October 2007

Hastert to Resign Sometime

Via Rich:

He’s hanging around for a bit

From NBC’s Mike Viqueira
The halls of the Capitol are rife with reports of former Speaker Denny Hastert leaving Congress before the end of his term. These reports are only kind of true.

I just spoke with Hastert, who calls the reports a “rumor,” and that he has a lot of work still to do for Illinois on transportation, health care, energy, etc. Asked directly if he has plans to resign, he said: “Not at this time.” Some reports today had him announcing his plans as early as today. That definitely is not going to happen.

A GOP leadership source says that now the plan is for him to wait until the end of this year or early next to announce his departure. One consideration: the Illinois primary is February 5. If he announces too soon, then the special to replace him would be held that same day, with the state’s favorite son — Barack Obama — at the top of the ticket, which would work against the Republican candidate to replace Hastert down the ballot.

The source says that Hastert is “definitely going to resign,” but that it won’t happen be announced officially for a couple of months or so.

Incidentally, Hastert has lost about 60 pounds and looks like a completely different person.

Hastert to Retire Early

The Hill

Former Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) is expected to announce Thursday that he is resigning his seat in Congress effective later this year, eventually setting up a special election to succeed him, knowledgeable GOP sources said late Wednesday.

UPDATE: Blagojevich has to set the special in 115 days after Hastert’s last day.  That could move the Special to the February 5th primary with the special primary inbetween.  It’s going to go fast.

The Classics Revisited

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/Nst-aXvdrR4" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

And from defunk blog Polis, the definitive take on the commercial:

Those Oberweis copter commercials may be the funniest thing on tv these days (save Arrested Development). Forget the fact that his numbers are said to be way off, just having him spout off that anti-immigrant rhetoric over the noise of copter blades is high comedy. The only thing that would improve on this would be if he was flying over the Mexican border with a rifle picking off crossing illegals. “Even if I stay up here and shoot all day, I can’t make a dent out of the thousands who are stealing YOUR jobs!”

Morgenthaler Already Attacked

Desperation is in the air–though I’d still give the strong odds to Roskam in this race.

Morgenthaler in the IL-6 race gets hit with a faux positive mailer received by many in IL-6.

Download the file here–it’s jpg
The link goes to here

It appears to be a site that collects thoughts of soldiers serving and I’ll bet it has nothing to do with the mailer other than being the source for quotes taken out of context. I don’t know much about Morgenthaler yet and so I cannot really say much either way, but this is a clearly illegal since no such organization exists in FEC or even Illinois Board of Election records and it advocates the election of a federal candidate.

Check the Comments from Our New Friend on the East Coast

He’s very concerned that I’m on Pera’s payroll and very concerned about Jerry Hurckes. One might wonder what interest someone posting from the East Coast and in at least a couple cases, Baltimore has with the race, but I think we all know the answer to that, don’t we?

Here 

Here 

Here 

Here 

Here 

Here 

Here 

That’s 8 including this one–not 25.  But hey, paid trolls aren’t very smart.

How To Win Friends and Influence People

Reactions to endorsements are always an awkward thing, but three of the contenders for the Democratic nomination for Congress in IL-14 went out of their way to make just terrible responses to the Hynes endorsement of Bill Foster.

Stein, a Geneva attorney, called Foster a multi-millionaire like Republican candidate Jim Oberweis and said it’s no surprise that politicians would seek to curry favor with him.

Laesch, who ran and lost to Hastert last year, said he’s not chasing endorsements in Springfield or Washington, D.C.

“There are very few leaders in those places that I admire,” he said.

Serra, of Geneva, said he doubted the endorsements would factor into voters’ decisions.


“I don’t think the voters are paying attention,” he said. “People don’t pay attention to the primary.”

Then there is the classy, but effective attack on the opponent that Christine Cegelis used:

“I’ve always been told someone will vote for a candidate they have met and shaken hands with,” she said. “And let’s face it. I’m that candidate. Tammy has been in this district for what, two months? I’ve been running for more than two years,” Cegelis said.

Cegelis did three things–acknowledged Obama’s popularity, pointed towards her own strength, and pointed out the weakness of the other campaign having nothing to do with the endorser thus not making any enemies not already existing. It was classy at the same time tough.
Stein just told Dan Hynes he’s a money grubbing lackey to millionaires.

Laesch just told everyone that he thinks he’s smarter than everyone else and won’t be able to play well with others.

Serra just discounted the primary voters he’s trying to woo.

Can anyone play this game?

Dan Lipinski’s Political Office

Let’s reboot and figure out what is where in the 23rd Ward

5838 S. Archer

  • 23rd Ward Regular Democrats
  • Dan Lipinski’s Campaign Office
  • Blue Chip Consulting  is run by Bill Lipinski
  • All American Eagles state PAC run by Bill Lipinski
  • Molaro’s campaign operation
  • Zalewski’s campaign operation
  • Formerly held Molaro and Zalewski’s government office
  • Phelan’s Campaign in the past
  • A mortgage broker–Famulski
  • Archer Management manages  both 6245 S Archer and  5838 S. Archer by the name of Kris Famulski and exists at 5838
  • Rose Marie Lipinski is listed as her State of Illinois Court of Claims office as being there.
  • A Herbalife Distributor
  • formerly the Ramious Agency
  • G.M. Capital Group Ltd which does consulting and newsletters for the 23rd Ward and others

6245 S. Archer

  • Lipinski’s District Govt. Office
  • Friends of Molaro is listed once

6247 S. Archer

  • Friends of Mike Zalewski doing political work
  • Zalewski’s Aldermanic Office

Money flows pretty much constantly between the different entities at 5838 S. Archer.