Bill Clinton campaigns against GOP 'firewall' in Georgia David Edwards

Published: Wednesday November 19, 2008





Print This Email This Several thousand supporters showed up on a cold Georgia night to see former President Bill Clinton speak in support of Jim Martin. Martin, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, will go up against Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss in a Dec. 2 runoff election.



Chambliss has warned that Republicans need control of the seat to block an "out of control" Democratic Congress. Clinton argued that times call for unity instead of division. "This country doesn't need a firewall against the future. It needs a bridge to the future," he said.



"One of the problems that I had when I became president," he added, "is that, over and over, we got a lot done in my first two years, but we couldn't pass health care reform and couldn't do one or two other things, because of the Republican filibuster in the Senate."



Democrats moved closer to a filibuster-proof majority on Tuesday when Democrat and Anchorage mayor Mark Begich was declared the winner in his bid against Republican Sen. Ted Stevens. With the win in Alaska, Democrats have 58 seats. 60 votes are required to prevent a filibuster in the Senate.



"We don't need a firewall," Clinton said. "We need a bridge. Martin is the bridge and Chambliss is the firewall. This is not rocket science. You have to decide what you want."



Chambliss won his Senate seat in 2002 when he defeated Max Cleland. Democrats say that Chambliss ran a dishonest ad against Cleland, a Vietnam veteran and triple amputee, painting as him soft on terrorism. The former president didn't seem willing to forget Cleland's ad. "I saw somebody wanting a Senate seat so bad, so bad they would say that [Cleland] endangered the national security of the country," Clinton lamented.



The following video is from CNN's Situation Room, broadcast November 19, 2008.









Download video via RawReplay.com









