by James Oliphant and Richard Fausset

The Democrats' dream of an overpowering, filibuster-proof majority in the U.S. Senate is officially on ice.

Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss Tuesday held on to his Georgia Senate seat, fending off a challenge from Democrat Jim Martin that went into extra innings. Martin had forced a runoff election last month after keeping Chambliss from attaining 50 percent of the vote, a requirement for office under Georgia law.

As it stands, Democrats will control 58 seats in the newly seated Senate, where 60 votes are needed to cut off debate on a bill and force a floor vote. After Chambliss' victory, only one Senate race -- in Minnesota--still remained undecided.

If Democrats had secured that super-majority, their ability to enact major legislation over Republican objections would have been substantially enhanced. This is why the Georgia contest drew national attention throughout November. Cash poured into the state from interest groups and the national political parties. Big-name politicians such as Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Sen. John McCain, and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin campaigned there.

Yet one who didn't campaign for Martin--President-elect Barack Obama--could have had the greatest impact. Martin was able to advance to a runoff largely because African-Americans had turned out on Nov. 4 in huge numbers to vote for Obama.

People gather around the plaster model of the Statue of Freedom, which was used to cast the bronze Statue of Freedom which tops the Capitol Dome, following the opening ceremony for the United States Capitol Visitor Center on Capitol Hill on Dec. 2, 2008. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

by Frank James

It's opening four years later than it was supposed to and cost tens of millions of dollars more than was initially budgeted, but at least the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center has finally, officially arrived, just in time for Inauguration Day, 2009 and the millions of people expected to visit Washington on Jan. 20.

by James Oliphant

It's down to the wire in Georgia. Today is the Senate runoff election between Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss and Democratic challenger Jim Martin.

That meant that Monday was the opportunity for both sides to make their final case. Chambliss went for the home run, securing the campaigning services of an Alaska governor named Sarah Palin. You might have heard of her.

Martin, however, had less of a deep bench to call upon. The nation's number one Democrat, Barack Obama, remains in full post-partisanship mode, dealing with the recession (we can say that now!) and the attacks in Mumbai. Also, Obama isn't about to invest his precious political capital in a race where the Democrat looks like he isn't going to pull it out.

So that, perhaps, is one reason why Martin found himself sharing an Atlanta event last night with the rapper Ludacris at a rally designed to get African-American voters to the polls. In a runoff election, turnout is the most decisive factor. Martin needs a large number of black voters if he hopes to unseat Chambliss.

by Bob Shaw

When Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida gave up the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee, it was clear he was facing a little trouble back home in the Sunshine State. Now the Cuban-born Martinez is bowing out altogether.

Martinez, a former Cabinet member in the Bush administration and former chief executive of Orange County, has scheduled an 11 a.m. EST press conference today, and sources say it's to announce that he won't be running for re-election in 2010.

Martinez, who did an awkward one-year stint as chair of the RNC and lost a lot of GOP support for his backing of the immigration reform plan advanced by President Bush, is considered one of the most vulnerable Republicans whose terms expire in 2010.

The Orlando Sentinel's Jim Stratton reports that there's nothing official coming from Martinez yet, but word is he's called some top Republicans to let them know he will not run for re-election. One person familiar with the situation said, barring a last-minute change of heart, Martinez will announce his first term will be his last.

His announcement comes a day after the Politico website reported that Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, who had been considered the leading Democrat to challenge Martinez, has decided to run for re-election in 2010 rather than seek the Senate seat or take on Florida Gov. Charlie Crist.

Tribune Correspondent James Oliphant spent last week in Georgia, covering the U.S. Senate runoff between Republican Saxby Chambliss and Democrat Jim Martin. The race could determine the success of the Democratic legislative agenda. Here is his report:

by James Oliphant

ATLANTA - Here, in a campaign office on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Jim Martin is feeling the spirit.

The Democratic Senate candidate is normally so unassuming, he sometimes seems out of place at his own campaign events. But here at the historically black Morris Brown College, surrounded by former Barack Obama campaign staffers and African-American luminaries such as Reps. John Lewis and Bennie Thompson, the bespectacled, 63-year-old, white lawyer has discovered his inner preacher.

"We're all in this together!" Martin intones.

"Talk to me!" a man in the group shouts in response.

"The Republicans believe if they have 41 votes in the Senate, they can stop this great president!"

"That's right!"

"Now this isn't Landslide Jim, you're talkin' to," Martin says. "I need your help."

Martin was never supposed to be this close to a U.S. Senate seat. A relative unknown in Georgia politics, the former head of the state's Department of Human Resources had to survive two primaries before securing the privilege of receiving what promised to be a whomping at the hands of Republican incumbent Sen. Saxby Chambliss.

After all, this isn't some swing-state such as Ohio or Florida. This is Georgia, where John McCain topped Obama by 5 points and President George W. Bush won by 17 points four years ago. In 2002, Chambliss was able to unseat a decorated Vietnam War veteran, Max Cleland, in part by questioning his patriotism.

But Martin benefited from the heavy black turnout on election day Nov. 4 and was able to draw close enough to Chambliss to force a run-off election, to be held Tuesday.

For the past three weeks, the Georgia Senate race has given the political world a last campaign fix. Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Sen. John McCain have all stumped here. Monday promises the arrival of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to campaign for Chambliss.

The big-name attention to Georgia is rooted in the Democrats' effort to secure a 60-vote majority in the Senate, which would defeat Republican filibusters and allow easy passage of many pieces of legislation. Right now, they hold 58 seats, with two races, here and in Minnesota, still not settled. Chambliss repeatedly calls himself "the firewall," the man who can single-handedly derail the Democratic agenda.

by Frank James

Alaka Gov. Sarah Palin Georgia-bound next week to help fellow Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss who's in a tough run-off with Democrat Jim Martin.

We're guessing no farm of any kind will be on her itinerary after last week's infamous turkey farm visit.

Here's an excerpt from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution report:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will come to Georgia next week to campaign for incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss on the eve of the runoff election.

Palin has been lambasted by the left, but she is immensely popular with many conservative voters. The McCain-Palin ticket carried Georgia on Nov. 4 by about 200,000 votes.

by Frank James

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has a growing problem and it comes in the form of the raspy voiced Rep. Charlie Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

The New York Times has a very strong story today which chronicles what is a clear appearance of conflict of interest on the part of Rangel who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee.

The bottom line: Rangel supported keeping a tax loophole that was important to a wealthy oil-drilling executive who pledged $1 million to a City College of New York public-policy school that will bear Rangel's name.

As the Times reports:

Representative Charles B. Rangel has helped raise $11 million for a City College of New York school of public service to be named in his honor. In recent months, as questions have emerged about his fund-raising, he has insisted that he has kept his efforts to attract donors scrupulously separate from his official duties in Congress.

But Congressional records and interviews show that Mr. Rangel was instrumental in preserving a lucrative tax loophole that benefited an oil-drilling company last year, while at the same time its chief executive was pledging $1 million to the project, the Charles B. Rangel School of Public Service at C.C.N.Y.

by James Oliphant

Delaware has been the Land of Biden for more than 35 years. And it appears poised to stay that way.

Monday, the governor of the state, Ruth Minner, named Ted Kaufman, a longtime aide to Joe Biden, now the vice-president elect, to fill Biden's vacated Senate seat.

Kaufman served as Biden's chief of staff in the Senate for almost 20 years and after moving on the private sector has continued to be a counselor and confidant to Biden, a six-term senator who twice ran for president. He is the co-chairman of Biden's vice presidential transition team.

"I have known Ted Kaufman for over 30 years," Biden said Monday in a statement. "He is a man of first-rate qualifications, unquestioned integrity and a long-time commitment to public service."

Kaufman, however, is widely believed to be keeping the seat warm for Biden's son, Beau, the Delaware attorney general. A captain in the state National Guard, Beau Biden was deployed to Iraq last month. A special election for the Senate seat will be held in 2010.

Joe Biden has yet to formally resign his Senate seat, but that's simply a matter of time. Minner's office said that Kaufman is likely to take his seat in early or mid-January.

by Frank James

General Motors is getting rid of some of its corporate jets after they became a symbol of the auto industry chief executives' cluelessness and hubris in their effort to get Congress to give their companies a $25 billion bailout, according to ABCNews.

An excerpt of ABCNews' report:

General Motors said today that it is putting two of its five corporate jets out of service because the planes are not being used enough. The top three executives at GM, however, will continue to use the private luxurious jets for all of their business and personal travel, despite a flurry of criticism over the perk following an ABC News report this week.

GM leased a fleet of seven planes at the beginning of this year, according to a company spokesperson. Two of the planes were dropped from the fleet in September and two more will be dropped by the end of the year.

by Frank James

Sen. Ted Stevens gave his valedictory speech on the Senate floor today. The 85-year old who holds the record as the longest-serving Republican senator in history said repeatedly stressed his love for and sense of duty to Alaska.

He said:

And home is where the heart is... If that is so I have two homes. One is right here in this chamber and the other is my beloved state of Alaska. Alaska and the Senate. I must leave one to return to the other."

He also said:

"My motto has been here, to hell with politics. Just do what is right for Alaska. And I've tried everyday to live up to those words."

Oh yes, he did say he hopes to clear the cloud caused by his conviction for lying on his federal financial disclosure forms which helped lead to his defeat this week by Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich.

by Frank James

Have the federal bailouts been biased towards white-collar and against blue-collar workers?

That question was starkly raised by Rep. Barney Frank, chair of the House Financial Services Committee, which yesterday heard the chief executives of the Big Three automakers beseech Congress for $25 billion in taxpayer-funded loans.

Frank, the committee's chair, said:

I have been struck, not happily, in the time that we've been discussing this, at what frankly seems to me an inherent cultural bias. There's a double standard here. Aid to blue-collar employees is being judged by a standard different than white-collar employees.

Ford Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally arrives on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008, in a new Ford Fusion Hybrid, (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

by Frank James

It was kind of a cheap shot but still an effective moment that made the point the lawmaker was seeking.

Rep. Brad Sherman, a California Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee asked at today's hearing on a potential bailout for the struggling U.S. auto industry asked the Big Three's chief executive officers which of them had flown by private jet into Washington for the hearing. All three raised their hands.

Then he asked which would be heading home commercially. None of the three raised his hand.

It definitely didn't match the image of cash-strapped companies in desperate need of a taxpayer-financed bailout that the auto industry officials were trying to get across.

Not that there wasn't some thought given ahead of time to image. Alan Mulally, Ford's CEO made sure to arrive at Capitol Hill today in a Ford Fusion hybrid.

by Frank James

The White House is trying to shift blame to congressional Democrats if the auto industry doesn't get the financial bailout it's seeking, saying Democrats appear unwilling to loosen restrictions on $25 billion that's already been approved to help the industry retool to make their vehicles more fuel efficient.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, reflected that view in an exchange with a reporter today:

PERINO: Well, Senator Reid (the Senate majority leader) appeared to foreshadow this morning that the Congress will fail to address this issue before they leave. And I'd like to just make a few points clear on that. One, there is legislation that's being introduced by Senators Bond and Voinovich that the administration supports. That proposal would redirect existing funds already appropriated for the auto industry, rather than spending an additional $25 billion on top of the $25 billion we already support using, as we've said over the last few days.

That proposal of theirs would not rob the Treasury program of much needed funds to help save and strengthen the financial system. The purpose of the $700 billion was clearly intended for financial institutions, and we wanted to keep that whole.

Rep. John Boehner. (Photo: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

by Frank James

House Republicans demonstrated their loyalty to Rep. John Boehner, the Ohio Republican, by re-electing him House Minority Leader today over challenger Rep. Dan Lungren of California.

They didn't blame Boehner for their Election Day losses in which they lost 20 seats. But Republicans who wanted some change in their leadership team were able to get it, since there are a couple new faces in the GOP House leadership.

Two leading House conservatives took positions at the top of the new leadership team: Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia became the minority whip and Mike Pence of Indiana was elected chairman of the House Republican Conference.

A major theme observers have heard from conservatives since Election Day is the need for congressional Republicans to return to their core values of fiscal conservatism, meaning tax cuts and spending limits, if they have any hope of returning to the majority.

This "new" team will get plenty of opportunities to rehearse that message since Democrats are expected to call for new spending to try and boost the nation's foundering economy.

University of Maryland professor Peter Morici at a Senate hearing on the proposed auto industry bailout, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2008. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

by Frank James

It's doubtful Peter Morici will be receiving any awards any time soon from the United Auto Workers.

Morici, an international business professor at the University of Maryland was, as he noted, the only witness testifying against the Senate Banking Committee's hearing on bailing out the U.S. auto industry; the chief executives of Detroit's Big Three sat to his right.

But Morici made such a strong case against a bailout, he really didn't need any help. He was a one-man wrecking crew.

The nub of Morici's argument was that $25 billion isn't going to change the numeorus structural problems the industry has from higher costs due to its union contracts to the fact that cars are so well made now consumers can keep them longer. Add to that the foreign currency and trade issues that give foreign producers a price advantage and it's clear, at least to Morici, that $25 billion isn't the right medicine for the ailing industry.

Morici's remarks are worth reading because if he's diagnosing the situation correctly, than he presents President-elect Barack Obama and congressional Democrats who received strong backing from the UAW and organized labor generally with a real dilemma: The UAW desperately wants the bailout.

But a bailout to the tune of tens of billions of dollars may just be throwing good money after bad.

MR. MORICI: My name is Peter Morici. I'm an economist and professor at the University of Maryland. I'm the sole panelist here to speak against the bailout. I guess three CEOs and a president of a labor union, one Terrapin (the school's turtle mascot) -- I think it's a pretty fair matchup actually. I feel sort of like the mouse that stowed away on the Titanic.

The gradual erosion of the market shares, of the Detroit Three, over the last several decades, stems from higher labor costs, having origins in wages, benefits, work rules, poor management decisions and less than fully supportive government policies.

Sen. Ted Stevens talks with the media on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2008. Photographer: Jim Lo Scalzo/Bloomberg News

by Frank James

What a way to mark your 85th birthday. It was on his birthday yesterday that octogenerian Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska learned he has lost his Senate seat to Mayor Mark Begich of Anchorage who held a slim 3,724 vote lead.

The Senate will lose its longest serving Republican member who was just convicted by a federal jury for failing to make required financial disclosures. Meanwhile, Democrats pick up another seat which gives their caucus 58 seats, including the two independents who meet with the Democrats. They need just two more for the 60 votes that would allow them to move controversial legislation to a full Senate vote.

As the Anchorage Daily News reports:

Stevens could ask for a recount but his campaign would have to pay for it. The state pays if the margin is within .5 percent of the total votes cast. But Begich leads by just over 1 percent with more than 315,000 votes cast in the race.

The Stevens campaign did not respond to requests for comment after the senator's defeat was clear.

by James Oliphant

Move over James Bond. There's a new indestructible action hero: Joe Lieberman.

The senator from Connecticut, who was vilified by Democratic activists for his support of Republican presidential nominee John McCain, escaped serious retribution from his Democratic Senate colleagues Tuesday.

Lieberman will remain in the Democratic caucus and he will keep his chairmanship of the prestigious Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. As part of a resolution adopted overwhelmingly by Democratic senators, he will only have to forfeit chairmanship of an Environment and Public Works subcommittee. He will keep chairmanship of another Armed Services subcommittee.

The result is a far cry from the sentiments echoed by many Democrats after Lieberman spoke at the Republican National Convention this summer and suggested Barack Obama wasn't ready to be president. McCain seriously considered Lieberman as his running mate.

At the time, the talk was about expelling Lieberman from the Democratic caucus and stripping him of the Homeland Security chair.