What’s Most Baffling About the IL GOP?
Blagojevich brings them together….
They still cannot beat the idiot Governor we have. Or even push effectively for impeachment.
While some were looking toward 2010, Republicans have a more immediate fight on their hands in November now that Barack Obama has secured the Democratic nomination for president. His emergence this week is expected to draw more Democrats to the polls to vote for the junior senator from Illinois.
Despite the likelihood of what he called a "favorite son effect," Illinois Republican Party Chairman Andy McKenna said Democrats have a tough record to defend.
"People come to me — particularly reporters — saying, geez isn’t it hard, Senator Obama’s going to be on the top of the ticket here in Illinois," McKenna said. "I say to them, it gives us both the opportunity and the responsibility to say to people, ‘What does Democratic leadership mean?’"
Brady said Obama’s liberal political stance could also be a weak point.
"There’s a great number of people in this state who do not agree with what Barack Obama believes in," Brady said.
And you guys keep losing to him and the Democrats. Which in general is a good thing to me, but the reality is the GOP has a Democratic Governor who should be impeached and are headed towards losses…again.
And the people making the case the strongest aren’t the Republicans, but the press, Chambers:
But in political circles, Rezko was well known — even in 2003, when Blagojevich took office — as a prolific fundraiser. He raised gobs and gobs of money for pols like Blagojevich and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois. He understood how to get people with money into the same room, and how to get those people to hand their money over to the pol of his choice. In doing so, Rezko ingratiated himself to those pols.
Rezko raised an estimated $1.4 million for Blagojevich’s campaign fund, according to an FBI agent who testified at Rezko’s trial.
When Blagojevich took office as governor after campaigning on a promise to clean up state government in the wake of Gov. George Ryan’s scandal-tarred administration, he handed control over much of state government directly to Rezko, according to numerous witnesses who testified at Rezko’s trial.
The governor’s patronage chief had breakfast with Rezko on Monday mornings to talk about job openings that Rezko might wish to fill. The governor’s chief of staff reportedly cleared key decisions with Rezko. Rezko hand-picked some state agency directors. He attended the governor’s high-level meetings. He even sat in the room when Susan Lichtenstein interviewed to be the governor’s chief legal counsel.
The notion that Blagojevich yielded to Rezko because he was sincerely determined to include “new people” who “understand business” in the administration of state government — rather than because Rezko packed $1.4 million into his campaign fund — is nothing short of absurd.
The governor’s word is mud. There is almost nothing he can do to salvage that. Admitting his past mistakes won’t help, partly because he is so thoroughly trapped by those old mistakes…
No one believes the man. There’s a good reason for that. He’s a lying sack of crap.
And Democrats themselves…
The Governor’s need to surround himself with sycophants unwilling to question the misguided wisdom of his strategies, coupled with individuals all too willing to play that role, have done untold damage not just to the Administration, but more importantly, to our fine state.
There were a few who tried to fix things and they eventually left and gave up. I’m thinking in particular about an effort to reach out to bloggers and the netroots that died with the staff member moving on. It was one of the best exchanges with the typical political institutions and bloggers. It didn’t last. Now the sycophants are even leaving.
The attacks on Fritchey were shameless
I will say one thing–Dan Hynes needs to step it up and do more than issue policy positions and warnings about the fiscal state of Illinois. He’s talented, smart, but too averse to making a splash. His role should be to lead the Party in pushing Blagojevich to the side, but he’s still missing in action too often. While I think Hynes likes to be a workhorse and not a showhorse, sometimes the workhorse has to be a showhorse and this is one of those times.