Georgia Tipsheet

Senator Saxby Chambliss, the ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, joined with Democratic chairwoman Dianne Feinstein in defending the phone records monitoring reported by The Guardian yesterday.

“This is nothing new. This has been going on for seven years … every member of the United States Senate has been advised of this,” Georgia’s senior senator stated, per a Politico email. “To my knowledge there has not been any citizen who has registered a complaint.”

The Guardian’s report highlighted an April 25 court order from the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) which granted the FBI authority to obtain reports from Verizon “on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the U.S. and between the U.S. and other countries.”

That data is comprised of “the numbers of both parties…location data, call duration, unique identifiers, and the time and duration of all calls,” with the contents of each call going uncovered.

Chambliss further defended the practice on its merits for collecting information on terrorist networks.

“It has proved meritorious because we have collected significant information on bad guys, but only on bad guys, over the years,” he said.

Feinstein echoed the sentiment, saying “this is the exact three-month renewal of what has been in place for the past seven years.”

“This renewal is carried out by the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court] under the business records section of the Patriot Act. Therefore it is lawful. It has been briefed to Congress,” the California Democrat continued.

-Brandon Howell

Senator Saxby Chambliss minced no words when it came to his feelings on President Barack Obama’s counterterrorism address today, which renewed his call for the closing of Guantanomo Bay in Cuba while rejecting the idea of a “global war on terror.”

“The President’s speech today will be viewed by terrorists as a victory,” said Chambliss via press release. “We knew five years ago that closing Guantanamo was a bad idea and would not work. Yet, today’s speech sends the message to Guantanamo detainees that if they harass the dedicated military personnel there enough, we will give in and send them home, even to Yemen.”

Obama’s speech “there is no justification beyond politics for Congress to prevent us from closing a facility that should never have been opened,” with regards to Gitmo. He further announced the lifting of the moratorium on detainee transfers to Yemen while calling on Congress to act on approving a facility for detention and military trials here in the United States.

Chambliss, who is the ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, wasn’t amused.

“With the recidivism rate now at 28% and the increased threat from al Qaeda and its affiliates, including in Yemen, GTMO must stay open for business,” he concluded.

-Brandon Howell

Phil Gingrey doesn’t condemn President Obama or congressional Democrats with the same partisan zeal that Paul Broun brings to Georgia’s Republican Senate contest, but the six-term congressman stressed in a weekend address to GOP activists that he’s no cheerleader for the establishment.

Speaking to the Cobb County GOP Saturday, Gingrey said the Republican National Committee’s recent report on November’s presidential loss was an effort by “so-called gurus in Washington” to push the party to abandon its principles.

“The Republican party generally needs some introspection, but it ain’t dead,” he said. “For us to accept an autopsy report from these so-called gurus in Washington–that we need to change our principles and become more like Democrats or we’ll never elect another president–if that’s what we have to do to elect another Republican president, well so be it. We’re not about to do that.”

Instead, Gingrey, who is competing for the support of rural conservative primary voters with the likes of the outspoken Broun, said voters want lawmakers who won’t compromise.

In short, someone unlike Sen. Saxby Chambliss, the retirement-bound Republican aiming to strike a grand compromise with the president on deficit reduction and taxes.

“They want someone who will stand up staunchly for traditional, Georgia values,” Gingrey said. “They don’t want anybody that’s willing to cut a deal with Democrats and Harry Reid.”

- James Richardson

A well-financed coalition of urban mayors has launched an aggressive advertising blitz to pressure U.S. senators, including Georgia’s Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, to support expanded background checks on firearm purchasers.

Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a group led by Michael Bloomberg of New York City and joined by Kasim Reed of Atlanta, began on Monday a 13-state, $12 million television campaign targeting 15 lawmakers the coalition believes are on the fence on universal background checks. Georgia is one of only two states wherein both senators were targeted.

The 30-second spot features a flannel- and camo-clad gun owner arguing the merits of expanded checks from the bed of a pickup truck.

“Background checks have nothing to do with taking guns away from anyone,” the man says. “Closing loopholes will stop criminals and the dangerously mentally ill from buying guns. That protects my rights and my family.”

A coalition spokesperson did not respond Monday to an inquiry by Tipsheet about the scope of the local buy, but the campaign is to likely to face tough Peach State odds no matter the points secured.

Both Isakson and Chambliss are on good terms with the National Rifle Association and the public appetite for stricter gun control has waned considerably since the immediate aftermath of the Newton, Ct. school shooting.

The results of a national survey fielded last week by CNN found that a majority of Americans, at 55 percent, want no or only limited restrictions on guns and a separate survey of federally-licensed firearm retailers found widespread disbelief that universal checks would prevent criminals from obtaining guns.

A smattering of the country’s most prominent Republican officials and donors gathered last weekend at a posh resort on the Georgia coast for a closed-door retreat, a GOP source with knowledge of the gathering said.

The American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think thank, drew a crowd of the GOP’s largest political celebrities and moneymen for its annual forum on Sea Island, Ga.

The confab, whose attendees included former Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, Speaker John Boehner and Sen. Saxby Chambliss, was first reported Tuesday by Politico.

The invitation-only event also drew embattled News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch and GOP mega donors Foster Friess, who financed a super PAC to support the failed presidential run of former Sen. Rick Santorum, and Fred Malek, who helps steer the fundraising operations of the American Action Network and the Republican Governors Association.

AEI, like most of the retreat’s attendees, were mum on the details of the meeting, but Politico reported the forum included panels on the federal budget and “the cost of defending America.”

- James Richardson

An hours-long filibuster of John Brennan’s nomination to lead the Central Intelligence Agency drew an unlikely supporter late Wednesday afternoon when Sen. Saxby Chambliss, who is slated to dine with President Barack Obama in mere hours, took to the floor to postpone the vote.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a rumored aspirant for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, launched a marathon soliloquy about the Obama administration’s use of unmanned aerial drones and whether it believed the targeting of American citizens was constitutional.

Another six lawmakers, including one Democrat, joined in the filibuster in the intervening period.

The participation of some, like conservative Sens. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee, was not unforseen, but Chambliss’ involvement drew mild surprise from both conservatives and reporters alike.

“Saxby Chambliss is in? This really is a bipartisan affair,” Jeff Emanuel, a contributor to RedState, quipped on Twitter. Others noted the potential for awkwardness when the Georgian shares a dinner with the president, whose nomination to the CIA he stalled only hours earlier, to talk deficit-reduction compromises.

But Chambliss has previously shown a readiness to filibuster nominees, especially those nominated to the bench, he deems unfit.

Locked in a general election run-off, Chambliss said in 2008 the Senate serves as a “firewall … to make sure that we don’t have our taxes raised, to make sure that we have the right kind of judges going to the bench, not liberal activist judges.”

- James Richardson

Sen. Saxby Chambliss and more than a half dozen fellow Republican senators have been invited to dinner with President Barack Obama as he endeavors to strike a bipartisan deficit-reduction agreement, a senior Republican confirmed to Tipsheet.

Chambliss accepted the offer and is expected to be joined by Sens. John McCain, Tom Coburn, Pat Toomey, Kelly Ayotte, Dan Coats, Lindsey Graham and Ron Johnson. The dinner will be held on neutral ground, still a short walk from the White House, at The Jefferson Hotel.*

“I was invited first thing this morning,” Chambliss said Wednesday through an aide.

Chambliss, who recently announced he would forgo reelection next year, has signaled a willingness to support a compromise package that blends new revenue with spending cuts. He publicly sparred last year with a prominent anti-tax lobby, Americans for Tax Reform, when he said he would support the elimination of some tax deductions in exchange for entitlement reform.

The president said he hopes to cobble a “common sense caucus” through the cross aisle outreach, though some bridges are apparently too far: Georgia’s other Republican senator, Johnny Isakson, was not invited to the affair.

Obama’s GOP charm offensive comes only days after congressional Republicans and the White House failed to reach a compromise to stave automatic federal budget cuts, known as sequestration. (Aerospace groups estimate Georgia’s economy will take an immediate $83 million nosedive and shed north of 24,000 industry jobs.)

- James Richardson

[Ed. note: this story has been amended to reflect the correct location for Wednesday's dinner.]

Despite concerns that a bitterly contested primary could fracture the party, Georgia Republican Party leaders have indicated that they will make no effort to winnow a crowded field in the race for retiring Senator Saxby Chambliss’s seat.

“I’m not concerned about it. I think that the right people will emerge. The party won’t be playing favorites to anyone,” GOP head Sue Everhart told the AJC. She went on to say that an attempt at constraining the field isn’t “the Republican way.”

For his part, Governor Nathan Deal has forsworn his involvement in picking the party’s nominee, stating that the role of mediator/kingmaker is one he doesn’t “value” and that he wouldn’t “assume.”

Democrats, on the other hand, have indicated that their aim is to coalesce behind a single candidate in the coming weeks. Chairman Mike Berlon stated that the party’s “whole goal is to get behind one candidate and make sure we’re unified when we get into the election cycle.”

However, the point could be made that Peach State Democrats lack the luxury of a fluid field in the first place. Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed has already forsworn a bid, and Blue Dog Rep. John Barrow has shown little to no overt interest in running statewide.

Michelle Nunn, the daughter of former Senator Sam Nunn, is said to be actively mulling a bid.

Those statements followed the release of a survey put together by GOP firm Harper Polling at the end of last week, which showed a close race for the Republican nomination.

Rep. Paul Broun, the only announced candidate thus far, took 19 percent to fellow Reps. Phil Gingrey and Tom Price’s 18 and 17 percents, respectively. Rep. Jack Kingston, while stopping short of an official announcement, told a gathering of the Forsyth County GOP that he intended to pursue the nomination last Saturday, took 13 percent.

State Senator Ross Tolleson and Atlanta Dream co-owner Kelly Loeffler were also included in the group’s poll but received what Roll Call dubbed “negligible” support.

-Brandon Howell

Top Pentagon officials have warned that sequestration, looming automatic cuts to defense and discretionary spending scheduled to kick in the first of next month, would devastate military readiness and trade groups estimate Georgia’s economy will take an immediate $83 million nosedive.

But U.S. Rep. Paul Broun, who announced last week a bid for the state’s Republican Senate nomination, said he supports the controversial cuts while weaving across the state on a barnburner campaign swing.

“It’s the only way that we’re going to get any positive spending cuts, and I’m in favor of the sequester going into place,” Broun told the Associated Press after a Friday campaign event in Savannah.

A failure by congressional lawmakers to reach an agreement by next month in which the federal deficit would be trimmed by $1.2 billion over the next decade would trigger $42.7 billion in defense cuts.

The impact on Georgia’s economy would be severe.

One defense trade group, the Aerospace Industries Association, estimated the potential cuts would jeopardize more than 24,000 jobs in Georgia. The Air Force separately warned its local civilian employees that a 22-day furlough was under consideration if the sequester was triggered. (A system-wide extrapolation of the furlough would an overall economic loss of $83 million for the state’s defense contractor-rich middle region.)

Sen. Saxby Chambliss, the retiring Republican lawmaker Broun hopes to replace next year, said the cuts were envisioned as a “poison pill”–a provision so politically noxious that reasonable actors would do everything within their power to avoid it–to force both parties to the negotiating table. That plan went to pot when the supercommittee tasked with meting out the cuts disbanded empty-handed, leaving only the option of automatic cuts on the table.

But Broun believes the state of the federal deficit, somewhere currently north of $16.5 trillion, demands we swallow that pill. “I want to see it go into place,” he said.

- James Richardson

The potential field to replace retiring Senator Saxby Chambliss winnowed again this morning, with former Governor Sonny Perdue opting to take his name out of consideration.

“While I am flattered by friends from across Georgia who contacted me this weekend and offered their support, running for the U.S. Senate is not in my heart,” he said in a statement. “I am at a stage in life where there are simply too many positive distractions – a dozen grandchildren with number 13 on the way, business obligations and a loving and devoted wife who has absolutely no interest in living in Washington, and who could blame her?”

Perdue joins former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and radio host turned presidential candidate turned radio host Herman Cain on the list of those declining to make a bid for the seat.

First elected in 2002 with an upset victory over former Governor Roy Barnes, and subsequently re-elected in a 2006 landslide, Perdue was the Peach State’s first Republican chief executive since Reconstruction. He also served as chairman of the Republican Governor’s Association during his tenure.

-Brandon Howell

In Georgia, it’s open season. 

The decision Friday by Sen. Saxby Chambliss not to seek reelection has necessarily nudged every member of the Republican congressional delegation and most statewide elected officers to weigh the prospect of a primary campaign.

Reps. Tom Price, Lynn Westmoreland and Paul Broun are rumored to be seriously considering the race. Party sources also believe banker and philanthropist Frank Hanna III is contemplating a self-financed campaign.

But even as the field remains tremendously muddled and the frontrunner long from established, the political fortunes of one Georgia Republican did improve.

The state’s Republican governor, Nathan Deal, is also up for reelection next year. Despite his majority approval–he was most recently clocked at a 55% approval this week–some considered him vulnerable to a primary challenge from Rep. Price.

Now, back benchers anxious for a promotion will invest that energy and venom into an open, it still crowded, primary.

Jay Morgan, a one-time Georgia Republican Party executive director and Deal confidant, said party resources would be consumed by a Senate primary, leaving the governor to coast to reelection barring serious, unexpected Democratic opposition.

“The big winner today is Gov. Nathan Deal,” Morgan told Tipsheet in an email. “The set of chain events that will now transpire will adversely affect anyone’s plans to mount and finance a statewide race for Governor.  The interest and the money will be focused on who succeeds Senator Chambliss and all those who give up their safe seats in the process.”

- James Richardson

In a lengthy statement circulated to reporters just before noon Friday, Sen. Saxby Chambliss said his decision to forgo a third term was borne of frustration with the culture of Washington, not fear of primary defeat.

“Lest anyone think this decision is about a primary challenge, I have no doubt that had I decided to be a candidate, I would have won reelection,” Chambliss said. “Instead, this is about frustration, both at a lack of leadership from the White House and at the dearth of meaningful action from Congress, especially on issues that are at the foundation of our nation’s economic health.”

He said the legislative stalemate over the debt and deficit were weakening the country’s economy and said there was little hope for improvement “anytime soon.”

“The debt-ceiling debacle of 2011 and the recent fiscal-cliff vote showed Congress at its worst and, sadly, I don’t see the legislative gridlock and partisan posturing improving anytime soon,” the senator’s statement read. “For our nation to be strong, for our country to prosper, we cannot continue to play politics with the American economy.”

Chambliss, who was first elected to the U.S. House in 1994 from the old 8th district, signaled no readiness to coast through his remaining time in office.

“There are two years left in my term, and there is lots left to do,” he said. “I am in good health, and I plan to continue working hard to represent the best interests of Georgians, and to do my utmost to help restore American to its economic greatness.”

His statement is available in full below. (more…)

Herman Cain’s improbable rise and ignominious collapse in the Republican presidential primary last year left him a man who appreciates what he has: a job.

In 2008, the former restaurant executive began hosting an eponymous radio show into which he parlayed some years later his presidential campaign. It was an inauspicious springboard to the White House, but it earned the conservative a throng indefatigable rabble-rousers.

Still, his charm and their loyalty were no match for claims of sexual harassment and infidelity. He surrendered the microphone to satisfy Federal Election Commission rules governing equal time and ended his campaign with nothing more than a mountain of debt and tainted national reputation.

But Cain remained widely popular back home in Georgia, where his old employer, WSB Radio in Atlanta, hired him to replace Neal Boortz, a fixture of conservative talk radio for the last two decades.

Cain said last year his “attention will be on exposing the economic pain and suffering to come from a second Obama term,” but news Friday that Sen. Saxby Chambliss would retire reignited speculation among Republicans in Georgia that Cain might reconsider.

But in multiple conversations Friday, GOP power brokers and party financiers told Tipsheet they believed Cain to be a “wild card” player in what most expect to become a wrenching, free-for-all primary to replace Chambliss.

Should Cain renege, he would again find himself in the same position as 2011: sacrificing his cushy radio gig for an uncertain and hostile campaign effort.

Boortz delivered his last broadcast on January 18 and Cain only assumed the microphone three days later, on Inauguration Day. He had only been on the air for five days before Chambliss announced his intentions to retire.

No, Herman Cain already has the jobs he wants.

- James Richardson

U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss will not seek reelection next year, two senior Republicans tell Tipsheet.

Chambliss’ apparent intention to pursue a third term quickly fractured the state’s congressional delegation, from which a number of fellow Republicans were privately weighing primary challenges to the incumbent, and party elders.

But serious contenders and gadflies alike have been noncommittal about primary prospects, raising hopes among those close to the senator that his opposition would be largely symbolic, a conservative protest for his various bipartisan breaches during his two decades in Washington.

The speculation and quiet calm eded Friday morning, however, when Chambliss informed his senior staff that he would forgo the looming reelection bout.

Now it’s anybody’s race. And there are lots of anybodies.

A handful of GOP congressional lawmakers–U.S. Reps. Tom Price and Paul Broun most prominently–have made quiet moves within the state party apparatus in the event Chambliss looked especially vulnerable to primary voters. The calculus became even more simple with his retirement.

- James Richardson

In perhaps the first blow of the 2014 campaign, Representative Paul Broun fired a shot at Senator Saxby Chambliss on government spending and taxes.

A Wednesday interview saw Broun state that Chambliss “doesn’t seem” to understand America’s national debt and deficit issues from the same perspective.

“He seems to want to raise taxes on people, and he also wants to continue spending. So I don’t know if he does or not, you’ll have to ask him,” he continued.

Chambliss subsequently fired back with a shot seemingly directed at Broun, although he didn’t call the 10^th District representative by name.

“Not only do I understand our debt and deficit problem, I have gotten off the sidelines to try and find a solution. Those who vote ‘no’ on everything obviously don’t care about solving the country’s problems,” said the two-term senator in a statement to Roll Call.

He further defended his voting record, saying that he’s “spent years working to fix Washington’s spending problems that led to the fiscal mess we’re in.”

When pressed, Broun sidestepped saying whether or not he intended to mount a primary campaign against Chambliss, saying that it wasn’t “time to even think about that.”

-Brandon Howell