Chambliss’s Profligate Spending On Golf Outings With Lobbyists
Chambliss’s Profligate Spending On Golf Outings With Lobbyists
Since 2005, Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), who is currently locked in a tough run-off election battle against Democrat Jim Martin, has been in charge of the Republican Majority Fund. The PAC, established in the 1970s, was set up to help fund GOP candidates. However, as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports today, Chambliss has instead used it as a personal fund to ingratiate himself to lobbyists, reward his political contributors, and fund his golfing habit:
Under Chambliss, however, 68 percent of the Majority Fund’s spending – about $1 million – has gone for travel, golf events, meals and administrative costs, reports to the Federal Election Commission show. Political contributions comprised just 32 percent of the committee’s spending, or $472,500.
In 2007 and 2008, the Majority Fund’s political donations accounted for 26 percent of its spending, the second-lowest among the 25 largest leadership groups. [...]
[O]f the top 10 recipients of the Majority Fund’s money since 2007, only one was a political organization.
Five were golf resorts.
Chambliss is an avid golfer. Despite having a “bum knee” that kept him out of military service in Vietnam, Chambliss ranked as the #2 golfer in the Senate and the 33rd best golfer in Washington, DC, according to a 2005 feature by Golf Digest. That same year, while his colleagues were in a closed-door session discussing pre-Iraq war intelligence, Chambliss took the day off to golf with Tiger Woods.
Therefore, it’s perhaps not surprising that two months after taking over the Republican Majority Fund, “Chambliss put on a golf outing at the Ritz-Carlton in Naples, Fla. — the first of 20 at top courses and resorts: Pebble Beach in California; The Breakers in Palm Beach, Fla.; The Greenbrier in West Virginia, among others. Chambliss’ companions on these trips were, with few exceptions, registered lobbyists and their clients.” In the past two years, Chambliss has also used these official funds to golf with lobbyists for defense contractors, AIG, and Fannie Mae.
In 2007, Chambliss even spent more than $7,000 of the Republican Majority Fund’s money on “golf supplies.” He must feel right at home with his colleagues in Congress and the Bush administration.
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And all this time I thought Senators work for “We the People” in the Senate.
PAC funds for golf, who would have ever thought. But then it all about the money, and not “We the People“.
November 23rd, 2008 at 8:28 pmAnd what would happen if a Democrat got caught doing this?The Reich would have a field day and ask for his/her head on a platter.Oh the hypocrisy!!!!!!!
November 23rd, 2008 at 8:38 pmGolf. This is why we pay your salaries? What is so sexy about little white balls in small hole in a perfectly smooth yard inside the rough? Oh never mind.
November 23rd, 2008 at 8:42 pmIt’s time our elected leaders in Washington understood that we do not appreciate seeing them live a life of leisure, when they are supposed to working on our behalf. They have the hardest time remembering that they are public servants.
November 23rd, 2008 at 8:43 pmIs it too much to ask that, in a time of war their party supported, Republicans could show that they are sacrificing for the war effort by giving up golf?
November 23rd, 2008 at 8:44 pmOk Keltoi-comments?
I got one–this guy (Chambliss) is an ARSE!
November 23rd, 2008 at 8:53 pmChambliss:
November 23rd, 2008 at 8:55 pm“Before we receive the Fund’s money,it is called the Republican Majority Fund,but after we receive the money, we we call it the Republicans Majority Fun”.
Looks like he has got a fork full of something, wonder what it is?
Scum, it’s whats for republican dinner.
November 23rd, 2008 at 8:55 pmThe joke is on the Republicans who gave money to the Party. No wonder the RNC said they didn’t have any money and got made at Obama for raising so much money. Wake up Obama didn’t spend the donations on parting and golf and of course clothes. You have to love the GOP they even steal from each other.
November 23rd, 2008 at 8:55 pmIt’s very obvious to me that Chambliss is a Senator and wants to stay a Senator, because of the golfing hours he’s been able to rack up.
What a schmuck!
November 23rd, 2008 at 8:57 pmIt could be worse, he could question the patriotism of a triple paraplegic Iraqi war hero.
November 23rd, 2008 at 9:04 pmjeesh… did he ever do any legislatin’?
November 23rd, 2008 at 9:11 pmWOW! Chambliss likes the lobbyists so much he is paying them !
November 23rd, 2008 at 9:15 pmWhat does it mean when the Republicans collect money from the “Base” (usually with threats of global peril if they don’t get the money) and then use the money to pay for lobbyists to golf ?
Lots of respect ?
November 23rd, 2008 at 9:16 pmBah hahahahahaha! Oh wait. That’s not funny. He really did do that. Spit.
November 23rd, 2008 at 9:41 pmOl’ Chambliss can’t even get this one right.
It’s the lobbyists who are supposed to pay for your golf outings, Saxby, the lobbyists!
-AF
November 23rd, 2008 at 9:42 pmAndrew Sullivan Is A Fraud
Since he likes to golf so much, he should be “retired” by being ousted from his senate seat so that he can play golf all the time.
November 23rd, 2008 at 9:57 pmThe more I hear about Chambliss and his actions, the more depressed I feel about the upcoming runoff.
Southern Republicans this corrupt, deceitful, and inhuman always have a way of persevering.
November 23rd, 2008 at 10:09 pmAh, Sackofshitby, you’re a perfect repuglycan..!
November 23rd, 2008 at 10:10 pmWhat a chickenhawk, chickenshit coward. Bum Knee??? Pussy…
And I can beat you at golf, and I play 3 times a year.
November 23rd, 2008 at 10:14 pmA chickenhawk, draft-dodging Scumbag Repug who threw stones at a decorated and wounded Vietnam war hero.
If that isn’t a perfect definition of a Repug candidate, I do not know what is.
Gotta love those white-trash AssKlowns that the Repugs find so appealing!
November 23rd, 2008 at 10:27 pmThe sad part is Chambliss will probably get re-elected. The people of Georgia deserve better.
November 23rd, 2008 at 10:33 pmNow that’s some serious Corporafornication! Saxby’s a long ball hitter on the money links…
November 23rd, 2008 at 10:40 pmJust like a rotten repug.
chambliss has time to golf but not time to do his job. he shouldn’t miss one vote the creep.
November 23rd, 2008 at 10:59 pmYep, your RNC donations hard at work. Current Republicans, take note. This is what they think of you.
Chambliss is clearly livin’ la vida Congress.
November 23rd, 2008 at 11:15 pmupside99,
November 23rd, 2008 at 11:21 pmYou’re correct, Sen. Max Cleland was a veteran of Nam. At almost 68, I should look for replacement memory. I wonder if they have the ECC stuff for old fogies.
One would think the GOP would be all over this…
… Crying, “Where’s my golf trip Saxby?”
First it was Delay, but I see even small fry get the pleasure of allocating funds for their
personalelection bid with lobbyists…… ‘Cuz lobbyists get you reelected, NO?
.
November 24th, 2008 at 3:05 amisn’t this the type of corrupt scumbag grampy mclame and wailin’ palin were going to run out of washington? Now they’re campaigning for him? you gotta love the irony
November 24th, 2008 at 5:58 amIt is a core belief of Republicans that if you’re not abusing someone’s trust, you’re not living up to your full potential. Notice how pleased with himself the old goat is!
Basking in the Bama:
November 24th, 2008 at 6:23 amhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w12edTq2v7A
Has it ever occurred to anyone how many billboards there are on the highway written by God? More than you think…
November 24th, 2008 at 7:36 amCan we just change the name of the GOP to the Chickenhawk Party (CHP)?
It’s about time.
November 24th, 2008 at 8:22 amOn the day Max Cleland’s limbs were blown off his body in Viet Nam, Saxby Chambliss was playing golf in Georgia. Okay I made that up…but maybe not.
November 24th, 2008 at 8:39 amAbleCluster and the Privacy Center are sort of losers
November 24th, 2008 at 11:21 amkaty Says: “jeesh… did he ever do any legislatin’?”
HE IS ON THE ‘ADVISORY BOARD’ OF THE ISRAEL PROJECT THAT WAS USING FOCUS GROUPS IN AN EFFORT TO DETERMINE HOW BEST TO GET AMERICANS TO “BOMB,BOMB,BOMB…BOMB,BOMB IRAN….”
Focus Grouping War with Iran
November 24th, 2008 at 5:24 pmBy Laura Rozen @ motherjones.com
http://www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2007/11/freedoms-watch-iran.html