Martin ad takes aim at Chambliss

Democratic Senate candidate Jim Martin has stepped up his attacks on Saxby Chambliss with a new ad suggesting the Republican incumbent is out of touch with the economic woes of the middle class.

In the spot, Martin says Georgians need to reverse the George Bush's failed economic policies that Chambliss has supported for years.

The Martin campaign said Monday that the television ad will be running statewide.

It's the first ad that has taken direct aim at Chambliss, suggesting the Senate race is heating up with less than two months to go until election day. Chambliss is running his own ad that highlights his biography and his record from his first term in the Senate.

(The Associated Press)

Click here for more GPB News election coverage.

Carter, Condi in diplomatic dustup

Former President Jimmy Carter on Wednesday continued to insist that the Bush administration never warned him against meeting with leaders of Hamas during a recent trip to the Middle East.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday that the State Department told the former president "that we did not think meeting with Hamas was going to help" further a political settlement between Israel and the Palestinians. The Palestinian faction is regarded as a terror group by the U.S., Israel and the European Union.

In a statement issued by the Carter Center on Wednesday, the former president said he never got that message.

"President Carter has the greatest respect for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and believes her to be a truthful person," the statement said. "However, perhaps inadvertently, she is continuing to make a statement that is not true."

"No one in the State Department or any other department of the U.S. government ever asked him to refrain from his recent visit to the Middle East or even suggested that he not meet with Syrian President Assad or leaders of Hamas."

In Washington, the State Department again rejected Carter's claim that he had not been advised against meeting with Hamas officials, referring to comments from Rice and other top officials.

"We stand by those statements," spokesman Sean McCormack said. "We stand by them as statements of fact, we have nothing more to add.

Carter had said earlier this week in a interview with NPR that he never received a warning from the State Department when he discussed the trip with officials there.

Carter said top Hamas leaders told him during seven hours of talks in Damascus over the weekend that they are willing to live next to Israel. However, a top Hamas official said the group would never outright recognize the Jewish state.

Rice said U.S. policy remains that it will deal only with the elected Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and his West Bank-based government as it tried to help Israel and the Palestinians broker terms for an independent Palestinian state.

Rice said she that Carter's visit could confuse the message that the U.S. will not deal with Hamas.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of Carter's Mideast visit.

(The Associated Press)

Delta feels pressure to merge under Bush Administration

In Georgia business news … further delays in merger talks between Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines could jeopardize the carriers' chances of getting regulatory clearance from the business-friendly Bush administration. Experts say any combination will take several months to gain Justice Department approval. If that decision comes after Election Day, the airlines will have to get approval from George W. Bush's successor in the White House.

Georgia will miss water deadline

Georgia, Alabama and Florida won't meet a deadline for settling their 20-year fight over sharing water. The Bush Administration set tomorrow's deadline for the three states to announce a long-term pact. But instead of announcing a long-term pact on Friday as planned, the states' three Governors will offer more of a status report.