April 2004

OneMan is a oneman Sneed Watch

ArchPundit April 7, 2004 0 Comment

He is taking her down daily with the most recent over the Mormon comments. He has a stronger stomach than I do. I just ignore her before getting annoyed.

Roeser Lost His Mind a Long Time Ago

ArchPundit April 7, 2004 3 Comments

Roeser is trying to get the GOP to put resources into Illinois with a wishful thinking essay that says Bush can be competitive.

Let’s just start with the polls. Bush is down by between 10-14 points in Illinois. Nationally he is in essentially a dead heat with Kerry. What possible sense does it make to go after Illinois or California? None. If he were to carry Illinois, it would be because he won in a landslide. This isn’t likely to be a landside election, but even if it were, one would still concentrate upon likely swing states and take the rest as gravy. But by all means spend the money in Illinois. Please. My TV is already spewing Bush/Kerry commercials and I’m damn tired of it.

The Pennsylvania Circular Firing Squad

ArchPundit April 7, 2004 0 Comment

The Club for Growth continues to give Democrats chances for pick-ups by targeting moderate Republicans. Novak reports on their efforts to unseat Spector.

The conservative Club for Growth has raised $700,000 in hard money and $950,000 in soft money for Rep. Pat Toomey in his Pennsylvania Republican primary challenge against four-term Sen. Arlen Specter.

That is four times more money than the Club for Growth has spent on a single candidate. The organization’s supporters are distributing a March 16 poll showing Specter’s lead down to 10 points. Toomey’s backers claim the race would be even closer if Specter were not being strongly supported by Pennsylvania’s other senator: Rick Santorum, the conservative chairman of the Senate Republican Conference.

A footnote: Democratic strategists had written off Specter’s seat as safely Republican but now say it may be competitive thanks to Toomey’s challenge. Rep. Joe Hoeffel, whose voting record is far more liberal than Specter’s, is unopposed for the Democratic nomination.

Keep up the good work CfG!

Novak Loses His Mind

ArchPundit April 7, 2004 0 Comment

He claims Obama weakens the Jacksons. I spit up my soda on that one.

Chicago Democratic enemies of the Rev. Jesse Jackson and his son the congressman are claiming that the landslide nomination for the U.S. Senate of state Sen. Barack Obama means the Jacksons are washed up in Illinois politics.

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. vigorously denies that, contending he and Obama support each other. Nevertheless, anti-Jackson Democrats are delighted that Jesse Jr. has been supplanted by Obama as the top African American among Illinois Democrats.

The word has been spread in Chicago Democratic circles that the Jacksons plan to relocate in California, but the congressman told this column that there is absolutely no truth to that report.

This assumes the Jacksons couldn’t have kneecapped the guy. The reality is they handed him their machine for the election. The cost of that is unclear to Obama, but given he is known for independence one can expect he’ll primarily be called on for favors in upper chamber regarding pork.

UPDATE: Note to self–read the Hotline if you aren’t going to sift through Letters to the Editors.

One of the most satisfying aspects of the March 16 primary was that voters throughout Illinois rejected the worn conventional wisdom that said we could not build a multiethnic, multi-racial coalition for a responsible new direction in Washington.

Now, in his April 4 column, Robert Novak has spun another myth. Novak suggests that my victory in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate was a defeat for the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. Novak advances this flawed theory, despite the fact that both Rev. Jackson and Rep. Jackson were early, strong and enthusiastic supporters of my candidacy, and despite the fact that their records of service helped pave the way for my own success.

Novak apparently believes that if one leader from the African-American community succeeds, it somehow diminishes others. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Leadership is not a zero-sum game. All our voices and talents are needed.

I look forward to working closely with Rep. Jackson, Rev. Jackson and leaders throughout the state to address issues of importance to all our people.

State Sen. Barack Obama

(D-Chicago)

IOW–I’m his man for pork!

You Mean Ideology Doesn’t Matter?

ArchPundit April 7, 2004 0 Comment

One of the funnier claims about the 1994 takeover of Congress was that the Republicans wouldn’t be pork driven. To anyone who studies the institution this was pure hogwash because pork isn’t some moral restraint issue, it is an issue of institutional incentives. Mayhew argued that one could not design a better institution to serve the reelection neds of its Members than the US House and pork is an integral part of that.

Novak launches into a broadside against pork in one of his recent columns,

The highway bill marks the absolute termination of the Gingrich Revolution ushered in by the 1994 sweep. In the face of Bush’s repeated veto threats, Republicans are determined to pass a bill filled with earmarked spending for individual members of Congress. The 1982 highway bill contained only 10 earmarks. The 1991 bill, the last highway bill passed under Democratic leadership, contained 538 such projects. But the addiction for pork has grown so large that the current bill contains at least 3,193 earmarks.

The addiction is bipartisan, thanks to the policy of the House’s reigning king of pork. While House Transportation Committee Chairman Don Young has packed the bill with money for his state of Alaska, he makes sure Democrats are allocated their share of money for roads and other goodies in order to build a bipartisan majority on the floor.

Overdoing pork, such as in this case, is bad. But pork also produces a way to govern done in moderation. Without it and with generally weak parties, pork provides a manner to create majorities where they might not exist.

Make no mistake, that pork will not go away. However, if one is truly upset about it, one should consider institutional change, not just a party change.

That Didn’t Take Long

ArchPundit April 7, 2004 0 Comment

The Comptroller returns to duty without having to worry about G-Rod backing an opponent.

Comptroller Dan Hynes said this past year’s sources of one-time revenue — like the lease of the Thompson Center — won’t be available and the state will be short $3.8 billion. Blagojevich’s budget predicts a deficit of only $1.7 billion.

“We are basically saying this challenge the governor and legislature will have to deal with as they begin budget negotiations,” said Hynes spokesman Allen Henry. “One way or another, they have to come up with something.”

Now, if G-Rod is paying attention, he needs to take this seriously because it gives one of his likely opponents the best line of attack for 2006 (we here at ArchPundit rarely contain ourselves to election at hand)

State Sen. Steve Rauschenberger (R-Elgin) picked up on Hynes’ warning and wondered if the governor’s plan to close the deficit will be enough.

“Why would a Democrat exaggerate Rod’s problems?” Rauschenberger said, referring to Hynes. “Unless, of course [the higher numbers] were right.”

Rauschenberger, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, noted that the state is negotiating new union contracts, which could throw off the governor’s estimates.

“The bills are not going away. And this administration is proposing $7 million in additional spending,” Rauschenberger said.

Capitol Fax Tidbits

ArchPundit April 7, 2004 2 Comments

Rich Miller has several small bits up over at the Capitol Fax site.

First is more on the license for the 10th Casiono. Apparently the Gaming Board doesn’t want to talk publicly about it. There are other ways to be forced to talk publicly and none of them are pleasant so they might factor that into their consideration.

He also analyzes G-Rod’s brilliant move on gun rights which appears to be make a big fuss until you figure out what the hell you are doing and in the process hanging out your fellow party members to dry. If you are going to try and work out a deal, the time for that deal was when the legislation was in committee. Instead, the Governor got a couple cheap headlines.

Speaking of demagoguing the State Board of education appears ready to give G-Rod more material as the Auditor General reams them over poor financial oversight.

And finally, in the we don’t even know if there is a problem, but we are so used to panicking so let’s talk about who could replace Jack! sweepstakes, Edgar is reportedly open to replacing Jack! if necessary. The reports are that in initially considering the race Edgar didn’t get the support he was promised. It is hard to believe that support would be any better this time around.

Edgard would put up a tough fight, but one has to wonder what the impact of a very mobilized right wing would have on his candidacy.

Also, an interesting article on Patricia Baileys’ residency problems from Sunday.