This is a rush transcript from "Hannity & Colmes," December 1, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: The much-anticipated runoff in the Georgia Senate race starts tomorrow with the Minnesota recount still unresolved. This is the last election battleground that will determine if the Democrats will get, potentially, that 60-seat majority.
Joining us now is the man hoping to come out victorious tomorrow, Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss.
All right. All the polls indicate you're doing very well. Now, you had a rock star in town today. You were hanging out with Governor Palin all day. How did that go?
SEN. SAXBY CHAMBLISS (R), GEORGIA: It went great, Sean. She — she truly is a rock star. I mean, she came into town to help us electrify our base, make sure that these folks get fired up and turn out tomorrow, and she did exactly that.
We had four stops around the state: Augusta, Savannah, down in Houston County, and back in Gwinnett County and Metro Atlanta. We had huge crowds, and they were enthusiastic and very electrified.
• Video: Watch Sean & Alan's interview
HANNITY: Well, it's important.
Now why do you think — this is, I think, a pretty interesting question. It would be highly beneficial, assuming that — there's a chance, although I don't really believe, except Al Franken's going to try to litigate his way into the Senate. I think he's losing the recount. It's pretty obvious.
But, you know, Barack Obama — this would be a very important seat if you lost this seat for the Democrats. It would be a filibuster-proof Senate. But yet he's staying out of this race except for one radio ad. That tells me — does that show a lack of political courage?
CHAMBLISS: Well, you know, it's hard to say. I have no idea what's in the mind of President-elect Obama from a political standpoint, but you know, we had a runoff back in 1992, Sean, here, that you'll remember, when...
HANNITY: Paul Coverdale.
CHAMBLISS: ... Wyche Fowler was challenged by Paul Coverdale.
HANNITY: Right.
CHAMBLISS: And Bill Clinton got elected and came down here that — right after the election. And it turned out to be the wrong thing for him to do. It just fired up the Republican base, and Paul Coverdale won that race.
So I think it probably cuts both ways. He certainly sent his people in there. They've been on the ground. They've done a good job of turning out on November 4. We expect them to turn out tomorrow, but we think we've got a pretty good ground game ourselves.
HANNITY: I remember the ads. As I was telling you the last time, Paul Coverdale in the Senate and kick Wyche Fowler out, was this elderly woman that became well-known throughout the state. I was living in the state at the time.
The difference here is do you view your opponent as pretty much just somebody who's going to be a rubber stamp for the Harry Reid, you know, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi agenda? He slants pretty solidly left. I'm surprised that he actually did as well as he did.
Do you think Barack Obama is the one who carried him, you know, to a decent margin, even though you won on Election Day?
CHAMBLISS: Well, I think it probably did provide a great boost to my opponent in the general election because, in spite of the fact that the Democratic senatorial committee came in here in a big way, nobody really knew much about this guy and — on November 4. And I think certainly, with the turnout that Obama had, it probably was a big boost to him.
But by the same token, obviously, John McCain won pretty handily over Obama, and I got more votes than Obama did, too.
ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: Welcome back to the show. You were on with Chris Wallace, FOX News Sunday yesterday, and he played an ad by Jim Martin where Martin quotes you as saying, "I don't think we're in a recession. I don't know what one is." You then said you were quoting Alan Greenspan. But prior to the time that you say Greenspan said that, Greenspan had acknowledged we're in a recession.
And then you said this. Let me play the tape.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHAMBLISS: Chris, if you'll remember, it was supposed to be two consecutive months of negative GDP, and at that point in time we hadn't seen that. But, you know, economists disagree on the technical definition of recession, and obviously, that's what I was talking about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLMES: You know, that right there. You misdefined it, it's three — it's two consecutive quarters, not two consecutive months. So you're aware of that?
CHAMBLISS: Well, you know, that was in the heat of the moment there, Alan. What can I say?
But the fact is that there was a dispute over the definition of technically what's a recession. But what I went on to say to Chris and what I went on to say that day in the conversation that the Democratic committee filmed me on was, was that I know times are tough in Georgia. People have been losing their jobs, where No. 5 in the country in foreclosures.
I mean, times are tough here, just like they are around the country. So it makes no difference what you call it. But what I've been seeking to do, as a member of the United States Senate, what I've been campaigning on, Alan, is trying to make sure that we put policies in place that are going to help Georgians get through this.
COLMES: But if you're not going to acknowledge what the issues are, that we're in a recession, another group out — came out today, said we were in a recession a year ago, and to not — to say you don't know what it is, and not to find it properly, what kind of confidence does that give the electorate?
CHAMBLISS: Well, Alan, you know, the electorate that's worried about making their mortgage payment, that's worried about making their car payments, that's worried about losing their job, they don't care what the definition of what a recession is. They want somebody that's a policy maker who cares about them, and they know that I've been working hard because they care about them.
COLMES: Senator, you also wanted to privatize Social Security. The market was down 600 points today. Do you acknowledge now that, had we privatized Social Security, as you wanted to do, people would be suffering even more and losing their life's savings in the name of retirement?
CHAMBLISS: Well, Alan, you sound like my opponent. I never sought to privatize Social Security. I do think that people ought to have some control over their money, rather than the government, just mandating to them how they're going to invest their money.
COLMES: You were not for privatization?
HANNITY: Well, it's — he's for choice.
COLMES: You were not for privatization, sir?
HANNITY: He's for choice.
COLMES: And I'm asking the senator.
CHAMBLISS: Privatization is not the right word. What I want to do is let people take their own money, Alan, and decide how it ought to be invested. You know, you can go to a bank. You can get a pretty good return that's greater than what the government has gotten on the Social Security trust fund over the life of that trust fund.
COLMES: You (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
CHAMBLISS: People ought to have more control over their lives. They ought to have more control over their money, Alan...
COLMES: All right, Senator.
CHAMBLISS: ... and not have the government dictating...
COLMES: We've got to run. We thank you for your time, sir.
Watch "Hannity & Colmes" weeknights at 9 p.m. ET!
Content and Programming Copyright 2008 FOX News Network, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Transcription Copyright 2008 ASC LLC (www.ascllc.net), which takes sole responsibility for the accuracy of the transcription. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material except for the user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon FOX News Network, Inc.'s and Voxant Inc.'s copyrights or other proprietary rights or interests in the material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox