On Friday, January 25, Sen. Saxby Chambliss unexpectedly announced that he will not pursue a third term in 2014 while explaining that he has a 'deep frustration' with the gridlock in Washington.
Saxby Chambliss and his fellow Republicans were a part of the least productive Congress--arguably ever.
Few bills got to the floor of the U.S. Senate and Chambliss had participated in filibusters and this is where the obstruction and inability to allow major legislation to be voted on.
Chambliss' congressional career began during the Republican tidal wave election of 1994 as a representative.
After four terms in the House of Representatives, the Moultrie, Georgia native, ran for the U.S. Senate in 2002, facing first-term Democratic incumbent Max Cleland.
Chambliss will likely be known more for his U.S. Senate campaign against Cleland, a Vietnam veteran, rather than accomplishing anything for the state of Georgia in the U.S. Senate.
Chambliss had released a 2002 campaign ad that featured Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, and tried to link them to Cleland's record on the issues of war and terrorism.
Chambliss, who hadn't served in the Vietnam War due to receiving military deferments, was universally criticized from Democrats and Republicans for the inflammatory and disingenuous ad.
Cleland had lost three limbs during Vietnam, and Chanbliss' ad implied that the first-term senator at the time was not being tough enough on issues of war and homeland security.
One of the critics of the ad was Republican U.S. Senator John McCain of Arizona who used the words "disgraceful" and "reprehensible".
Chambliss, who will be 70 this year, has been a major part of what is wrong in Washington by aligning with Senate Republicans via filibusters over the past few years since the first African-American president, Barack Obama, assumed office in 2009.
In recent years, Chambliss voted against the 2009 Ecomonic Stimulus, the Affordable Health Care Act and had opposed extending unemployment benefits.
Additionally, Georgia's senior senator since 2003 had rubber stamped many of George W. Bush's conservative initiatives such as the infamous Bush tax cuts for the very rich along with pushing the United States into war against Iraq--one of two major wars-- which nearly bankrupted the nation in 2008.
Chambliss told the media the following:
"The debt-ceiling debacle of 2011 and the recent fiscal-cliff vote showed Congress at its worst, and sadly, I don't see the legislative gridlock and partisan posturing improving anytime soon," Chambliss said. "For our nation to be strong, for our country to prosper, we cannot continue to play politics with the American economy.
