June 2010

IL GOP Attacks Giannoulias for…Attacking Blagojevich?

ArchPundit June 29, 2010 0 Comment

In some ways It’s been nice seeing an Illinois GOP at least put up a fight instead of sending Andy McKenna around to whine.  However, it’s gotten a bit predictable:

Giannoulias Has Questions To Answer

“You have to be as transparent as possible and answer questions.” – Alexi Giannoulias, June 18, 2010

SEIU Official Tom Balanoff testified in federal court today that Alexi Giannoulias asked him to ask Rod Blagojevich about appointing him to Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat.

Union leader Tom Balanoff testifies to a couple of other discussions.

He says Alexi Giannoulias, a friend to then President-Elect Barack Obama, asked him to ask Blagojevich about a possible appointment for him.

In a Nov. 24th meeting, Balanoff raises the point.

Blagojevich bristled, he testified.

“That mother f—–, I wouldn’t do s— for him. Every chance he got he took a shot at me.”[1]

Balanoff’s sworn version of events directly contradicts at least three claims made by Alexi Giannoulias.

December 4, 2008: Alexi Giannoulias told the Chicago Tribune that Rod Blagojevich’s staff had reached out to him about a possible appointment to the vacant Senate seat.

Giannoulias also said that staff within Blagojevich’s office have “reached out” to him as a possible candidat to replace President-elect Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate, though a Blagojevich spokesman said the governor has not contacted Giannoulias directly.[2]

December 4, 2008: In the same interview, Giannoulias told the Chicago Tribune that he was not “pushing for the seat”

Giannoulias said he’s not pushing for the seat, but if it’s offered he’d have to take a “very, very hard look,” at the opportunity to work in Washington D.C. alongside his close friend Obama.[3]

December 12, 2008: Alexi Giannoulias said that he hadn’t “really thought about” Obama’s Senate seat.

Giannoulias, a Democrat, said he’s been busy sorting through the state’s financial woes following Tuesday’s arrest of Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

“I haven’t really thought about it to be honest with you,” he said during an appearance at Aurora University. “I’ve been focused on trying to do my job and trying to rebuild the public’s trust in us as elected officials.”[4]

There’s nothing suggesting Giannoulias is actually lying here.  It’s entirely possible some staffer did reach out to him–it’s pretty clear that Blagojevich’s staff had to act on it’s own given they had an insane man as their boss.  December 4th and 12th appear to be pro forma answers to the press about something you are unlikely to get, but wouldn’t mind taking.

What we do know?  Alexi blasted Blagojevich enough to piss him so that he wasn’t go to be considered regardless of what he wanted which kind of blows a hole in the theory that they were in lockstep as the Illinois GOP keeps claiming.  Hell, Blagojevich may have hated Alexi almost as much as he hated Quinn and Jackson Jr.   What’s odd is that Alexi ran against Madigan’s candidate, won, and is now tarred as part of the Illinois Democratic machine.  I understand why Republicans make the argument, I don’t know why the press doesn’t laugh at them.  Alexi had no real allies in Springfield.  His two biggest allies are generally Durbin and Obama.

More seriously, there are two big issues the GOP has taken Giannoulias to task on that are legitimate.  The first is the Bright Start where one of the funds took a huge loss based on a bad operator.  Giannoulias and the state were able to reach a settlement where between 50 – 55 percent of the investment were returned to investors.  That’s not something to tout, but it’s also not the worst outcome and Giannoulias was the first to figure out the fraud amongst states involved in the fund.

The second is his family’s bank.  It’s legitimate and fair to point out the bank failed and Alexi has long touted it as experience. What’s weird are the zombie lies keep getting brought up about loaning money to the mob.  These were originally dug up by Madigan’s team (and everyone in the press seems to have forgotten that) and ultimately they amount to legal loans were made to some people who turned out to be unsavory, but also had loans at larger more established banks.

What all of this does do, though, is keep Mark Kirk from having to address his actual political beliefs that seem to change with the audience.

An Insanity Defense Would Probably Work

ArchPundit June 29, 2010 0 Comment

You always hear stories about how Blagojevich had no attention span so his staff just ignored him most of the time, but wow:

In the latest recording played at Rod Blagojevich’s trial, a breathless former governor can be heard pumping iron as he discusses his newest idea for Illinois’ next U.S. Senator: Oprah Winfrey.

“I think that’s, that’s crazy,” says then-chief of staff John Harris in the Nov. 21, 2008, secretly-recorded call.

“That’s where you’re wrong,” the then-governor says. “She’s the kingmaker. She made Obama. We know she’s a Democrat. We know she’s for Obama. … This one, she’s so up there, so high, that nobody can assail this pick. This would be huge.”

In reasoning for Winfrey, Blagojevich says he wants to make history by naming the first African American female U.S. senator — apparently forgetting that distinction went to Carol Moseley Braun, an African American from Illinois who was elected in 1992.

“The odds of her actually taking it are f—— slim to none. Who’s going to complain about it?” Blagojevich said. “It’s going to be huge.”

“It would certainly be way out there,” Harris answers.

=================

Blagojevich at one point suggests Harris find various African American candidates.

“Maybe a black Albert Einstein,” Blagojevich said.

At that, one African American juror gently shook her head.

Jesse Jackson Jr. resurfaced in the discussion with Blagojevich referring to the U.S. congressman as an “uber-African American.”

The same juror laughed quietly and placed a hand over her mouth to suppress laughter. The female juror beside her flashed a knowing smile.

Another female juror smiled at her transcript when Blagojevich suggested a Mother Teresa-type should be appointed.

Blagojevich on the call is insistent they “bolster the list” of potential candidates — even if it means looking outside of Illinois.

“I mean Arnold Schwarzenegger, you know what I’m saying?” Blagojevich tells Harris. “Tammy Duckworth is not from Illinois. Obama is not from Illinois”

Harris explains that Obama was an actual Illinois citizen before running for office.

“Picking somebody outside of Illinois has a whole host of problems,” Harris tells him. “[They’ll say], ‘There are 13 million residents [in Illinois], Rod hates them all.’”

Mr. Burge, Your Seat Is Ready

ArchPundit June 29, 2010 0 Comment

In hell.

Devastating Critique of Research 2000

ArchPundit June 29, 2010 0 Comment

Markos prints a critique of Research 2000’s polling that is stunning. I was reading through it and this is where I knew pretty much all I needed to, though the authors make the case in great detail:

Were the results in our little table a fluke? The R2K weekly polls report 778 M-F pairs. For their favorable ratings (Fav), the even-odd property matched 776 times. For unfavorable (Unf)  there were 777 matches.

A Fool And His Money

ArchPundit June 29, 2010 0 Comment

Breitbart is offering $100,000 for the full archive of the Journolist.

I’ve had $100,000 burning in my pocket for the last three months and I’d really like to spend it on a worthy cause. So how about this: in the interests of journalistic transparency, and to offer the American public a unique insight in the workings of the Democrat-Media Complex, I’m offering $100,000 for the full “JournoList” archive, source fully protected. Now there’s an offer somebody can’t refuse.

Yes, the mainstream media that came together to play up the false allegations that the “N-Word” was hurled 15 times by Tea Party participants at the Congressional Black Caucus outside the Capitol the day before the “Obamacare” vote, is the same MSM that colluded to make sure the American public accepted the smear, and refused to show the exculpatory videos that disproved the incendiary charges of Tea Party racism.

Ezra Klein’s “JournoList 400” is the epitome of progressive and liberal collusion that conservatives, Tea Partiers, moderates and many independents have long suspected and feared exists at the heart of contemporary American political journalism. Now that collusion has been exposed when one of the weakest links in that cabal, Dave Weigel, was outed. Weigel was, in all likelihood, exposed because – to whoever the rat was who leaked his emails — he wasn’t liberal enough.

===

Dave Weigel is a portal into the dark world of hardcore liberal bias in the media. This opening gives us a deeper insight into the insidious relationship between liberal think tanks, academics and their mouthpieces in the media…

Frankly, Ezra ought to take the $100,000 given most of it is probably useless given my take on most listservs that serve similar purposes for slightly different audiences.  The odd part of it to me is that all sorts of different groups have political listservs including conservatives yet somehow the coke addled mind of Breitbart seems to see this as some sort of deep dark conspiracy.  Then again, paranoia is a common side effect of narcotics dependency.

Fine Moments in Blagojevichland

ArchPundit June 29, 2010 0 Comment

Tom Balanoff’s testimony regarding the Senate Seat:

Blagojevich responded that he was in “active discussions” with the Madigans about appointing Lisa Madigan and was holding out for a legislative package with the House speaker.

“I said that could be months. He said, ‘Yeah’. I said Valerie Jarrett, I don’t believe she has that kind of time,” Balanoff testified.

Blago then turned the conversation to a cabinet position, Balanoff said.

“He said, ‘You know, I love being governor, but my real passion is health care,'” and then he asked about the Health and Human Services cabinet post.

“I told him that’s not going to happen,” Balanoff said. “He said, “Is that because of all the investigations around me?”

The next day, Balanoff said he reported back about the meeting to Valerie Jarrett and Alexi Giannoulis

“Is that because of all the investigations around me?”

Well, that and, you know, you are an idiot.

On a related note, let’s recall that David Hoffman attacked Alexi for ‘being connected’ to SEIU and all the bad stuff they were involved with Blagojevich over.   That was bullshit then and it’s bullshit now.  Hoffman defamed Balanoff and SEIU who were guilty of nothing other than some poor judgment in sticking with Blagojevich in 2006.  Attacking your base and allies is no way to win an election.  Worse in this case, it was dishonest.

Do I Understand Correctly that Stufflebeam Will Be On the November Ballot?

ArchPundit June 29, 2010 0 Comment

Randall Stufflebeam of the Illinois Constitution Party appears to have no challenges to his petitions to be placed on the ballot for US Senate.  He had only 34,000 signatures with a needed 25,000 signatures meaning it was pretty unlikely he would survive a challenge. If this works as it seems to be working out, Mark Kirk’s people made a major mistake in not knocking him off the ballot.

The reason it is so important is that Stufflebeam is pro-life and given a pro-life alternative on the ballot, many conservatives may vote for him over Kirk. While third party effects are usually exaggerated, the pro-life community has a rather extensive network to push out his name for the general election.  Compare this to the Green Candidate who might pick up some African-American votes hurting Giannoulias, but has little organization to do so.

I Wasn’t Thinking

ArchPundit June 29, 2010 0 Comment

Okay, I’m especially pissed after I gave him some leeway on the issue of being a pre-school teacher and he turned out not to be, so take this as someone who feels a bit taken…

He had to be thinking to make up some of this..

On embellishments:
“I wasn’t thinking.”

On his teaching career — did he misspeak?
Doesn’t agree that he did. Says he was referring to high school kids at his school.

Well, no, he was thinking and he was making stuff up. To a certain point this press conference will reduce the heat on him, but if more comes out–as any smart oppo team would hold back some for after he has the mea culpa, this will all start to come back and come back harder.

Mike Wilson Goes Folk on Brady

ArchPundit June 29, 2010 0 Comment

It’s good stuff.

The Crazy Emerges

ArchPundit June 29, 2010 0 Comment

Crazy people make blogging fun.  We have our own Orly Tai(n)tz here in Illinois—Sharon Meloni.   She’s objecting to multiple candidates’ filings because there is no proof of their citizenship. To support the argument she says:

The objection is based on the fact that there is no evidence that any of the candidates fit US and Illinois Constitutional mandates of age and citizenship requirements.  For the most part, the age of a candidate is generally easy to discern.  Citizenship status is not.  Recent changes in HIPPA privacy laws prohibit the public access to records establishing citizenship status. As a consequence, a potential candidate can run for office without ever proving citizenship status.

Of course, she’s referring to HIPAA not HIPPA and that has nothing to do with public access to citizenship documents.   Proof of citizenship is done through a US Passport, a US Birth Certificate, a Naturalized certificate, or some report of foreign birth to US Citizen parents.  None of these are restricted by HIPAA–they are restricted by state and national laws to protect privacy.   There’s nothing recent about the changes to such documents, they have been that way for years.  HIPAA is concerned with privacy rights to your medical records which is an entirely different issue.

This woman is batshit crazy and making crap up.