Blogging for Max

Secures endorsements from the two major dailies in the new 12th District
From the Augusta Chronicle, 10/29/2006: 

Return Max Burns

He has proved himself once. Now we need his leadership again

There are many reasons why voters in Georgia’s redrawn 12th Congressional District should elect Max Burns to the U.S. House of Representatives next month, but this is the most telling: That seat, now held by Democrat John Barrow, could determine which party controls the lower chamber.

Max Burns was elected president of his Republican freshman class when he became a U.S. House member in 2002. Now he needs to bring his ideas and values to Washington in 2006.

If Democrats win, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will be speaker and her far-left San Francisco values - gay marriage, cutting and running from Iraq, coddling terrorists, raising taxes, amnesty for illegals - will become the House agenda.

That would cripple our commander in chief’s ability to lead. This is surely why he plans to campaign for Burns on Monday in Statesboro - the second time this year the president has come to Georgia to help his fellow Republican.

Burns represented the 12th District with distinction in the 108th Congress, but lost to Barrow two years ago. Since then, the 12th was redrawn to be more competitive, and more geographically sensible. There is now a “community of interest” in the district that needs Max Burns to look after those interests.

Barrow may be proud of standing up to his party’s leftist leadership on occasion, but he’s clearly swimming upstream - and every time he goes under, so will Georgia. Under a Speaker Pelosi, the undertow would only intensify.

Why take that risk, when you can vote for Max Burns, who’s an authentic conservative with a record in the previous Congress that proves it. He was hailed as one of the most prolific freshmen representatives in history, writing and passing legislation to help farmers and the elderly.

Barrow, on the other hand, is listed on Congress.org as one of the 10 least-effective congressional members by a government relations management company - less effective, even, than Cynthia McKinney.

Burns, a former Screven County commissioner, is supported by groups concerned about taxes and the economy. The National Federation of Independent Business, the nation’s foremost small-business advocacy group, endorsed Burns on Thursday.

That’s the reality. Yet Barrow’s “Max Tax” TV ads have disingenuously accused Burns of supporting a 23 percent national sales tax increase without making it clear he’s referring to a replacement tax that gets rid of all other federal taxes, including income and payroll taxes. The FairTax, as it’s known, would also greatly simplify the tax code and scrap the IRS. Barrow’s smear of this innovative tax reform plan has been independently documented by a Savannah TV station as a gross distortion.

Burns has not committed to the tax revamp, but says he’s for considering it. Barrow should be too, unless he thinks the current monstrous tax code doesn’t need change. The FairTax deserves serious debate, but that’s impossible when one candidate distorts the issue for political advantage.

You don’t need to worry about Max Burns having to swim upstream toward Georgia values. He’s already there.

This might be the nation’s pivotal congressional race, upon which control of the House rests. Voters in Georgia’s 12th Congressional District may provide the entire nation with lower taxes, greater national security and rational immigration policy.

But only by voting for Max Burns on Nov. 7.