Chambliss’ Bizarre Reaction To Whistleblower In Aftermath Of Imperial Sugar Fire Tragedy
Despite the fact that this vice president for operations for Imperial Sugar was a new-hire and claimed he told management about the dangerous, illegal working conditions of the company’s plant in Port Wentworth, Georgia that resulted in the tragic death of 14 and dozens more injured, Senator Saxby Chambliss seemed more interested in calling this whistleblower’s sincerity into question instead of focusing blame where it belonged. Transcript: HEARING OF THE EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE SAFETY SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE SENATE HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR AND PENSIONS COMMITTEE SUBJECT: DANGEROUS DUST: IS OSHA DOING ENOUGH TO PROTECT WORKERS? CHAIRED BY: SENATOR PATTY MURRAY (D-WA) WITNESSES: •PANEL I EDWIN G. FOULKE JR., ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF LABOR FOR OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH, OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION (OSHA) •JOHN S. BRESLAND, CHAIRMAN CEO OF US CHEMICAL SAFETY & HAZARD INVESTIGATION BOARD PANEL II AMY SPENCER, SENIOR CHEMICAL ENGINEER, NATIONAL FIRE PROTECTION ASSOCIATION; RICHARD W. PRUGH, SENIOR PROCESS SAFETY SPECIALIST, CHILWORTH TECHNOLOGY INC. •GRAHAM H. GRAHAM, VICE PRESIDENT FOR OPERATIONS, IMPERIAL SUGAR COMPANY LOCATION: 430 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING, WASHINGTON, DC TIME: 10:00 AM EDT DATE: TUESDAY, JULY 29, 2008 TRANSCRIPT OF CLIP: SEN. CHAMBLISS: Now, I hear you. I think you’ve already answered that. Now, you had this meeting with employees at the Port Wentworth plant in which you, Mr. Graham, having gone into this facility, having identified …
Tags: Aftermath, Bizarre, Chambliss', Fire, Imperial, Reaction, Sugar, Tragedy, Whistleblower
Chambliss just did what his bosses wanted him to do. He attacked the messenger.
Chambliss is a corporate stooge.
Hes the first guy to vote for troops handing out rations on Bull st.
I and others voted for Martin, without even looing at martins site..
seriously, rigged voting amchines
bravo
Truth be known I would bet that Saxby is responsible for the Imperial tragedy by proxy. Someone called him for the favor of stopping the proper oversight on OSHA regulations.
Ever since the tragedy of the Max Cleland Senate seat loss in 2002 to this Chambliss, it has appeared that something is wrong down there in Georgia.
Max Cleland was a gift to Georgia, and he was voted out in a most twisted campain of deceipt manipulation.
Max was in fact VERY fortunate to have not been reelected, because he has always been a man of the highest integrity, and decency, and might have ended up like Paul Wellstone because of it. Max Cleland was and is a true Hero.
How could Georgia voters re-elect this guy?
Shameful.
Exactly. The question is: What has happened to Georgia?
They’re smart enough to see through this guy.
despicable, absolutely disgusting, he recaps the whistle blower’s passionate plea, then asks why he didn’t make a plea!
I know! he recaps the dire statement about ending up in a morgue, and then asks “why didn’t you do that” HELLO!? WHAT THE HELL!?
It makes me sad that this entirely ridiculous coercion seems to be a hallmark of the republican party as a hole, and that for their own means, the issue at hand goes by the wayside so that they can put on political theater… oh and then literally accuse the sane rational people of putting on political theater.
chambliss more like shameless! This guy smells of corruption i. e. the sugar factory scandal makes piss poor excuses on trying to defend himself because he doesn’t know wtf a recession is or means he runs a dirty and low hateful campaign ad on the internet he wouldnt dare air on TV this guy is a real SOB!
Thisis the guythat Sarah Palin is backing. God help us. I’m not from Georgia, but sincerley hope this guy loses big.
Further more, Sarah Palin for president? OMFG! I hope she runs, that would certainly gaurantee that Obama or Hillary wins.
Saxby Chambliss questioned the honesty of the witness only after Saxby got an answer that clearly put the finger on company management EVEN after the witness has raised the issue internally, on multiple occasions, and the company chose to kick the can down the road. Later 14 workers dies in a fire.
Who does Saxby work for?
1. All citizens of Georgia
2. Wealthy Georgians
3. George Bush and his agenda
4. Imperial Sugar
5. 2,3 and 4 but not 1 above.
Who protects Georgians from danger?
Saxby Chambliss has supported eight years of George Bush Economics:
High gas prices, high food prices, our jobs exported overseas, wasteful spending, record deficits, and now a financial crisis that has set off a world-wide economic collapse.
Chambliss voted to get rid of the Wall Street oversight designed to prevent another Great Depression. He took hundreds of thousands of dollars from Wall Street and voted to let them run wild. He voted to give them billions more in tax breaks.
chambliss is a fraud … calls in the queen of fakes … palin … but it is time for a change … we cannot let the govt stand by while loan sharks go wild … in the 12/01/08 issue of business week magazine, junk loan sharks are still at it … and the govt regulators still only watch them as they make junk loans that will be paid off by your govt bailout tax money … it is because palin and the gop rushie neocons still believe that govt is bad .. and needs to stay out of the way of business.
Saxby Chambliss is despicable. Questioning the sincerity of the whistleblower? You’ve got to be kidding me.
I’m ashamed of Saxby after ALL he’s done to us in Georgia.
I can’t wait to vote against him during the run-off with Jim Martin.
another republican that doesn’t give a damn about working men and women.
What Sen. Saxby Chambliss is doing is acting EXACTLY the way a clever sleazy lawyer working on behalf of Imperial Sugar would act. He’s blaming the whistleblower because he’s trying to confuse the jury and protect the executives at Imperial Sugar who are responsible. Is Chambliss really “pro-business” or is he just anti-employee?
This guy Chambliss embodies why Republicans deserve to go the way of the Whig Party. So many of these thugs value protecting the business interests of corporate executives over the lives of the little people. They literally don’t care if people die, as long as corporations profit (see Iraq War). What a scumbag. This guy ran the sleaziest campaign against triple amputee war veteran Max Cleland in a tainted election in ‘02. He needs to be voted the hell out of the U.S. Senate.
Typical Bush lap dog performance from Chambliss. Protect executives and leave workers to fend for themselves. VOTE JIM MARTIN on Dec.2.
Notice how Chambliss refuses to make eye contact with the witness when addressing him. His demeanor betrays an inner conflict between being a corporate shill and taking the “necessary” step of beating up on the witness for his candid testimony. “I question your sincerity?” Chabliss seems to imply that a potential whistleblower should either (1) put up & shut up, or (2) quit. Y’all just don’t make waves with them good folks at the company. This is the plantation mentality ar its worst.
Given Chambliss’s repeated concerns about the evils of “big government” and all the terrible things the federal government does, I’m surprised he continues to work in the Senate, and his continued presence there makes me question his sincerity.
If this guy had done what Chambliss demands here , Chambliss would have been out attacking him for interfering with free enterprise. A real no-win situation.
Not only quite but should be fired but the company when they criticize the safety environment. GOP = BFF of big business at all costs.