From: Rakesh Bhandari (rakeshb@stanford.edu)
Date: Wed Nov 06 2002 - 21:36:33 EST
Post 9/11 American fallout: Election day headline of a cynically timed and successful strike against putative al Al Qaeda outpost in Yemen helps to rally country behind the Republican party of war which takes control of Congress; Vietnam war handicapped incumbent from the minority party accused of disloyalty because he has voted against President Bush's cynical attempt to use the new Homeland Security Dept as a spearhead to bust federal labor unions and civil liberties. This is longer the banal nationalism which Michael Billig analyzed in terms of the semantics of indexicals, as the Indo Canadian Booker Prize nominee Rohinton Mistry who has cancelled his American tour out of frustration with harrassment would tell you. The visas of the two Indian graduate students who were to accompany the mathematician who seems to have done ground breaking work with prime numbers were also recently denied, as reported in the WSJ. rb Senator Cleland Loses in an Upset to Republican Emphasizing Defense November 6, 2002 By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN ATLANTA, Nov. 5 - Senator Max Cleland, a decorated Vietnam veteran, was defeated tonight by Saxby Chambliss, a Republican congressman from rural Georgia who made support for the administration's defense policies a central issue in the campaign. The upset was as much of a shock for Democrats as the venomous campaign that preceded it in which Mr. Chambliss accused Mr. Cleland, a triple amputee, of not being committed to national security. As results streamed in from other races, it became clear that Mr. Cleland's loss was part of a wider Democratic bloodletting. Many incumbents lost their jobs. Even Governor Roy Barnes, once very popular and mentioned as possible presidential material, was handily defeated, giving a Republican control of the Georgia statehouse for the first time since Reconstruction. Tonight, in a hall full of radiant supporters, Mr. Chambliss cited high turnout as a big reason for his win. "Our base was more fired up than any campaign I have ever seen," Mr. Chambliss said. "Folks, y'all made this happen." Minutes later, Mr. Cleland, who had been in the Senate for one term, conceded. With a sparkle in his eye and maybe a hiccup of emotion, he thanked his team for helping him "live the life of my dreams." "After my life was literally saved on the battlefield, I would have never thought this life in public service would be possible," Mr. Cleland said. Mr. Chambliss won the race 53 to 46 percent, with 91 percent of precincts reporting. The race had been getting tighter and tighter as the days advanced. By the end, it was considered among the most up-for-grabs Senate seats in the country. Mr. Cleland offered the moving biography of a man who rebounded from devastating personal injury, built a life in public service and went on to become a United States senator known for progressive views on women's and worker's rights. Mr. Chambliss, a lawyer turned conservative congressman, had the superior debating skills and the help of President Bush, who visited Georgia three times this year to campaign for him. "George Bush is extremely popular here and one of the smartest things Chambliss did was align himself closely to the president," said Merle Black, a political scientist at Emory University in Atlanta. Even before half the precincts had been counted, President Bush called Mr. Chambliss to congratulate him. "The president has become a close friend," Mr. Chambliss said. "And I have never heard him so excited as he was tonight." As in many other races, national security was a central issue. Mr. Chambliss, 58, went straight for the jugular, accusing his opponent - who lost two legs and his right arm during a mission in Khe Sanh, Vietnam - as soft on defense. One of the most provocative commercials flashed pictures of Osama bin Laden and then blasted Mr. Cleland, 60, for voting against the president 11 times on domestic security. Democrats called the bin Laden advertisements shameless. A Republican strategist, Ralph Reed, said the issue "was not Max's war record but his voting record." As election day approached, several groups who had previously supported Mr. Cleland peeled off to back the Republican challenger. A co-founder of the Home Depot, Bernard Marcus, led an effort to swing Georgia's Jewish vote behind Mr. Chambliss, an unswerving ally of Israel in his four terms in Congress. Even the Veterans of Foreign Wars endorsed Mr. Chambliss, not a veteran, over Mr. Cleland, once head of the Veterans Administration and winner of the Silver Star. The race quickly shaped into a battle for the suburbs. Mr. Cleland, who won his first Senate term in 1996 by a scant 30,000 votes, ran strongly in the cities, while Mr. Chambliss, a friend to gun owners and an ardent foe of abortion, won handily in rural Georgia. "That's ag country," Mr. Chambliss said. "That's our base." He also said in his acceptance speech that while he admired Mr. Cleland's struggle to overcome his disabilities, the senator did not represent "Georgia's conservative values." Mr. Cleland, a former Georgia state senator and secretary of state, seemed to have suffered from his close relationship to Mr. Barnes, the Democratic governor who lost in a monumental upset to the Republican underdog, Sonny Perdue. The governor, popular among black voters, pounded the pavement of the inner city, scouring for votes these past few weeks. Apparently that did not work. While turnout was high across the state, Democrats did not get the bump they needed in Atlanta. Some analysts blamed the driving rain and unseasonably chilly weather today for the uninspired turnout. "Just as Chambliss tied himself to President Bush to boost his prospects, Cleland lined up with the governor to increase his appeal," said William Boone, a political science professor at Clark Atlanta University. Both national parties soaked the campaign with money, spending an estimated $20 million over a seat that, until very recently, was considered safely Democratic. As the final results rolled in, Mr. Chambliss hugged his wife and children in a packed hotel ballroom in suburban Atlanta. He was nearly too choked up to speak. A few miles way in downtown Atlanta, Mr. Cleland's supporters grazed on cold nachos as their candidate wheeled out of a crowded ballroom and out of public life. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/06/politics/campaigns/06GEOR.html?ex=1037633825&ei=1&en=2364c8b502a95c82
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