Daily Reminder–new material below.
Funny, I seem to remember Weller being excited about using his upcoming marriage for political gain before he got slapped around for marrying the right hand aid of a murderous dictator–who is also the murderous dictator’s daughter.
But no more according the Pantagraph:
A few months back, he also was pretty eager to announce his pending marriage to a Guatemalan congresswoman. He rounded up family and friends for an announcement in his hometown of Morris and even sent out a press release, complete with a biography of his fiancee.
Last week, we had the rare opportunity to chat with the incumbent Republican, who is facing a challenge Nov. 2 from Democrat Tari Renner of Bloomington.
At the end of the interview, which focused on Weller’s work as a congressman, we asked Weller if he and Zury Rios Sosa had set a date for their wedding.
“I wouldn’t tell you if we did,” Weller responded. “You guys in the news media would make a circus out of it and ruin it for us.”
As it turns out, The Pantagraph news chopper is out of service this year and we won’t be buzzing the treetops of some swanky private resort hoping to get exclusive footage of the ceremony, including the part where the bride’s father, a former dictator of Guatemala, hands her off at the altar.
Weller was then asked if he and his fiancee had picked a location for the wedding.
“I don’t know. We’ll see,” Weller said. “Maybe it will be on a beach in Bali. My marriage is a deeply personal matter.”
Guess we’ll just wait for a press release to tell us when the deed is done.
Mr. Weller is petty too:
Here’s an excerpt from one instance:
“I was shocked and could not believe the vicious personal attacks that the college professor made on my fiancee,” Weller said. “The professor owes my fiancee a personal apology.”
We interrupted and asked Weller why he only refers to Renner as “the college professor.”
“That’s what he does,” Weller responded. “I’m a congressman. That’s his job title.”
It could be worse. Weller could be calling Renner something worse … like “politician.”
And for the daily reminder:
Top Renner aides are hoping for a repeat of 2000, when Democrat Mike Kelleher raked in nearly $200,000 from the national party in the closing days of his campaign against Tim Johnson in Illinois’ 15th Congressional District.
Insiders say the added money is a possibility because their internal polls show Weller has not put much distance between himself and his challenger despite spending large sums on advertising.
“He should be blowing us out of the water,” one Renner staffer remarked.
For Renner to have a realistic chance, Democrats in the 11th District are going to have to come out in droves.
And so, help the DCCC have enough money to do exactly that. In the other race, I’m behind Liberal Oasis, but you all have been amazing. Liberal Oasis and ArchPundit have raised over $5,000. Let’s improve that and reward and encourage the DCCC to get in this race and continue in others.
ArchPundit sits at $2250, let’s give Liberal Oasis a run for the money.
You can also visit Tari’s campaign by clicking on the ad at the right.
And more on DeLay in the Extended
The Pantagraph admirably takes on DeLay
In 1989, Gingrich defeated an easy-going, gentleman legislator — Ed Madigan — to win the job as Republican whip. Madigan, a Lincoln Republican who was respected throughout the Illinois Legislature where he had served for years and on Capitol Hill for his years as a U.S. representative, was edged out of the race largely because Republicans thought Gingrich’s aggressiveness would help them regain control of the House after years under a Democratic majority.
What, of course, the Pantagraph leaves out is that DeLay ran Madigan’s campaign for Party Whip!