Senator Saxby Chambliss (R) Georgia, defends NPR

Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), who has a 96% rating with the American Conservative Union, has isolated himself from the GOP party line by speaking out against the defunding of National Public Radio.

Writing on Think Progress, Zaid Jilani speaks about an interview Chambliss did with Atlanta Public Broadcasting last week.

O’HAYER: Since we’re talking about funding and we’re on an NPR affiliate, I can’t let you go without asking you what you think about the idea of defunding NPR. CHAMBLISS: If you look at NPR versus particularly the overall public broadcasting issue, NPR doesn’t generate income like the public broadcasting side does. You know, an awful lot of conservatives listen to NPR. It provides a very valuable service. Should we maybe think about a reduction in that? Again, I think the sacrifice is going to have to be shared by NPR as well as others. But I think total elimination of funding is probably not the wisest thing to do.

My hope is that Senator Chambliss doesn’t come back this week and say he mispoke and what he meant to say was “I think we should take a baseball bat to NPR and beat it out of existence.” Which would be more in line with his colleagues. I wonder if he is planning to retire in the near future and has decided to be a smidge honest.