Cleland: Chambliss Keeps Troops from Thanksgiving

More U.S soldiers would be spending Thanksgiving with their families if Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) had not gotten his way, former Sen. Max Cleland (D-Ga.) says in a Thanksgiving video message circulated this week by Democrat Jim Martin’s campaign.

Chambliss voted against an amendment offered by Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.)–part of his 21st century G.I. bill–that would have required soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan to get periods of leave time at least as long as their deployments.

“What a shame, what a tragedy,” Cleland says. “How many more servicemen and women would be at home for Thanksgiving around their family’s table now if my fellow Vietnam veteran’s amendment in the Senate to bring our troops home for as much time as they’ve spent overseas, Jim Webb’s amendment, had been adopted? But Saxby Chambliss voted against it.”

Martin will face Chambliss in a Dec. 2 runoff election for Chambliss’s Senate seat. Chambliss defeated Cleland in a bitter campaign in 2002.