February 2008

News at 11

Tribune tries out another web site redesign.

What they seem to be missing is that everytime someone gets used to and comfortable with the new site design, they change it again. I’m guessing this whole thing is being evaluated by focus groups who sit there and give them a list of complaints about the organization and style and as the new layout is introduced they check them again ensuring great frustration ensues.

Here’s a hint.  Pick a style and leave it alone.

Of course, it does make it easier to decide to skip the endorsements and claim one cannot find them. I always wish I hadn’t found them after I read them.

Competence not Ideology

Given the Clinton campaign’s descent into bad 1988 Democratic campaigns, I’m finding some problems with their messaging.  Beyond the fact that it’s all about process at this point and not about what she would actually do other than adamantly talking about facts.

Let’s look at recent events…

Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign failed to file a full slate of convention delegate candidates for Pennsylvania’s April 22 primary.

This despite the possibility the primary proves critical and despite Clinton owning the full-throated support of Gov. Rendell, state Democratic Party leadership, Mayor Nutter and, presumably, the organizational skill all that entails.

And despite a Rendell-ordered extension of the filing deadline that could be viewed as more than just coincidental.

Texas Incompetence:

Supporters of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton are worried that convoluted delegate rules in Texas could water down the impact of strong support for her among Hispanic voters there, creating a new obstacle for her in the must-win presidential primary contest.

Several top Clinton strategists and fundraisers became alarmed after learning of the state’s unusual provisions during a closed-door strategy meeting this month, according to one person who attended.

What Clinton aides discovered is that in certain targeted districts, such as Democratic state Sen. Juan Hinojosa’s heavily Hispanic Senate district in the Rio Grande Valley, Clinton could win an overwhelming majority of votes but gain only a small edge in delegates. At the same time, a win in the more urban districts in Dallas and Houston — where Sen. Barack Obama expects to receive significant support — could yield three or four times as many delegates.

The entire reaction from Clinton’s campaign seems to be of the same line of who could have thought this would happen thinking that brought us Iraq.  Who could have known the nomination would be messy? Who could of known that a nation divided on ethnic lines could lead to a long civil war.  Who needed to prepare for the primary season to go on this long? Who needed to prepare for the rebuilding of Iraq since we’ll win the the war in a few weeks?

And if you point out the incompetence, you are the problem, not the people actually screwing up.

Clinton had been growing on me as a candidate for a while.  Not that I’d switch allegiances, but I could have been comfortable with her being the nominee.

But I’ve seen this play before and I didn’t like it the first time.

And so the drama continues in IL-14

Both men took off the gloves in the month before the primary, sending out negative mail pieces and taking out mud-slinging radio ads. Lauzen accused Oberweis of trying to buy his way into office. Oberweis questioned Lauzen’s judgment and accused him of being a “career politician,” casting Lauzen’s 15 years in the General Assembly in a negative light.

In the end, Oberweis won both the regular and special primary elections decisively. But while Lauzen has called Oberweis to concede, he has not publicly offered his support in the special election. In fact, in a letter to supporters sent last week, Lauzen criticized Oberweis for being willing to “say or do anything to get elected … no matter how personally destructive or untrue.”

Waiting for apologyIt’s ordinarily expected that the losing candidate in a primary election will come out publicly and support the winner. Lauzen said he is willing to help Oberweis, but wants an apology first.

“All I ask of Jim is to correct the record,” Lauzen said. “I’m not corrupt; I don’t buy people off. I’m happy to help as soon as he repairs the damage he’s done to my reputation.”

Lauzen mentioned a couple of specifics. During the campaign, Oberweis accused Lauzen of poor judgment for taking money from a company under investigation by the Illinois attorney general’s office. The company, International Profit Associates of Buffalo Grove, is also at the center of a massive federal sexual harassment lawsuit.

In December, Lauzen returned nearly $100,000 in contributions to International Profit Associates and its owner, John Burgess, but the Oberweis camp questioned why Lauzen took the money in the first place and compared him to several Democrats who had also taken IPA money, including Sen. Barack Obama and Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Additionally, the Oberweis camp was critical of Kane County Republican Chairman Dennis Wiggins for accepting a paid position with Lauzen’s campaign. Oberweis spokesman Bill Pascoe called for Wiggins’ resignation from the Kane Republicans, but Wiggins declined, choosing instead to take a leave of absence until after the primary election.

Pascoe accused Wiggins of “(selling) himself to the highest bidder,” a statement which upset both Lauzen and Wiggins.

“He attacked my integrity,” Wiggins said of Oberweis. “I’ve worked for the party for 45 years. He owes me a hell of an apology.”

SUE! SUE! SUE!

Seller Confirms Obama’s Version on House Purchase

Bloomberg:

Points Confirmed

Burton said a campaign adviser discussed the sale with Wondisford by phone and followed up with an e-mail to Wondisford repeating his points. Wondisford responded: “I confirm that the three points below are accurate,” according to the e-mail, provided to Bloomberg News and authenticated through records shown by the adviser.

The e-mail says that the sellers “did not offer or give the Obamas a `discount’ on the house price on the basis of or in relation to the price offered and accepted on the lot.” It also says that “in the course of the negotiation over the sales price,” Obama and his wife, Michelle, “made several offers until the one accepted at $1.65 million, and that this was the best offer you received on the house.”

Wondisford has declined to talk directly about the matter.

The Obamas submitted three bids: $1.3 million on Jan. 15, 2005; $1.5 million on Jan. 21; and $1.65 million on Jan. 23, according to a copy of the sale contract shown to Bloomberg News. Obama received more than $1.2 million in book royalties and a book advance in 2005, the year he was sworn in to the U.S. Senate, his financial disclosure statement shows.

The e-mail between Wondisford and the campaign adviser also says that the sellers had “stipulated that the closing dates for the two properties were to be the same.” In January 2006, Rita Rezko sold the Obamas one-sixth of the lot, for $104,500, to expand their yard. She later sold the rest of the land.

I’ve never printed Wondisford’s name up until now because of a presumption of privacy for the guy, but he is an endocrinologist at Johns Hopkins.  He moved there after being on staff at the University of Chicago’s Medical School faculty.

Also, if you look at the records in the Recorder of Deed’s web site, you will see he and his wife paid $1.65 million when they bought the house with the lot being around $400,000.

Barack Endorses and Does Commercial for Foster

Obama Says Bill Foster “Can Deliver Change”
Obama endorsement TV ad run in Illinois special election for Congress

(Geneva, IL) – The campaign of scientist and businessman Bill Foster announced that Democratic presidential candidate and Illinois favorite son Barack Obama has cut a broadcast TV ad stating that Foster can “deliver change” in Congress.

“Barack Obama and I stand together for change. We want our troops home safely and responsibly, not in Iraq for 10 years or 100 years. We want to invest in American jobs, not send American jobs to China. We want health care that costs less, not an end to employers paying for health care for their workers,” said Foster, a physicist who worked at Fermilab in Batavia for 20 years after starting a successful theater light company with his brother that has created hundreds of jobs in the Midwest.

The 30-second Obama endorsement spot is a positive ad that clearly establishes Foster as the change candidate in the special election to replace retired Congressman and former House Speaker Denny Hastert in Illinois’ 14th Congressional District.

The Aurora Beacon News reported yesterday that a Foster poll has the March 8 special election in a “dead heat,” with Foster leading 49-27% among Independents. The poll also showed that 41% of voters have a negative view of Foster’s opponent, Jim Oberweis, after years of running campaigns for office that have featured negative, personal attacks on his fellow Republicans — even using a fake headline to attack his opponents.

“Voters want a positive choice for change. Barack and I offer that kind of change and I am thrilled he has cut a TV ad for my campaign,” Foster said.

“it became necessary to destroy the town to save it”

Family Taxpayers Network is doing an especially fine job at setting up the Circular Firing Squad with a couple new pieces–the first from the primary:

Let?s have a little straight talk. The GOP brand suffered terrible damage during the six years between 2001 and 2006 due to the decision making of former Speaker Dennis Hastert and the influence of Presidential Advisor Karl Rove.

The list of failures is long. Run away spending, pork barrel projects, failure to achieve entitlement or tax reform, the Abramoff corruption scandal, the Foley gay sex scandal. Worst of all was the failure of Republicans from coast to coast to explain and defend the War in Iraq. We?ve written about Rove a lot (see examples here and here), and Hastert even more (examples here and here). The public?s attitude about the Republican Party is going to take several years to fix.

If Republicans are to win the White House in November we need to field a candidate that can 1) unite the party, and 2) appeal to independents. That?s a tall order, especially after this rancorous primary process. =========== Now, Republicans for Fair Media?s Dan Zanoza has raised the question about whether corruption-busting U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald would be kept on by a President Romney. For Illinois citizens concerned about political corruption, it?s a discussion worth having. Hastert never wanted Fitzgerald here in the first place, and Kjellander has already been named ?Individual K? by the U.S. Attorney?s office.

For years we?ve watched politicians profess their conservative views and then see almost no follow-through once they’re in office. They all rationalize and whine about what?s politically impossible. Few do the hard work of moving public opinion which is how things become politically possible! McCain the maverick has shown courage, albeit in sometimes in the wrong direction. Like Romney, McCain is moving right.

Like Romney, McCain enjoys the trust of solid conservatives. Unlike Romney, McCain can win the general election. We have regard for Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, but they?d be in a better position to make a case against McCain if the guy they supported was a genuine, long time conservative. They won?t trust McCain. More people can?t trust Romney. Romney has stood on both sides of almost every major issue during the past 14 years. While Newt Gingrich was engineering the take-over of Congress in 1994, Mitt was running to the left of Ted Kennedy in a U.S. Senate race. His tenure in office is a paltry four years in the far-left state of Massachusetts. His private sector experience is laudable, but not enough.

If we?re ever going to clean up the mess left from the Rove-Hastert years, we?re going to need a fighter who isn?t new to the battle. John McCain has what it takes to meet the enormous challenges ahead, and has earned the support of this conservative.

And then they go on the attack against Bill Brady again:

Every honest person who didn?t just fall off the turnip truck knows that Brady stayed in the 2006 Gubernatorial Primary to help spoil the race for Judy Baar Topinka?s benefit. That?s the oldest political dirty trick in the book. Every single poll showed that Brady would do no better than third place, but he didn?t care. In fact he never even attempted to lay a glove on his pal, the frontrunner Topinka during the entire campaign. That?s just unheard of in any serious race. Similarly, it?s tradition that the spoiler expects some payoff down the road like the ability to head-up a presidential campaign in the state.

Even in a losing campaign the state headmaster can increase his name I.D. and harvest contact information and e-mail addresses from unsuspecting supporters. Thompson himself obviously didn?t know any better. But he should have been more diligent.

Any person who wants to be President of the United States should be smart enough to realize that Illinois is a special case, with extraordinary dysfunction in its State GOP. The fact that Thompson obviously deferred to horrible advice from the locals was the first red flag that Fred wasn?t serious about this thing. Thompson failed an important first test.

The full scope of the absurdity of Thompson?s Illinois effort became clear when it was revealed that Nancy Kimmeand The Kjellander Curse recently claimed yet another victim. Kimme of course was Topinka?s top political operative, constant traveling companion, and also had the highest taxpayer-paid job for years in Topinka?s state office.

Many would say it was Kimme?s nastiness and inability to run a political campaign without state workers that eventually alienated most Republicans, and guaranteed Topinka?s eventual downfall. Similarly, Dudley has long been the poster person for The Problem. Our entire State Party remains an embarrassing morass largely so that incompetent hangers-on like this can keep selfishly extracting a pay check with a leg-up from some undeserved, rigged-up political title.

The second:

Nevertheless, on January 24th (two days after Thompson dropped out), Brady told political columnist Bernard Schoenberg of The State Journal-Register that he and others still want people to vote for them to go to the convention. Brady also related his real fantasy, Our position is this is likely to be a brokered convention. And by our position, Brady is surely referring to his old buddies like Bob Kjellander. The ludicrous idea of a brokered convention of course has always been the dream of the Kjellander wing.

Why leave the process of choosing our presidential nominee to those pesky Republican voters? Brady?s in bed with those old Illinois scoundrels who think the only problem with our State GOP Convention of 2004 was that the rigging-up wasn?t on a large enough scale. If we did somehow reach the September National Convention in Minneapolis with no Republican candidate having locked-up the nomination, then we would all deal with that scenario at that time. But no serious Republican HOPES for a brokered convention.

Any person who really cares about the GOP doesn?t root for the idea of taking a nomination from the ballot boxes to the back room. Only a person raised in the ooze of the old Illinois GOP would say such a thing. If Brady and Kjellander had their way, our National Republican Convention in September would be turned into a much larger version of the Illinois GOP cesspool. With Romney?s huge personal fortune to play with, who knows what kind of mischief guys like Kjellander could get into in Minneapolis.

The fact that Kjellander inexplicably remains the Vice-Chairman for the Committee on Arrangements for the National Convention would raise additional concerns. And let?s face it, some of these delegates are less than emotionally committed to their candidates. Some from places like Illinois are just old faces who wanted to glom-on somewhere. Some ran with candidates who clearly weren?t their first choices. We can imagine some of these old players selling-out and switching horses for less than the price of their hotel mini-bar tab. Fortunately, there is little reason to worry anymore. McCain is locking this thing up fair and square, on the campaign trail, in the primaries and caucuses.

Absent some unforeseen surprise, McCain will have the nomination sewn-up soon, and long before the National Convention in early September. And that?s a good thing. Guys like Brady and Kjellander obviously don?t care, but our Party and our nominee need to be able to focus on the Democrats as soon as possible not starting in September. This year is going to be difficult enough for Republicans as it is.

McCain needs these extra months to bring Clinton or Obama down to size. But Brady encouraged a course of action that only aided Clinton/Obama. For more proof, here is the plea Brady sent out by email to supporters on the evening of January 29th. This alone should seal the case for why Republicans must look elsewhere for a standard bearer in 2010. This e-mail is proof of a guy living in a bubble, a selfish dream world. Thompson delegates and supporters needed leadership and guidance after their candidate dropped out. But Brady failed to step-up, even on what should have been the simplest of decisions.

Only those pure may join….

Did I Say Nuclear in IL-14

Lauzen isn’t gonna play nice

At this stage the long struggle against what’s wrong in American politics, our grassroots volunteer efforts could not match the raw power of the third most powerful politician in the country when he endorsed our opponent who spent $3,000,000 (!) on top of $8,000,000 in earlier losing campaigns to say or do anything to get elected…no matter how personally destructive and untrue.

After 15 years of sacrifice and honest, competent public service and raising our family in broad public view, Sarah and I didn’t realize how bad we were until the last five months of our lives.  The only condition that changed was that we chose to run for Congress against an overly ambitious man ($11M) backed by the insder establishment status quo (Hastert, lobbyists, and highly-paid out-of-state political hatchet men). Oberweis says he’ll fix all of Washington, but it looks like all the same players to me!

Please sue someone, pretty please….