Nothing riles up the tea party chattering class like a broken pledge against raising taxes. Just ask Sen. Saxby Chambliss, a veteran Georgia Republican who this week turned his back on the Taxpayer Protection Pledge he signed years ago as a rite of passage in right-wing politics. Immediately labeled "worthless" and "a liar" on the website Tea Party Nation, Chambliss symbolizes the political conundrum facing GOP leaders after President Barack Obama's re-election. After years of opposing higher taxes on anyone, Republicans now are under pressure to work out a comprehensive agreement to reduce the nation's chronic federal deficits and debt.
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"He's never promised me anything," Grover Norquist says about Sen. Saxby Chambliss
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Chambliss is the latest conservative to reject Norquist's pledge
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Congress returns to work next week facing the year-end "fiscal cliff"
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Without a deal, tax hikes and steep spending cuts will take effect next year
Saxby Chambliss
Chambliss
Saxby Chambliss
Chambliss
In response to @placeholder, Norquist told CNN that the senator "wrote a commitment to the voters of Georgia."
Saxby Chambliss
Chambliss
Saxby Chambliss
Chambliss
"But I don't worry about that because I care too much about my country," @placeholder said, adding that he was "willing to do the right thing and let the political consequences take care of themselves."
Tea Party Nation
"To call Chambliss an idiot is to insult people of lower intelligence," blogger Judson Phillips of @placeholder wrote.