Word: republican
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...really, there's no such thing as a "filibuster-proof 60-seat majority," even if Martin pulls off an upset and Al Franken wins his recount against Republican Norm Coleman in Minnesota and Joe Lieberman still counts as a Democrat. Senators don't always vote in partisan lockstep; President Barack Obama could succeed in recruiting Republicans on some issues with a 58-seat Democratic majority, and he could find himself stymied by defections on some issues with a 62-seat Democratic majority. In the Senate, even one determined naysayer is capable of grinding the institution to a halt...
...that's why the Martin-Chambliss race actually is a big deal: Chambliss is a textbook Bush-Cheney Republican - and every vote counts. Sixty seats would be better for the Democrats than 59, which would be better for the Democrats than 58. Six years is also a long time. In fact, Georgia is still an extremely conservative state, so if Chambliss can win at a time when the Republican Party is at its lowest ebb, he can probably hold his seat as long as he wants - which would be good news for Bush-style Republicans and bad news for Obama...
...returned to Georgia to campaign for Chambliss after winning the state; Obama just taped a radio ad for Martin, who had to rely on surrogates like Ludacris and REM's Michael Stipe to energize his base down the stretch. Chambliss vacuumed money from big donors as well as the Republican Party and the National Rifle Association; Martin did better with small donors and attracted a swarm of labor-union volunteers, but he's clearly swimming upstream...
...That's because Chambliss and Martin are both running fairly typical Republican and Democratic campaigns in a strongly Republican state. Chambliss was first elected to Congress in 1994, and his campaign sounds a lot like the template Republicans used to seize Capitol Hill that year, except for the emphasis on term limits and changing Washington. He's portrayed Martin as a squishy Big Government liberal who supports Obama, higher taxes, socialized medicine and pro-abortion judges who legislate from the bench, but opposes the Second Amendment, prayer in schools, offshore drilling and a bill to make English the official language...
...Obama got only 47% of the vote in Georgia, which is not a bellwether state. And so national fatigue with Bush will not necessarily translate into Georgia fatigue with Chambliss, who is in many ways nearly a parody of a Bush-Cheney Republican. He has supported the Administration on just about everything but its efforts to rein in outrageous farm subsidies. He is so tight with the sugar industry that he attacked a whistleblower who reported safety problems after an explosion at a Georgia mill killed 14 people. He has been an ardent supporter of sending U.S. troops into harm...