Sarah! and Saxby

I had heard from someone on Saxby's staff last week that the campaign was working on getting Governor Sarah Palin down to Georgia to help get voters fired up over the run-off. Well, according to the Telegraph, Sarah! has agreed to come to the rescue. The closest she'll get to Macon is Perry - chosen, I suppose, so that the Ag Center can be used as a venue to host the sizeable crowd she will no doubt draw. She's a popular gal in these parts - and for good reason. She'll also be coming to Augusta, Savannah, and Atlanta.

Governor Palin did what I thought would be impossible during the recent campaign: she got the justifiably suspicious conservative base of the GOP fired up in spite of the squish at the head of the ticket. Her enduring popularity proves the idiocy of those Republican elites who suggest that she is responsible for dragging McCain down, and puts the sword to any argument that the GOP needs to abandon its traditional conservative principles.

Her presence here, along with the likes of Romney, Huckabee, Giuliani, and other Republican big guns who have stopped in to stump for Saxby over the last few weeks, also shows the importance of this run-off election. A 60 seat majority for the Democrats would be catastrophic, not just for the GOP, but for the future of this nation. The Democrat leadership has already made it clear that they intend to take full advantage of the current crisis situation, and the general feeling of panic beginning to spread throughout the population.

As Rahm Emanuel has said, this crisis represents an opportunity for government to take more radical steps than would normally be tolerated by a still center-right electorate. We are already watching our great nation teetering on the brink of socialism, and 60 votes in the Senate all but guarantees that even more drastic and permanent steps will be taken in the wrong direction. If you call yourself a conservative, then you have no excuse for sitting this one out, or for voting against Saxby Chambliss. You may not agree with everything he has done - I don't - but you cannot make a credible argument for doing anything other than voting for the GOP in this case.

This election has been painful. We lost. Big time. And I can understand a certain satisfaction in watching the politicians who have failed to advance conservatism in office crash and burn. It's almost as if we need a little pruning to be stronger in the long run. But too much pruning can be a very bad thing. We need to leave enough branches in place to keep the tree alive. We must leave our party in a position to mount a serious opposition to the people now in charge. We need to get over ourselves and lay the groundwork for a conservative comeback. The first, and most important way to do so is by helping get Saxby Chambliss re-elected.

What Were They Thinking?

I hate to say this, but our two senators fully deserve the criticism being thrown at them from conservatives over the Gang of 10 energy "compromise." Erick gives us a nice summary of the legislation over at Peach Pundit, and it's pretty much what you would expect from a compromise between Democrats and the GOP. The spineless Republicans cave in to 90% of everything the Dems want, and get a whole lot of nothing in return.

Every. Stinking. Time.

Here's the deal:

"If Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson have their way, most of the outer continental shelf (”OCS”) would be permanently off the table for expanded energy exploration. Right now, the ban on OCS exploration must be renewed annually.

10 billion barrels of oil and 18 trillion cubic feet of natural gas would be permanently untouchable off the Pacific Coast.

10 billion barrels of oil and 8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas would be permanently untouchable in ANWR.

2 billion barrels of oil and 18 trillion cubic feet of natural gas would be permanently untouchable in the Atlantic."

Oh, and the bill would also raise taxes on energy companies by $30 billion. Let me guess - Saxby and Johnny had to throw that little tidbit in to "sweeten the deal" for the populist Democrats who want to be able to say they stuck it to the big bad oil companies.

And what did they get in exchange?

Access to a small fraction of the resources we have available to us right now, and a PERMANENT ban on the rest. I'm sorry. I really do like Saxby, but this CANNOT happen. I really don't understand his, or any of the other Republicans' reasoning for this nonsense. The public has made it very clear that we want to drill everywhere, now. Just do it, already.