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First Read is an analysis of the day's political news, from the NBC News political unit. First Read is updated throughout the day, so check back often.

Chuck Todd, NBC Political Director

Mark Murray, NBC Deputy Political Director

Domenico Montanaro, NBC News Political Reporter



Ads take aim at Martin on crime

Posted: Friday, November 21, 2008 12:46 PM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:

From NBC's Chuck Todd and Abby Livingston
In the Georgia U.S. Senate runoff, the NRSC and a conservative interest group want to take a bite out of Democrat Jim Martin.

In a throwback to how Republicans regularly targeted suburban voters,   Freedom’s Watch, a 501 (c)(4) group, and the NRSC have launched ads fingering Martin as weak on crime as a state legislator.

In the Freedom’s Watch ad, called “Family Safety,” a woman’s voice over says, “Nothing’s more important than your family’s safety. That’s why we have laws to protect them from harm.”

Inter-spliced are images of children at an ice cream truck and being tucked into bed a la 3 a.m.

The ad then cuts to dramatic music and grainy images of Martin and accuses him of voting against stiffer penalties for drunk drivers and tougher sentences for domestic abuse.

The voiceover then declares, “Two chances to keep your family safer. Jim Martin was wrong on both. Tell him to support tough on crime policies.”

The NRSC ad asks, “Will the real Jim Martin please stand up?” and then charges Martin with a litany of flimsy votes on crime. Among the accusations: that Martin voted against the prevention of child prostitution and the solicitation of drugs near schools.

Freedom’s Watch funded pro-GOP ads in other Congressional races previously in the 2008 cycle and did a 2007 media blitz in support of the Bush administration’s Iraq war policies. 

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When all else fails Lie Baby Lie!  Not surprising that now the repugnant ones are lying about Jim Martin being soft on crime.  Let's not forget the past and current criminal hugging Attorney Generals that have destroyed our Justice Department!  If anyone is soft on crime it's the white collar criminal lovers that have allowed this massive financial meltdown ripoff.

"Hey Al, it's November and 18 degrees here in the midwest ... that's January weather.
So much for your global warming crap." Penny Lane

Hey Penny - It was 87 degrees here in Salinas CA last weekend in the middle of November and this week has been far warmer than normal!  So much for your whining about global warming crap.  I'd offer a penny for your clueless thoughts but that would be way overpriced!

Hey Reality Bites - I am lucky enough to live in the land of Stunningly Beautiful Calfornia Girls so the Wasilla Gorilla just doesn't excite me because I see so many women that excite me daily.  While there are plenty of stunningly beautiful women around the country and world the Alaskan Painted Strumpet has never been nor will ever be one of them.
[[The ad then cuts to dramatic music and grainy images of Martin and accuses him of voting against stiffer penalties for drunk drivers and tougher sentences for domestic abuse. ]]


I wish the Republicans would keep the Kennedy's out of this contest.
Martin hates NASCAR too.
No fact check?
I hope Obama targets black radio stations with his radio ad
He should tell African American voters how important it will be to have 60 Democratic seats in the Senate
Hopefully, the work will get out in African American churches, too

Chambliss and his allies are real scumbags
Typical Republicans

How does Chambliss stand on the Auto bail out
I think there are car plants in Georgia
The GOP/RNC have the political guts to talk about crime! After their reign of criminality over the past 8 years. They are the last politicians to be talking about crime. Yesterday in the Senate, when many a Repubican, were honoring the criminal behavior of their very own Ted Stevens. What a joke!

DV, CA --
So, really...this is what the repubs are going to do for the next four years?  Whine and bit*h about every bit of minutia.


Seems to have worked well for the Democrats. That's the kind of the country we've become now too hasn't it? That's also why Obama represents us so well.

Naughty, Naughty Saxby !!
Why are you so UPSET ??

Be a GOOD BOY and explain yourself

'...Chambliss Knocks Over Camera When Asked About Lawsuit

The pressures of the runoff election and the continuing questions about his ties to a large, scandal-scarred sugar company seem to be getting to Sen. Saxby Chambliss.

Asked by a reporter whether a lawsuit involving deaths at an Imperial Sugar plant -- a lawsuit in which Chambliss claims he has senatorial immunity from testifying -- were making his chances at reelection harder, the Georgia Republican responded by knocking away a nearby camera

The video, put out by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, is another chapter in a bizarre but brewing saga that could very well affect the outcome of the Senate race.

In February 2008, an explosion at the Imperial Sugar Factory in Savannah, caused largely by combustible dust particles, killed 14 workers and injured 40. The whistleblower who brought the issue to light came before Capitol Hill to testify on the matter. Chambliss sat in on the hearing, though he was not part of the Senate Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety. He was accused by his opponents of verbally harassing the whistleblower. Moreover, Chambliss continued to oppose a new combustible dust standard at the plant even after the explosion. Finally, when families of the victims filed a lawsuit, the Senator refused to give evidence or testimony, citing Senatorial immunity, which doesn't actually exist.

Imperial Sugar, which has funneled a moderate amount of donations into Chambliss' coffers, has defended the Senator's conduct as appropriate.....'



Is anyone surprised at these tactics?  Just more of the same.  Playing the fear card... from a deck of fear cards.

People of Georgia, vote for Jim Martin!
Weak on crime?  OMG....the Repukes are so very hypocritical.  Do as I say do, not as I do!  Family Values for the Repukes and all of their Right Wing crazies always want to put children in the mix.

They do nothing to support children, only talk about it.  No SCHIP, not much hunting of delinquent Dads, and on and on, including Mr. Foley from Florida!

They need to focus on the crimes of the current administration, including the lies surrounding the premptive invasion of IRAQ!
It appears like the repuks have not learned damn thing.This is just more of the fear and smear roven tactic.But when thats all ya got ,and your base is undereducated,and this stuff may still work for some, it appears that it will take years of better education to help them.
   Freedom's watch, Family watch, Patriot, Focus on the Family, Country First, No Child left behind......It sound's like, the snake in the grass sleeze bag's are on the roll again.  The leach's love to "cling" to Religion and gun's and children.  It is just amazing how some folk's will just bend over and take it, then open up their good book, and tell the story of the angle's that God threw down to the earth, and never wonder what happened to them.  Maybe they think they are on vacation?  Good lord!
Why does Freedom's Watch hate America?
If anyone questions why the Democrats so handily destroyed the Republican party (especially conservatives)two weeks ago, they need look no further than reading about how they are dealing with Democrat Jim Martin. A truly disgusting group of people, to say the least.
Remember the fear and smear campaign that Saxby Shameless launched against Max Cleland six years ago.

Shameless is, well...shameless when it comes to saying anything, doing anything to hold on to the Senate seat he pulled out from under triple-amputee Vietnam veteran Cleland.

President-Elect Obama should spend a couple of days late next week in Georgia, stumping for Jim Martin.

If you live in Georgia or know anyone who does, please urge them to vote for Jim Martin for U. S. Senate.  It could give Democrats the 60-vote firewall against Republican filibuster obstructionism.
Wow, I've been punked. Someone wrote a post earlier and signed my name. I've heard of that happening to other posters but still found it pretty surreal. Well, at least they got my personality right: I do read Newsweek and I am overjoyed Obama is President. Karl Rove, is that you making fun of me? Dirty trickster you!
Chambliss is a low life that has not learned anything from the current election results. The Republicans say and do anything tactics to get elected are over--it is time for accountability and responsibility both of which Chambliss know nothing. Chalk up another win for the Dems.
Whose freedom are they watching? It certainly isn't yours or mine. Maybe it is the hand full of right wingnut radical extremists whose freedom they are watching. As others have posted. They don't seem to learn from their mistakes so the Republicans will be a shrinking minority with each successive election until they wake up and reverse this trend by moving more toward the center.
Go ahead, use the old "weak on crime" arguement against the Democrat which goes back to the 1980's.  Just please be sure, for all you "tough on crime" politicians out there, you also mention the lock 'em up and throw away the key attitude will cost the taxpayers more money.  This ideology conflicts with the 'cut taxes' ideology, both can't win.

I work in the prison system and our prisons are overcrowded and budget cuts are affecting saftey concerns.  We are asked to cut our budget every year, yet the number of inmates and costs for food and healthcare continue to increase.  Until a politician (of any party) is willing to admit their short-sighted solution to crime - locking people up for life - will cost the taxpayers more money, I will not listen to any of them.  This is just a feel-good philosophy for those who don't know anything about the criminal justice system.  Longer prison sentences do not reduce crime.  When someone thinks they have nothing to lose, they will soon escalate the violence and risk if they think they might get caught.

I have nothing against locking people up for longer periods, it is good job stability for me, but be honest about the consequences of utilizing that strategy.  It is difficult to stay motivated to work hard to keep the community safe with fewer and fewer resources and then read articles in the newspapers about the lazy state workers who make too much money and comments by the citizens who want inmates locked up forever but say our jobs should be cut.  You can't have it both ways.
The ad seems so outrageous, it even pass the idiot test...meaning, not even an idiot would believe it! However, since most of the RNC audience are total imbisils [sp?], then they might in fact believe it.
Unfortunatley in the south, that sort of thing plays very well. Its how the GOP have kept the uneducated in line. I would love to see Martin beat the republican but not likley. My daughter is a jr clerk of court in Ga. and her clerk of court had to run as a Republican to be reelected this year, they are especially sensitive this year because of race.
Clara Ks- Eric Ca-  someone else is using your names,
just to let you know most of us recognize you and immediatley know when someone is using your name. Thank you for your post, they are entertaining and
enlightning.
 Again you will find the constituents of Georgia clinging to thier bibles and guns, hope it works out for them, I know thats what most of us here in S.C. do
and it hasnt worked out very well.
marty
Well, what about the facts?

Is martin for child prostitution and drugs in schools, or are these guys lying again.

It's okay to tell the truth, even if you have to use the word lie.
Nasty, negative ads have a tendency to backfire...

Vote Martin!  End dirty political attacks...
Does anyone else find it utterly amazing that the republicans continue to convince the voters that the democrats are soft on crime, MEANWHILE....who was it that placed over 100,000, that's right, 100,000 new Cops on the streets of the big cities, in 1993, which is directly related to the sudden drop in crime at the same time....that's right, Bill Clinton, a Democrat, with a Democrat Congress!  It was called the COPS Bill, and guess who wrote it? That's righ! The Current VP-Elect...Biden! So, in your face republicans!
Note to Nuanced -- I'm so sick of people asking why a group or individual "hates America." That's code for "why do they disagree with me (the questioner)?" Just ask Michelle Bachmann.
The ad seems so outrageous, it even pass the idiot test...meaning, not even an idiot would believe it! However, since most of the RNC audience are total imbisils [sp?], then they might in fact believe it.

Pat Huntington NY

An idiot calling Republicans "imbisils".
Pat --> who was it that placed over 100,000, that's right, 100,000 new Cops on the streets of the big cities, in 1993

The answer is, no one. The initial law passed and signed into law in 1993 did provision 100,000 new police on American streets. But very few, if any, where actually hired, because the law stated that the cities where responsible to pay for the police after the first year. None of the cities had the funds to do so, so it ended up being just another political stunt.  Now you know yet another reason why they called him Slick Willie.
As the general election showed, the fear and lies tactics don't always work. Americans have shown that the old Republican tactics don't always pay off. An informed electorate got it right in the general election. Hopefully and informed electorate will ignore the lies and vote for the best.


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