Thanks Rod, Just Priceless
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They really are quite funny over there
2004
Not All Republicans Are Clueless
Chris Rhodes takes on the hip factor between the major parties right now…
It works for those on the other side of the aisle, but seriously, a rock band that is primarily known amongst young devout evangelicals isn’t exactly a way to target the average young person. That doesn’t mean they can’t have the evangelical band, but you might think of some other activities to attract others–I doubt you’ll get Wilco, there, but there are more than one way to skin a cat.
I’ll say the DTripC has gotten much hipper just as I’m getting much older. But I’m happy to see it. The Survivor bit is a riot and I think even in good fun everyone can find it funny.
Bringing me to the biggest problem of a potential Kerry presidency–the guy isn’t funny. At all. And he isn’t fun to make fun of. I mean, Bubba was fun. W is Gold. What will I do? Make fun of Inhofe every day?
Bush Still Not on the Ballot
I can think of worse things for the Illinois Republicans. Namely both Bush and Ryan being off the ballot or essentially dead, but that is about it. There is currently a fight over the legislation. One bill that would have expanded state locations for voter registration and lessened the time to register was never brought up in the Senate–see DJWinfo for the details.
The Leader is making up their version of reality again:
The RNC chose to have their convention the first week of September, navigating around the Olympics and Democratic National Convention.
This is,to put it mildly, BS.
The Democrats originally set their date for July 18th. Then the Republicans set the date of August 29th – September 2nd. Then the Democrats moved their date back to July 26th. The Republicans would have had three weeks in that period to schedule the convention before the beginning of the Olympics.
Why? Trying to get advantage from September 11th. Nice. It’ll backfire too.
Bush should get on the ballot, but the fair thing would be to allow other parties to get on the ballot in an easier manner. That won’t affect Dems, but see if the Republicans will vote for a bill that is fair.
Of course, if you take Tom Roeser’s argument seriously, the Republicans could end up with neither a Presidential Candidate nor a Senate candidate on the ballot. Given there is no manner for replacement if the Ryan campaign does fall and the judiciary isn’t friendly, the Republicans have a real problem.
I doubt they are too worried about either campaign–both seem pretty much doomed to many at this point. But having no one at the top of the ballot makes it even harder to get the base out to vote. And this year has a feel of it of Republicans needing every last vote. The Democratic base is energized and angry and to get them out to vote against George Bush isn’t going to take much–even if he isn’t on the ballot. In addition, the base is especially excited about the Senate Candidate-Barack Obama. He’s a rock star in politics. Look at the press fawning over him (I do too).
Republicans have a President who is unpopular in Illinois, a Senate Candidate who can’t seem to shoot straight and several swing seats they’d like to pick up. But if the leaners don’t show up because they are discouraged with the chances of the President and the Senate Candidate, the Lege races will be very tough as will the Crane and Weller races. A party needs some excitement to turn out its base–not the people who will crawl over broken glass, but the voters who are generally Republican, but not activists. The Republicans are in danger of having no motivation to those folks destroying their chance at down ballot races and perhaps giving the Dems a few shots at taking more seats.
Lots can happen, but this could develop into the worst case scenario for Republicans.
All that said, some of the Republicans are doing a hell of a job organizing including the Join Cross guys. But generating that kind of excitement from below is tough. Very tough.
Two Bits on the Budget
Over at the Capitol Fax.
The first is the most damning for the Blagorgeous. Despite his caterwauling, the budget doesn’t add up.
BUDGET HAS BIG HOLE (excerpt) The budget endorsed by Blagojevich and Jones appears to be fatally flawed. A House Democratic analysis claims, with credibility, that even with all the new taxes and a 2.25 percent across-the-board cut, it’s still more than $700 million in the red. Sen. Steve Rauschenberger suggested last night that the governor is spending like the drunken legislative sailors he infamously blasted last spring.
It’s like giving Rauschenberger fodder for good lines. If anything he’s been reserved so far, probably letting the Dems get themselves in to a fine fix. The Blagorgeous obliged so I expect Rauschenberger, now with leverage, will start having fun again.
BUDGET WRANGLING (excerpt) The four legislative leaders met for a short while yesterday, and agreed that the governor’s budget director should provide a list of what cuts he would make if the General Assembly goes ahead with a planned 2.25 percent across-the-board reduction. All but one leader, Senate President Emil Jones, are unwilling to trust the director with such a limitless power. The Senate approved a bill that would give the director carte blanche to skim money from just about everything except the school fund, but including a fund for local governments.
Interesting that the closet Lege ally doesn’t really trust Filan, Rod’s budget director.
It’s Not Just Dawn Clark Netsch Anymore Governor
Rich Miller has a hysterical column up at the Capitol Fax that debates the different way he could take the column, settling on pointing out that women in the Illinois Government don’t expect to be treated like the pioneering women were decades ago, they now back each other when some dimwit takes a swipe at their gender:
Rep. Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago) said Madigan was “just doing her job,” and the governor “shouldn’t insult her.”
Sen. Christine Radogno (R-Lemont) called the governor a “Neanderthal.”
“She is not carrying water for her father,” insisted Rep. Julie Hamos (D-Evanston).
Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka called the governor a “chauvinist pig.”
The lesson here, I think, is that you can get away with throwing all the showy windup fastballs you want at the Springfield establishment. But after years of being dismissed and discriminated against, women at the Statehouse have come together to form a fearsome, bipartisan team, and they’ll hit those goofy pitches out of the park. The governor should stick to safer targets.
And if I may, the Guv ought to remember the last Illinois politician to ignore women’s issues in the Democratic Party. I hear retirement as a lobbyist is working out just fine for Alan Dixon, Governor.
Who Does Schoenberg Like Least?
It’s hard to say, though Rod is probably ahead of Jack! right now, but he is quickly developing a dislike of both of them similar to the late Steve Neal’s deep dislike of Dick Durbin and Peter Fitzgerald.
In Thursday’s column he takes on Jack!’s new communications director.
# First, understand why your opponent has problems with significant elements of his base, and drive wedges where you can, to the maximum extent possible;
# “Second, recognize that it is not your campaign’s job to tell the objective truth, it’s your campaign’s job to tell the version of the truth that puts your opponent in the worst light possible (it’s his campaign’s job, after all, to do the same to you);
# “Third, don’t get suckered into the trap of only talking about issues the media says are important – instead, choose the issue matrix over which you want to wage war, and stick to it no matter what;
# “And fourth, if need be, if you can’t make a legitimate argument against your opponent on a key issue, use your opponent’s party’s position on the issue as the battleground, and wrap it around his neck. Make him pay for the sins of his party. Guilt by association still works, so don’t be shy in exploiting it.”
The problem with the Ryan campaign is every time they put out a fire, another story pops up about how it is running essentially a negative campaign and getting it from enunciating any message of its own.
There are two sides to that. Jack! partisans can point out this is lazy journalism looking to fit the evidence to the preconceived story. To a degree that has some merit, though I wouldn’t tar Schoenberg with that claim.
The flip side is if the shoe fits…
And Jack! is making the shoe fit a bit too easily.
Case in point from the column:
But then what does a May 26 news release from the Ryan campaign say about the kind of campaign Ryan wants to run? The release, titled “Knock, knock. Who’s there? Obama, the criminals’ good friend,” got personal about Ryan’s Democratic opponent, BARACK OBAMA.
Obama, now a state senator, voted against a bill in the legislature that would allow people to defend themselves against local ordinances banning gun possession if they have to use a gun to protect themselves on their own property.
“Once again, Barack Obama has shown his true colors,” the release quotes Pascoe. “He’s an outside-the-mainstream, weak-on-crime liberal who cares more for the rights of criminals than he does for those of law-abiding citizens.”
Jack! has never defined himself in any sense of what he stands for to the public. Yes, we can go to his website and see his issue positions, but despite a fairly good bio to run on, since the primary it has been all attack all the time instead of defining himself, locking up his base and then going to war over the center–which in Illinois is slightly to the left.
The real story appears to be at the top and it is tied back to everything that is loony in Conservative Republican Politics in Illinois–the Illinois Leader and its co-founder Dan Proft:
After the second column, Proft let me know in a 1 1/2-page e-mail that he wasn’t happy.
“Barack, er uh, I mean Bernie,” it began.
“I’m willing to try and do damage control for you with your friends in the Democratic Party but I don’t know … people are expressing a lot of disappointment with you for your personal assault on Bill Clinton. … But I stood up for you, I said, ‘Bernie is a good Democrat. … I mean, look at all the water he’s carrying for Sen. Obama.'”
Proft said he was embarrassed for me because I let Obama “get away” with his explanation of his vote against the fees, and he wondered why I didn’t press Obama on the budget problems of the Democrats now running the state.
“I know you’re loathe (sic) to report on any infighting among the Democrat hegemons much less make Obama have to answer any difficult questions about who’s right. …”
Well, it’s always nice to know they’re reading your stuff. But Proft may have missed some of the not-so-glowing columns I’ve written about the style and “substance” of Gov. ROD BLAGOJEVICH, who happens to be a Democrat.
Antagonizing the press is generally a really bad strategy. Of course, Proft was probably the guy who decided an unsigned editorial in the attacking Judy Baar Topinka and Frank Watson would be a good idea.
You get a mighty small coalition as a Republican if Frank Watson is too conciliatory.
The ultimate problem though? Staffers keep get press over the candidate. That should never, ever happen. I know other campaigns do everything they can to avoid that.
It appears that those who said Jack Ryan is too good to be true were right.
Not me, but Tom Roeser says it in the Sun-Times.
One problem with the column–there is no law allowing the Senate Nominee to be replaced–the assumption is that the Courts would allow the Central Committee to replace Jack!, but that is far from certain if he were to drop out.
Backbone Transplant for DTripC
I’m Speechless. It’s quite clear that this campaign has given the DTripC a backbone transplant. Thank you for Republican Survivor. Go watch now. You won’t regret it.
An Excellent Pick for the UN
Meaning the Administration will completely ignore him. Danforth is a polar opposite of Negroponte and should be a rather deft negotiator at the UN–well if he is given the ability to do the job.
That’s Ms. Attorney General to You Blow Dry Boy
I didn’t think he could make this much worse, but The Blagorgeous response to the Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s blocking the mortgaging of the Thompson Center is perhaps a classic in stupid things said by public officials.
“It’s her father, you know, I can’t fault her,” Blagojevich said. “I don’t want to get involved in a family deal here, but you know it’s her father. I’ve got two daughters. I hope they back me on stuff that I do.”
Steve Brown, Madigan’s press guy and all around aide responds with just about the nastiest thing I’ve heard in a while in Illinois politics
It speaks more to the pathetic, simplistic world the governor sometimes lives in
So he has alienated the Attorney General and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. But that isn’t all, oh no, our boy Blagorgeous just pissed off the women on both sides of the aisle with that condescending poppy cock:
“She is not carrying water for her father,” said state Rep. Julie Hamos (D-Evanston). “She is the attorney general for the state of Illinois.”
“He is a complete Neanderthal, and I think it’s a complete insult to women,” said state Sen. Christine Radogno (R-Lemont) of Blagojevich. “She’s a professional. There are a lot of professional women, and we don’t necessarily do what our fathers and husbands say.”
State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, who also is head of the state Republican Party, called Blagojevich’s remarks “shameful and chauvinistic” and said the governor should apologize to not just Madigan but to all women in the state.
But to really make matters worse, it appears that Lisa Madigan is right:
Though most legislation requires only a simple majority of the House and Senate for approval, Madigan noted in her opinion that the Illinois Constitution requires a special three-fifths vote on measures that authorize new state borrowing. Ironically, Michael Madigan was a sponsor of the Thompson Center bill, which passed his chamber 72-44, one vote more than needed to meet the three-fifths mandate.
But the Senate passed the bill by a 33-25 margin, three votes short of the number needed to attain three-fifths approval.
Blagojevich aides disagreed with Lisa Madigan’s interpretation of the three-fifths rule. But former University of Illinois law professor Ron Rotunda, an expert on the state constitution, sided with Madigan’s view.
“The framers [of the constitution] created this rule to be airtight,” Rotunda said. “The only way the framers could have been any clearer would be to add a sentence at the end of the clause that says, `We really mean it.'”
Never mind that financing current operations out of debt creation is really stupid.