Saxby Chambliss' Predictable "Heresy"

[babylonsister]

For all those with high praise for Chambliss, don't forget this please. I was very happy to see Mr. Pierce remind us...

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/saxby-chambliss-tax-pledge-112612

Saxby Chambliss' Predictable "Heresy"
By Charles P. Pierce
at 11:55AM

First of all, let's be quite plain. I don't care if Saxby Chambliss dresses in fatigues, grows his hair into a floor-length ponytail, and runs a drum-circle in his local Occupy Peckerwood encampment for the next 30 years, it still won't make up for the indecent campaign he ran against Max Cleland in 2002. I think that campaign marked him as a penis in a necktie for the rest of his life. Now that we know where we stand, what do we make of his "bold" stand at the end of last week in which he bravely announced that he would "break" the "pledge" he took to Grover Norquist to never, ever to allow taxes to rise on his watch? Hurrah, said the centrist chorus in the Beltway. Bipartisanship is just around the corner there.

Horse hockey.

(And the same goes for the rest of these brave souls. "New tax revenues" is a dodge to keep the rest of the political class from looking at the top rate. This is the old "close everybody's loopholes" scam, which inevitably will fall hardest on that great majority of Americans who can't afford the best tax lawyers. Also, too: I would argue that within the Republican party and not within network green rooms, John McCain hasn't been "influential" in a very long time, particularly not on economic matters, about which he knows next to nothing.)

Let Chambliss — who is hearing Tea Party footsteps back home — take an actual vote to demonstrate his independence. Let him raise his hand and say "Aye" to an actual tax increase, and then let him call a press conference and brag about it. This will not happen because Chambliss didn't discover an inner liberal. It is because he has pledged his fealty to a different Beltway cargo cult, the one that worships at the feet of the great god Simpson-Bowles. This way, he gets to close some evanescent tax loopholes while getting the beginning of the final dismantling of the social safety net in return. This is a helluva deal for a conservative politician, and it's the best indication available of why Simpson-Bowles is a terrible idea. (It is also not a "plan." Remember, they couldn't even get the votes on the commission to send its recommendations to Congress. What is called "Simpson-Bowles" are the perfervid thoughts of a superannuated quack like Alan Simpson and the policy sleight-of-hand of a Beltway grease-artist like Erskine Bowles.) But watch as Chambliss's "heresy" is praised as a move toward the "middle." I've seen professional wrestling matches that weren't this predictable.

[msongs]

1. georgia voters were aware of his campaign and endorsed it by electing him nt

[CatWoman]

2. they also voted in Nathan Deal

unfortunately the scum has a lock on the state and senate votes here.

I would never, EVER vote for either of them.

[DollarBillHines]

3. The GOP's "close the loopholes" thing is pure bs

We have several ventures, ranging from farming to manufacturing, marketing and distribution.

I have learned that if you keep enough plates spinning, the IRS will seek an easier target.

I believe the "loopholes" plan will screw John Q.

[Flashmann]

4. I'll trust guys like this

When they say and do,for the next 3 decades+, the OPPOSITE of what they've said and done for last three decades......Maybe...

[Erose999]

5. Saxby Shameless is a fucking snake. Now that the election is over Norquist goes under the bus and

they institute "reforms" that put the screws to the middle class and ask nothing from the superwealthy. And they get to do this while assuming the mantle of "bipartisanship" and "compromise".