July 2003

Now, I Understand the Center-Right Coalition

ArchPundit July 22, 2003 No Comments

Despite Jeff Trigg’s professed indifference to the Illinois Center-Right Coalition, it is really his dastardly plot to blow up the Republican Party and make the Libertarians the 2nd party in Illinois.

Heh. Heh. So no one is confused, I’m poking good natured fun at Jeff and I certainly don’t represent his views.

But the second article by John Zahm is exactly why I call the Illinois Republican Party the Illinois Circular Firing Squad Team.

The charge of the CRAV Committee will be to make recommendations to the Steering Committee about which primary and general elections should be contested. The committee can interview and research prospective candidates to identify top prospects. Surely, in some cases, the candidate will arise without need of recruitment, in other cases, an effort to find a candidate may be necessary to fill an open seat or oust an incumbent

If you split your own coalition by going after those members who are socially moderate you find yourself in a hole when it comes time to cobble together a majority coalition.

Joyce Morrison: On the Dole

ArchPundit July 22, 2003 No Comments

After the Joyce Morrison column last week made the rounds of cyclist mailing lists and Bulletin Boards, the Illinois Leader was apparently inundated with letters.

The best work was done by Bob Foster who figured out that Ms. Morrison’s husband is on the dole to the tune of $129,000 over the 5 years.

Now that is damn funny.

Her most recent string of sentences is available and not as funny as usual.

Free and Equal Elections

ArchPundit July 22, 2003 No Comments

Jeff Trigg is doing some great work on ballot access and is blogging about it to boot.

I wish the effort the best, even if I’m less optimistic than Jeff about the chances for success. The challenge isn’t to get enough lege members to sign on, the challenge is to get it out of committee.

Lisa Madigan’s Spine

ArchPundit July 22, 2003 No Comments

Often I have been critical of those who use family connections to leap frog into higher positions than their experience would suggest warranted. The most obvious example in the last election was Lisa Madigan, who ran against such a nitwit that she was far more attractive of a candidate. Can anyone explain what Birkett’s position was on concealed carry to me? I mean I know what he said, but c’mon.

Anyway, Lisa Madigan has been a pleasant surprise in office especially with her handling of the Emerald Casino License. She has gone after the insiders trying to get their money back from a shady deal at the expense of Illinois taxpayers. The Trib appropriately lauds her.

Rush Endorses Hull

ArchPundit July 22, 2003 No Comments

Bobby Rush endorses Blair Hull. It would appear that Blair Hull has exploited the Steve Neal column to great benefit and Rush’s denials concerning that article.

Hull is running a smart campaign. One of the signs of a good campaign is picking up on others mistakes and in this case, pushing Rush out there too far made him vulnerable with only one candidate to support and not look like a tool of the Machine.

For the alternative view, and for a column that was described as weird to me–an analysis that captures it well–is Steve Neal’s column this morning. Really, this isn’t too surprising and should have been obvious to anyone paying attention. After Neal’s last column what could Rush do?

Back Obama? No, first it would make him look weak and two he hates Obama’s guts.

Back Washington? No, he’d look like a tool of the Machine.

Back Chico? Possibly, but Chico appears dead in the water?

Back Hynes? hahahahahaha…talk about looking like a tool of the Machine

Back Hull? Safe and it makes him look like he is his own man.

Steve Neal helped create this situation, why is he surprised at the outcome.

And just let me say, I butchered Rush’s first name previously. I don’t know how, but the next contest should be to see how I can spell Blair Hull wrong.

Alternative Take on Hynes’ Money

ArchPundit July 22, 2003 No Comments

Dallas Morning News Blog

ArchPundit July 22, 2003 No Comments

National Review Online writer Rod Dreher recently departed the NRO to go to the Dallas Morning News’ editorial page and apparently has gotten a blog started.

A couple thoughts–first, this will never come to the Post-Dispatch which is utterly clueless about the Internet–and just about anything else, this is a long way off. Thanks to Old Tasty for the heads up.

Two, why the hell haven’t the competing young editions of the Trib and Sun-Times adopted blogs. Hell, the Trib has a writer with a good blog in Nathan Bierma. Eric Zorn is just this close to having a blog with his on-line site.

Chip Taylor is Back

ArchPundit July 21, 2003 No Comments

Chip Taylor is back and blogging from South Carolina. I’ll be adding him to the state coverage as he will be concentrating upon states in general, but not so much local coverage.

Lance picked up about a minute

ArchPundit July 21, 2003 No Comments

After crashing–perhaps he should crash more often

Busy….back after the stage

ArchPundit July 21, 2003 No Comments

Lance is dropping Ulrich right now-