ring hollow to me after his decision to disregard all he said back in 2002.
Jim Martin deserves to be the next Senator from the great state of Georgia. Likewise, Barack Obama, please go down there and campaign not just for Jim Martin, but against Saxby Chambliss and against disgraceful campaign tactics. The conscious decision to stay on the sidelines in this race is ironically a political move - please do what's right.