If I was the Prince of Darkness, he was the Happy Warrior.
ArchPundit
Novak does probably the best tribute to Neal. One should always be able to laugh when remembering someone who has passed.
2004
Why Kathuria’s Lawsuit Should Have Been Predicted
As I’ve mentioned before, the Kathuria lawsuit against the Trib really turned some modestly positive press into a no press. The press wasn’t upset as much as amused and amusing candidates don’t get a ton of press. Real candidates do.
A campaign manager who understood the game would have stopped him from filing suit. Using the press to rally the troops and raise cash is all well and good, but suing is counterproductive and takes time away from the actual campaign.
So what about Kathuria’s campaign manager? One John Zahm, who used to also work for Chris Lauzen. Those who read the web site regularly will recognize the Lauzen name from merciless ridicule here. Why?
Pantagraph November 15, 1998
GENEVA, Ill. (AP) – The losing candidate for state comptroller says he will push ahead with a libel lawsuit against his Republican primary opponent because he wants to make a point about negative campaigning.State Sen. Chris Lauzen, R-Aurora, beaten by Chicago Democrat Dan Hynes in last week’s general election, is turning his attention to a $1 million libel lawsuit he filed against Elgin businessman Harry Seigle over tactics in the March primary race that Lauzen won.
One of Seigle’s radio commercials accused Lauzen of lying to voters, claimed he "opened the door to more gambling in Illinois" and linked him to a business that failed to pay its taxes. Lauzen claims the statements are false and defamatory.
"If we’re not going to drive all the good people out of politics because they don’t want themselves or their family’s reputations dragged through the gutter, then somebody’s going to have to stand up when it happens to them and say here’s where the line is," Lauzen said Thursday after a status hearing in Kane County Circuit Court.
That was settled for a $2000 donation to the United Way, but Lauzen wasn’t done:
From the Daily Herald, March 29, 2001
If the name fits: Finally, there is state Sen. Chris Lauzen. Chris isn’t up for election this year, but that hasn’t stopped him from providing some dandy comic relief. As readers may remember, Chris went to court to have his name legally changed to "Chris Lauzen, CPA." I guess he had his reasons, but a judge saw it differently, and this week denied the name-change petition. Word is Chris plans to appeal, but I hope he rethinks his position. I believe he should go for a moniker that really catches the essence of what he brings to the political arena. I hear the name Bozo will be available soon.
Zahm, Kathuria’s campaign manager until recently is now threatening lawsuits against people on a message board.
We can lament about how politics is mean and tough, but it is. People who can’t handle that are in the wrong line of work–and the Kathuria campaign is a great example of why.
Leader’s Unbalanced Readers
Are at work on conspiracies behind Steve Neal’s death. Maybe they could just allow the man to rest in peace.
Oberweis On Dobbs
Taking the Pat Buchanan route to the GOP nomination now has Oberweis getting attention on Lou Dobbs. While I’m often critical of Democrats who are protectionist (Mr. Hynes), Republican protectionists always seem to outdo them in stupidity with nativism mixed in with the bad economics. Strangely, for a mouthpiece of business, Dobbs finds an issue that business is generally most correct on (free trade) and deviates from it mixing in his own little bit of nativism.
Lou has a protectionistapalooza on tonight
From the, when I was a kid and walked both ways up hill to school, it wasn’t that long ago I used to have to argue with fellow Democrats about free trade being good and deficits being bad.
Earl’s Cry For Help
A couple things struck me about Earl’s latest missive.
First, Earl acts as if he expected the last e-mail to be private. For those who remember it, his postscript was:
P.S. I dare you to print this e-mail verbatim: You know as well as I do that most people know I speak the truth, and you are a liar and whore who takes to heart Lenin’s dictum that "The first duty of the propagandist is to subvert the meaning of words."
Second, ArchPundit and Blog Saint Louis started in August of 2002, fully 7 years after the Smetzer murder. I’m unclear why that should have been a pressing issue. In fact, there are very few discussions of specific crimes on the sites unless it concerns the death penalty or a policy issue. If you want juicy crime stories, read the St. Louis Evening Whirl.
In Earl’s twisted world every bad thing an African-American does is evidence of their inferiority. Not suprisingly, Earl doesn’t work the opposite way where every positive action by an African-American is seen as evidence of their superiority.
Heeee’sssss Baaaccckkkk
"Gentlemen":
Now that it appears the RIVERFRONT TIMES is finally bored by the controversy (after 13 weeks!) I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the RFT and that 32 year-old perpetual student, the archpundit, for unwittingly participating as subjects in a small study I conducted.
For the eight years we have hosted our radio show on Friday nights, my co-host and I have been struck by the fact that the left in this country genuinely appears to believe that use of the "N-word" is a far more egregious crime than the rape and murder of innocent Whites. That was my hypothesis, and although not an empirical study, at least two lefties proved it has substantial validity.
I can find no mention in the arhives of either the RFT or the archpundit.com of the rape and murder of Christine Smetzer, an innocent 14 year-old girl, who was followed into the girls? restroom at McCluer North, where she was raped, murdered and had her head stuck in the toilet by a nigro savage. In contrast, my use of the "N-word" in a private e-mail was treated by these worthies as The Crime of the Century.
Thank you for participating in my study, and for revealing your true nature: The rest of us now have a somewhat better measure of the hypocrisy, as well as the moral and intellectual bankruptcy which plagues the commies, socialists and traitors who constitute the American left.
Earl Holt III
St. Louis, MO
For those wanting to see the original, go here
Since Lane is on a Roll Today
I’ll just me to this post on the undermining of science by this administration.
As the point was made in comments today, this administration is increasingly relying on faith based science. And I’m not making a snarky creationism comment here, but on a wide range of issues the science is being undermined by ideology.
I’m happy to criticize junk science of any kind, but don’t we have enough running around without the government subsidizing and protecting it?
Hull’s Order of Protection
To fairly treat a story like an order of protection against a candidate, one has to be able to make calls and devote some time to the story-the thing I don’t always have and so you have rely on a real reporter.
Eric Zorn tackles the order of protection that Hull’s ex-wife, Brenda Sexton, filed for in 1998. The documents are sealed along with the rest of the divorce files. The campaign and Ms. Sexton both refuse to explain in detail what occurred.
It’s not a "personal matter" when questions about the circumstances behind a request for an order of protection hang over the head of a man who is at or near the top of the polls in the race for his party’s nomination for the U.S. Senate.
Maybe it was nothing, really. But maybe not. And the truth is, Hull’s candidacy has given us a right to know.
For Democrats the question should be simple. What happened? We just spent a few weeks trying to get a President to tell us what happened during his service to the National Guard. We still don’t seem to have all the answers to that question and it is a drain on his credibility. Perhaps there is a simple answer, but the President has drawn it out by avoiding the issue. Even with the release of records, people can’t tell where he was when. Drip, drip, drip.
You can be sure that Jack Ryan, Andrew McKenna, Steve Rauschenberger, and especially Jim Oberweis will have the issue raised, whether by them or by surrogates. If the information is not released it will be a constant drip, drip, drip questioning Hull’s credibility.
So do everyone a favor and release the records and talk about it now. If there is nothing there we can quickly move on. If there is something there, Hull has a chance to take responsibility and the opportunity for damage control in the party’s primary. But Democratic voters should know what they are getting before the general election and make both personal evaluations of the incident as well as an evaluation of the impact on Hull’s electability, if any.
Eric doesn’t mention it, but very personal allegations were later made against 1992 Senate Candidate Al Hofeld. An order of protection is far less serious than that which Hofeld was accused, but serious nonetheless. Hofeld probably would have been in the Senate when the allegation came out if he had been successful in the primary. That would have been unacceptable. Voters deserve to know about the character of their representatives. In this case, determining that character will be done by how forthright he is about a relatively recent event.