Creepiest Ticket Possible for the Republicans
ArchPundit
All credit/blame to Rich O in comments
March 2005
2006 GOP Gubernatorial Cattle Call 3-21
1 year out and we have our first cattle call…a couple days late. Might as well start off with that expectation. I’ll move them to Tuesdays from now on out.
1) LaHood. I know. I know. The right hates him. But does the right hate him or a particular bunch of kooks on the right hate him? The guy is pro-life, anti gay rights and generally an aw shucks kind of guy. He certainly annoyed those who were bitter partisans of Peter Fitzgerald, but last I checked Fitz is in Virginia. And LaHood’s guy is Party Chair. LaHood is going to have to be the good soldier for a while, but he has access to money, the basic ideological drift of the IL GOP without being too strident, and he’s a natural counter to the Governor.
2) Topinka. I’m hearing the blowing of stacks from many a social conservatives with these first two, but let’s look at the polling data……. She’s in a better spot than many believe. She has rabid haters, but also a moderate wing of the party that likes her and in a multi-candidate field can probably do well enough to be in serious contention or the nomation. Beyond that she has name recognition that is generally positive, the press generally is sympathetic to her, access to money, and lots of chits to call in for over the years.
3) Rauschenberger. Only two things keep him from being at the top. 1) Alan Keyes 2) Ala—naw, he still hasn’t proven he can raise enough cash. Smart, and a natural antidote to the Governor and one of the best versed State Lege Members on the budget he may be a bit too wonky to pull this off. He strengthened his social conservative credentials (considered weak because he opposes school vouchers categorically) by his support of Keyes, but well, we know how that turned out. Keep the beard this time. I have him pencilled in as the State Treasurer candidate.
4) Jim Oberweis. UBERWEIS JOKES ARE BACK!
I could stay up here all day shooting Hoosiers and there’d still be more coming across the borders. Jim has a shot in a divided primary and, I thank the Illinois GOP for that. It’s not Alan Keyes, but it’s pretty good. BTW, I need a copy of the copter commercial if anyone has one out there.
And remember, no one met my challenge of recording a parody of the song Edelweis with Uberweis. You too can be enshrined as someone having entirely too much time on your hands, but damn funny.
5) Bob Schillerstrom. I don’t think he’s gonna run. Who wouldn’t look at this cast and run away fast?
6) Joe (Concealed-Position) Birkett, the sourpuss’ sourpuss. I know I’m not a Republican, but how is an ethically challenged DuPage County Prosecutor an appealling candidate? To boot his personality is one of complete bitterness.
7) Patrick O’Malley. Okay, so he’s the sourpuss’ sourpuss’ sourpuss. On top of it the True Believer (TM) Brigade thinks he can walk on water. He’s also one of the single most unlikeable politicians in recent Illinois history. His brutal attacks on Jim Ryan will be remembered and payed back by the establishment. Given he will be running against a range of people presumably ahead of him, he’ll have a hard time trying to run solely as an outsider.
8) Bill Brady Huh? I don’t get it. Why bother in this race? He doesn’t have a statewide fundraising system. He isn’t the guy who goes out and works the grass roots at the level necessary to pull this kind of upset.
9) Dan Rutherford—only this low because I don’t think he’s crazy enough to enter this race. Look for him to target Treasurer perhaps creating an interesting race if Rauschenberger goes to that spot as well. He wants SoS, taking on Jesse as an incumbent is a fool’s errand.
10) Shimkus–he’s not going this cycle. He’ll sit out this one, keep his pledge to not run in 2006 and take on Durbin in 2008.
11) Gidwitz. Are you kidding me?
The Great White Consultant Gravy Train has been spotted and is being pursued.
For those unfamiliar with the Cattle Calls, they are entirely my biased opinions and for fun and discussion–so discuss.
Ouch–Cattle Call Comment Period
Okay, after installing a new audio system in the new car, I came down with some sort of flu like thing that kept me out yesterday. How out have I been? I didn’t know George Kennan had died. More on that later.
But most important to those who read the blog–Consider this a Cattle Call for the GOP Governor’s nomination to be posted later today. This was supposed to be done yesterday, but I was unable to post it. We are one year out from the election–so drop you comments.
ANWR Cross Party Votes
For the Democrats, the damn Hawaii contingent continued its efforts to declare Hawaii and Alaska as ‘special’. And Landrieu, who everyone should have undertood would vote for this, backed drilling.
In fact, Holy Joe decided to blast her when her position has been consistent for years. She played a smart move to get revenue shairing for coastal protection in Louisiana, but no one expected her to move off her previous votes for drilling. Holy Joe took a swipe at her anyway. I think she is wrong, but I also think Durbin is wrong on ethanol. I don’t have to run for office in Illinois and that’s the difference.
As senators were voting on Wednesday, Ms. Landrieu stood at the back of the chamber, talking to colleagues on both sides of the aisle with a conflicted look on her face. At one point, moments before she cast her vote, she tapped Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat who opposes drilling, on the arm and whispered to him. He said later that she told him she would be supporting drilling.
“I was disappointed,” Mr. Lieberman said. “I feel it personally.”
Hey Joe–you couldn’t have pointed out Specter’s vote? Or Santorum who is running in a swing state? Or Talent? Or Martinez?
No, you had to complain about the Democrat who has been consistent. As wrong as she is, you couldn’t help the Party out, but instead had to take pressure off Republicans who should have been held to account?
My frustration with Lieberman and Al From of the DLC isn’t ideological. I used to describe myself as a DLC kind of guy meaning I believed in free trade, market incentives in regulation and a respect for more traditional values than many in the Party argue.
My frustration with them and others is that they are happy to sell out Democrats as being imperfect, but don’t seem to take the time to argue that Republican policies are the real problem.
If Lieberman had taken the time to argue that the Republican Party was the problem and then made a small point about Landrieu, I could live with that. Instead he gave the Paper of Record the quote to define the issue for the next couple years.
That being said, the seven Republicans who didn’t vote for a giant giveaway to relatively small corporate interests deserve credit”
-Chafee, R.I.;
-Coleman, Minn.;
-Collins, Maine;
-DeWine, Ohio;
-McCain, Ariz.;
-Smith, Ore.;
-Snowe, Maine.
Coleman waffled previously ‘if he was the deciding vote’, but the other six have been strong opponents and deserve credit. DeWine and Smith usually are ignored, but have been very consistent and deserve more widespread credit.
ANWR Passes Senate OPEC Points out How Pointless Such an Act is
OPEC increased daily production quotas by 1.9% or 500,000 Barrels a day.
While higher output is intended to ease prices, oil climbed near an all-time high in New York on concern that rising demand will soak up all that producers can pump. Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said consumption in the fourth quarter, the period of highest demand each year, will exceed the third quarter by more than 2 million barrels. The International Energy Agency expects global oil demand to rise 2.2 percent this year.
“Any additional oil will have little effect on prices,” said Nauman Barakat, senior vice president at Refco Energy Markets in New York. “Issues other than current supply are driving the market. There is very little OPEC can do.”
ANWR production is estimated to reach a peak of 876,000 barrels a day by 2025.
So Congrats to the Senate which just passed a bill that will do nothing about the price of oil, nothing to reduce dependence on foreign energy sources, nothing to reduce the impact of carbon emssions, nothing to preserve a unique ecosystem, but will help a small select businesses involved in the extraction of the oil.
That’s doing the people’s business. It’s just a question of which people’s businsess is being done.
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Til then!
-2020Chicago
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Hyde Out?
Sweet says so and she has pretty good sources so I’ll take that as a tenative yes.
I’ve heard the Kerry-Bush number was 46-54 in the District meaning as an open seat, the advantage goes to a Republican, but it’ll be a race.
Never Disappoints
So both Rich Miller and I posted on Keyes’ new scam to sell DVDs of the Senate Debates to raise cash.
Rich asked
Could this be legal? Just wondering.
I replied in his comments:
It’s legal assuming he’s doing it legally–which is a big assumption. Wingnuts love to do this kind of fundraiser–Bill Federer does it all the time with ‘his’ book–you know, the one other people largely wrote and sued him over.
And Austin Mayor answers that in fact, the Southern Illinois points out a little issue of copyright infringement.
The radio debate was presented by The Illinois Radio group, which is a WSIU affiliate. Jak Tichenor, producer at WSIU-TV, said he has never heard of anything like this before. He said the actual debate is material of the organization that produced and he said written consent is necessary for this type of reproduction.
“This is 180 degrees from normal protocol,” Tichenor said.
ABC affiliate WLS Channel 7 conducted the first televised debate between Keyes and Obama on Oct. 21. Public Television Station WTTW in Chicago organized the second TV debate on Oct. 26.
ABC Channel 7 News Director Jennifer Graves said she was shocked to hear about Keyes’ distribution of her station’s program.
“This is the first I have heard of this,” Graves said. “I’m going to have to make some phone calls around the newsroom, and then I think I will be calling our lawyer.”
Keyes’ people argues he has control over anything he participated in as long as he attributes the source. This is, in a word, Bullshit. He has the ability to exerpt fair use clips of it, but not rights to sell it unless it is all his footage and even then the conditions of the event could be an issue.
Robert Gibbs, clearly bored with life in DC as Obama’s Press Secretary, gets tossed a bone:
The Obama staff, accustomed to Keyes’ headline grabbing, was quick to offer a response to the news.
“Given the fact that Alan Keyes suffered the greatest electoral defeat in Illinois Senate history, I can’t imagine why anyone would give him any money,” Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said. “However, given the recent announcement of the retirement of Sen. Paul Sarbanes, I can only presume any proceeds from the sale of these videos will likely follow him to Maryland for a fourth senate contest.”
I’d accuse him of stealing my idea, but it’s pretty obvious humor.
The Keyes version of the events is rather humorous:
In response to overwhelming demand, we are pleased to offer the historic Keyes-Obama 2004 Senate debates! Not since the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 have the moral issues of the day been deliberated upon at such an intense and impressive level. Available individually or as a set, these debates are a unique and valuable exhibition of two very different approaches to the challenges facing America. Watch and decide for yourself who the winner was!
SCOREBOARD!
So I was Wrong
Some of the audits are on-line and in some cases at least the overviews are on-line. I misread the story and thought it was a couple audits, but it is several that have been realeased. It’s different than the Missouri system which I use quite frequently so the mistake is mine–The Auditor’s Office could make things clearer, but does make most available in some form.
The point made throughout the audits that I’ve already picked up on and why Holland and his people focused on it is quite simply, taking money allocated by the General Assembly and putting it to other uses is a violation of the State Constitution. It’s an usurptation of Legislative Power, but in this case there doesn’t appear to be a willful effort to subvert the law, but an incredible fumbling from the CMS that is supposed to provide support to the other agencies. Improperly spending line item appropriations is specifically what the Illinois Auditor is supposed to watch for and he found it in multiple agencies because of this poorly implemented system.
Department of Military Affairs
IDOT synopsis
#1 Point
IEPA Synopsis #1 Point “The Agency made payments for efficiency billings from improper line item appropriations”
Pollution Control Board The only cited issue–though to be fair, it isn’t required to provide detailed dollars amounts due to the nature of the Board.
OFFICE OF BANKS AND REAL ESTATE COMPLIANCE EXAMINATION
Many thanks to who helped me out with figuring out the links and where everything was in the files.
New Link Inbound
Unfortunately I can’t get Springfield radio and they don’t seem to stream–what’s the show like?