Froelich Switching Parties Brand New Spanking Democrat
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Rich has a subscriber only post with details so, subscribe.
I won’t break Rich’s subscriber only posts, but one particular comment I found heartening.
June 2007
Daily Dolt—OF THE YEAR
The Illinois State Rifle Association
Several weeks ago, the ISRA was all atwitter after Chicago priest Michael Pfleger called for pro-gun legislators and a gun shop owner to be “snuffed out.”
I seriously doubt that Pfleger wanted to actually kill a pro-gun legislator, but his remarks were irresponsible. Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George was right to publicly rebuke him for his stupid statements.
After complaining about Pfleger, however, the rifle association has not — as of this writing — condemned the threats on Kotowski’s life. It has expressed zero concern for the senator’s safety or the safety of his staff and his family.
The group’s silence is deafening — and informative. It’s Johnny on the spot when a priest makes inflammatory remarks about the group’s own allies, but looks the other way when somebody on the opposite side of the political fence is threatened.
As Pfleger prepared to speak at another antigun rally last week, the ISRA sent out a news release whining that the state police exhibited a “double standard” when they refused to investigate the Catholic priest, but did check in on people who contacted Kotowski’s office. Later in the release, the gun group asked whether Pfleger would show some “dignity” at the antigun rally or once again behave like “an absurd — yet malevolent — cartoon character.”
But over the past several months, when I, and others, repeatedly pointed out that “malevolent” comments were popping up all over the Internet about Kotowski, the rifle association remained mum.
One person wrote on a pro-gun Web site the other day: “Sounds to me like Sen. Kotowski deserves to be threatened. Why, if he were to commit suicide by shooting himself in the head three times, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit.”
The people who run the rifle association ought to look in the mirror the next time they scream about “double standards.”
Check out Rob’s last post on this over at Illinois Reason. The comments are illustrative of the problem.
When your article speaks of Rich Millers post and thinly veiled threats,Sen.Kotowski’s staffers and their heebie-jeebies (define heebie-jeebies) and other referrences. Why would any non rational and uneducated individual/s not think that the I.S.R.A. of which I am NOT a member is somehow not responsible for any and or all angst regarding Mr.Kowtowski and his blatant disregard for the Constitution….
To me the heebie-jeebies would be a childish feeling much like that which permeats the Left wingers due to their fear of a free populace.
Sounds to me like Sen. Kotowski deserves to be threatened. Why, if he were to commit suicide by shooting himself in the head three times, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit.
I think the senator has miscalculated. Instead of intimidating people, he has
incited their anger, and given credence to the “tin foil hat” crowd.* This is
also fodder for the civil libertarians who aren’t necessarily on board with the
second ammendment. Stunts like this could get the ACLU and NRA working
together where normally you couldn’t get them in the same room.
Fat load of good that’ll do. Politics as Soviet there now. The AG will just recommend Blagogewhatever give the Kotowski the Order of Lenin.
Kotowski and dickaDaly are prolly having a great chuckle over the abuse of powers as usual there.
I agree with OTRN vaporize Chicago(get the Dog out first) and the rest of Illinois is pretty nice.
Been there to DeKalb a few times and had good times with decent people…Chicago has to go.
Now, I don’t think the ISRA believes the above. However, the ISRA has not just been silent on the threats to Kotowski, but actively tried to undermine the claims of Kotowski’s staff that anyone threatened Kotowski. Bill St. Clair does above. Yet ISRA cannot condemn the threats as Cardinal George condemned Pfleger’s comment. It’s not just a double standard, it’s a actively giving dangerous people cover for their behavior.
ISRA doesn’t lose anything by condemning threats of violence. The lose a lot when they try and pretend those threats didn’t happen.
Sirota Jumps the Gun on Obama
The Progressive States Network co-founded by David Sirota jumps on Obama to decline or reject an invitation to ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council. In PSN’s defense, ALEC had Obama on their frontpage (removed already) and it is an odious organization. The thing is the campaign confirmed it was not attending within minutes of having seen the press release and could have confirmed that with a quick call.
I don’t mind pressuring Democratic candidates to do the right thing, but we also ought to check to see if ALEC wasn’t just using Obama before jumping on him. They were and a quick phone call or e-mail would have answered the question.
There is a point here about how we interact within Democratic constituencies. If we want to build up relationships and trust, the way to do that is to communicate. That didn’t happen hear and it puts everyone in a pissy mood instead of working together to target ALEC’s dishonest use of Obama and their general odiousness.
Ponies For Everyone
Charles Franklin has up the most recent trend estimates for his Presidential Approval estimator and it’s at 29.1 percent. Wow. There’s some interesting patterns to the different estimators as well. The blue (less sensitive) has been tracking the red (more sensitive) for the recent downturn pretty faithfully. That’s not unusual and certainly doesn’t tell us how long that will last, but interesting nonetheless.
Charles is interested in public opinion by itself though he has done some great work on how that interacts with institutions. What fascinates me most though is how elite opinion including officeholders seems to be lagging. This isn’t a new phenomenon for the Bush Presidency since he’s been below 40 for sometime now, however one would expect Republicans to be running for cover from this guy, yet he’s still able to maintain strong control over the legislative process and especially Republicans in Congress.
Now, one theory is that the base is vital to all Republicans and he is still popular with the base and that is somewhat true, but now that seems to be less true at least. While we see some grumbling, Members of Congress like Mark Kirk should be running scared. They really aren’t and this to me is a puzzle. A key assumption of the literature is that MoCs are single-minded seekers of reelection and as such party discipline isn’t that strong because MoCs see their best chance for reelection to run as individuals to avoid waves. Everything about the current political situation suggests a second Democratic wave election and perhaps even a stronger one yet elected Republicans are maintaining a remarkable level of party discipline. Many do not face primaries and certainly not primaries of any importance so this level of party discipline is fascinating to watch.
I Just Don’t Get the Sense of Humor, Tony Snow Does Have Great Musical Taste
I want to thank our Chef, Paul Prudhomme, from New Orleans, Louisiana — one of the great chefs in America. Thanks for coming, Paul. (Applause.) I thank Tony Snow and his bunch of, well, mediocre musicians — (laughter) — no, great musicians. Beats Workin, thanks for coming. (Applause.) Kermit, come up here. Kermit, we’re proud to have you.
MR. RUFFINS: Well, thanks for having us.
THE PRESIDENT: Kermit Ruffins and the Barbeque Swingers, right out of New Orleans, Louisiana. (Applause.)
MR. RUFFINS: Thank you. Thanks for having us. We’re glad to be here.
THE PRESIDENT: Proud you’re here. Thanks for coming. You all enjoy yourself. Make sure you pick up all the trash after it’s over. (Laughter.)
God bless you, and may God bless America. Thanks for coming. (Applause.)
I get that he’s trying to make fun of Snow (who apparently has some excellent taste in music if he brought in Kermit), but it comes off as being kind of cruel to the musicians. No great overarching message here or deep insight into anyone’s character, just odd.
We were not in a position to be dictated to
Are you fucking kidding me? The DuPage Democratic Party thinks it’s in a position of strength? The appropriate response when a bunch of people work to create a strong grassroots operation to help Democrats and you are the local Democratic Party is a simple 2 word phrase:
“Thank you” You might add, “how can we help you out?”
Lord knows most, if not all, Cegelis supporters have been pissed at me for a variety of issues, but anyone who doesn’t think you should view them as a resource is a friggen’ idiot.
Michael is way off base in comparing the quote to an old ward boss mentality. It isn’t an old ward boss mentality since there were never any goodies to pass out so it’s just delusional on the part of Ferraro.
Go support Operation Turn DuPage Blue.
that you’re a few french fries short of a Happy Meal
This one is making the legal rounds and really is quite entertaining. It’s a clear case of CLM–career limiting move.
IL-3 Challenger
An actual Democrat gets in the race–and Kos covers it.
DCCC isn’t the worry–Madigan is. He’s the guy who has the ground troops to hold it and Pera or anyone else will have to figure out how to mobilize voters–it’s a good District for a Dem–Kerry carried it with 59 percent of the vote.
I like John Sullivan a lot, but he didn’t raise enough money to be competitive. Hopefully Pera can get some early cash.
Someone Needs An Intervention
HACKS, KOOKS & THE MERELY CLUELESS LINE UP TO TAKE ON JOHN LAESCH IN ILLINOIS’ 14TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT
Seriously, is anyone getting in that race actually taking on John Laesch? Or is he something of collateral damage from someone, anyone running a real campaign in the 14th?
a lack of preparation, organization, and a candidate who seemed committed to doing everything *but* what the candidate is supposed to do all contributed to laesch’s loss.
That’s probably too nice actually, but a fairly good summation of the problem.
I Needed a Drink–And I had Several
After reading this on vacation:
“The Defense Department, with Feith, Cambone, Wolfowitz [and] Rumsfeld, was dispatching a person to Taiwan every week, essentially to tell the Taiwanese that the alliance was back on,” Wilkerson said, referring to pre-1970s military and diplomatic relations, “essentially to tell Chen Shui-bian, whose entire power in Taiwan rested on the independence movement, that independence was a good thing.”
Wilkerson said Powell would then dispatch his own envoy “right behind that guy, every time they sent somebody, to disabuse the entire Taiwanese national security apparatus of what they’d been told by the Defense Department.”
“This went on,” he said of the pro-independence efforts, “until George Bush weighed in and told Rumsfeld to cease and desist [and] told him multiple times to re-establish military-to-military relations with China.”
Routine military ties had been suspended in early 2001 after China forced a U.S. reconnaissance plane down on Hainan Island off Vietnam.
I need another drink. Every time I think they cannot outdo themselves, they prove me wrong.