Senate 2008: Jim Martin

Glenn Greenwald writes a glowing review of Jim Martin, the Democratic candidate for the US Senate seat from Georgia.

Roughly 50% of Democrats in Congress voted for that bill, along with Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, and the entire top level of the House Democratic Congressional leadership. Yet here is Martin -- running in a bright red state in the South, just a few weeks before a very tight election, knowing that all hard-core Democrats and liberals in that state are already supporting him and that there are only independents and disenchanted Republicans left to target -- and he chooses to respond to a somewhat vague question about FISA and wiretapping (in response to which he could easily have mouthed some unspecific and safe platitudes about balancing security and civil liberties) by instead going out of his way to volunteer that he opposes telecom immunity to such an extent that he would have voted against the FISA bill that the Bush administration, the GOP caucus and many leading Democrats were insisting was Absolutely Vital if we wanted to avoid being slaughtered by the Terrorists (as Stoller said by email: "Apparently the pro-telecom movement is very popular in San Francisco and Maryland but not so strong in Georgia. Who knew?").