Skoien wins, but The Fight Continues
ArchPundit
Circle up and fire over at the Leader.
ICFST
OneMan and the Republican Party I Grew Up With
Most of the members of my family and my Mom’s side are pretty partisan Republicans, though socially moderate. One of the reasons I’m befuddled by the social conservatives trying to take over the Illinois Republican Party is that most of my values about inclusion come from Republicans. Oneman reminds me of those Republicans in the following statement:
The Trib talks about | The issue of gay marriage exposes hate and fear in the South: The article talks about the county that wanted to ‘Ban Gays’.
— Why do Christans freak out so much about this but do not freak out about other sins. No one ever talks about banning pre-marital sex or worshiping false idols. Heck no one even gets that upset about the rest of what is commanded in Leviticus .
Here is my free piece of Theology for today. God does not want you to hate anyone and God does not hate anyone. You are suposed to ‘Love thy neighbor’ and telling him he can’t live by you is not ‘Loving thy neighbor’.
I don’t know how Oneman feels about gay rights issues, but the world would be a far better place with that attitude and a better political place if we could get social conservatives in both parties to agree to it.
More DuPage Fighting
As I’ve often said, it is one thing to fight, it is another to pull the knives out and depress turnout because all you do is fight as a Party. Schillerstrom is getting attacked by the old line leaders in DuPage for a water deal the old line claims was payed off by supporting O’Hare expansion. The interesting note of the article may be good news though:
But state Sen. Kirk Dillard, DuPage GOP chairman, doubts the Water Commission dustup will hurt Mr. Schillerstrom: “By the time Chairman Schillerstrom runs for re-election or another office, most of this will be old history.”
Most likely Dillard and Schillerstrom will win in the long run–the question is what happens in the mean time.
(Crain’s article so getting in is funky, but possible)
More on Cook County Race
Carol Marin disects the Cook County Republican Chair race,
In the end, does any of this really matter?
Chicago Ald. Brian Doherty (41st) is the lone Republican on the City Council. What does the Cook County GOP do for him? “Not too much … it’s completely ineffective,” he claims. Still, he says, he’ll vote for Murphy over Peraica because he thinks she’s trying hard.
Which takes us back to Mike Feeley, who won’t be voting for Murphy. Like Doherty, Feeley is one of 80 Republican committeemen from Chicago and the suburbs who will pick the next chair of the Cook County GOP later this month.
Despite the indictment that hangs over his head, Feeley says he still takes his role as Republican committeeman seriously. He says in the last couple of days he has been pressured by unwanted calls from Murphy, her supporters and people he believes are close to Vrdolyak. He has told them to go away and leave him alone. He has decided to vote for Peraica. In doing so, he says what everybody seems to say about the Cook County Republican Party. “There’s nothing they can do for me.”
UPDATE: Mike reports in comments that Doherty can’t actually vote in the election since he is not Committeeman–Mike McCauliffe is. I’m guessing Dougherty said something to the effect that he was supporting Murphy and Marin mistook that as voting for him.
Ready, Fire, Aim In Cook County
But OneMan points out where it is really funny–the Illinois Leader. This is laugh out loud funny.
If this appeared in the Onion, we’d think it was over the top.
OneMan laments the Republicans taking each other out in public and has a good point. The one thing that the Leader could do is be a critic of corruption in the Party and work towards a united party. I wouldn’t make fun of that sort of move as a Circular Firing Squad. And sometimes it does this. Of course, the Leaderand many, many others don’t to that most of the time. Most of the time individuals trade charges and rant and create more divisions than they unite to fight what are problems in the current Illinois Republican Party. If you insist that everyone in your party is ideologically pure, you lose.
Wading Into The Leader Pool
This is a classic. If you are a political operative you are under no obligation to make yourself known on political web site discussion groups. In fact, it is kind of stupid.
Now that I’ve let 5 or 6 of you carry on your hate campaign against me. Here are the facts:
2/27/04- Kane County Conservative Coalition received $5000 from Family-PAC
3/1/04- Republicans for Simmons reported receiving $2500 from Jon Zahm personally. This was a number equivalent to money paid to me by the KCCC. It need not be reported until the semi-annual report.
3/1/04- Wiegand for State Representative Committee reports an in-kind contribution from Family-PAC/Goliath Slayer Communications for $2500 (salary for field services)
Now you know where the $5000 went. What is illegal? What is unethical? Where’s the scandal?
Keep grasping at straws. You’re making fools of yourselves.
Jon Zahm
Goliath Slayer
www.goliathslayers.com
Whether it is legal (and it probably is in Illinois minus specific evidence of a quid pro quo) it is a bad idea to even entertain such discussions about where is being funneled. The most important issue left out of the thread appears to be that John Zahm is the President of the Kane County Conservative Coalition. The practice is certainly unethical, though widespread through Democratic and Republican circles.
But giving Patrick Fitzgerald an easy tip off of something fishy on the internet is probably a bad idea. It isn’t as if picking off another Republican operative would be hard given the scope of the Ryan investigation.
UPDATE: For those not familiar with Zahm, I forgot to mention he is the guy who runs Family PAC too so it is even more humorous with that information.
Cook County Circular Firing Squad
Apparentltly the ICFST doesn’t have enough fights going on so the Cook County Republicans are having a bitter contest for Cook County Chair.
The great part is that the conservative wing isn’t happy with either candidate:
Others were less charitable. ?They (Murphy and Peraica) are equally worthless,? said Jack Roeser, President of the Carpentersville-based Family Taxpayers Network (FTN). ?The Cook County party is going nowhere until someone not appointed by (Republican National Committeeman) Bob Kjellander and Judy Baar is positioned to lead. As long as Kjellander and Topinka are around, no unity is possible.?
ICFST==Illinois Circular Firing Squad Team==Illinois Republican Party
Nuke ‘em Newcom Wins
Lee Newcom was running in the Republican Party for Recorder and beat his opponent Ruth Weber. Weber is reportedly a very nice woman, but probably not up for the job anymore.
However, Newcom is an ethical black hole.
He isn’t as colorful as the two morons who ran for McLean County Prosecutor and got in a fist fight, but he still shouldn’t be in office.
Many idiots have had positions in McLean County government–my own grandfather being one of them on the McLean County Board years ago. But do they keep having to find morons? Break the cycle.
ICFST–Hating the Moderates
ICFST==Illinois Circular Firing Squad Team==Illinois Republican Party
Corvax suggested another foray into the Illinois Leader forums and loe and behold, they are tearing apart Edgar.
It’s funny. How do you win an election when you label half the party as evil?
Other enlightening threads include questiong John Borling’s character. That is especially smarmy.
Potentially, the firestorm Rich Miller predicted is going to come from McKenna
–divorce issues for Ryan
–tax issues for Ryan
–further ties to health care providers who do abortions
ICFST: Civil War on the Air
A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand.
Remember to send your checks to Grover Norquist for his wonderful party building in Illinois. I can’t thank him enough. Turning the Republican Party into a circular firing squad couldn’t be more helpful to the Democratic Party in Illinois.
This week, pressure on Illinois’ Republican National Committeeman was turned up as ads featuring Bob Kjellander’s head munching his way through a PAC-Man maze began appearing on the internet and Illinois televisions.
The cartoon ads call the GOP national committeeman a “selfish, unethical election loser,” that pushed for a more “compliant Judy Baar-Topinka” to chair the party. The ads end by calling for Kjellander to be removed from office.
Not only are they seeking outright war at the state convention in May, they are backing at least two primary challenges to incumbents.
Give ’em some cash–it should help whomever wins the Senate Primary on the Democratic side.
Assignment Desk: Kass needs to ask the Empty Suit if he figured out who Kjellander is yet.