Since I’m on a Roll
ArchPundit
Capitol Fax points out that Jerry has no record
Illinois Congressional Races
Oh, And Jerry
Shave. The Don Johnson shadow is out.
Beating Up 75 Year Olds
Via Capitol Fax
Class act, that Jerry Weller. Maybe he’s learned a few things from the fiance and soon-to-be-father-in-law.
Yeah, I’m shrill. It takes a lot of guts to accuse someone of being pro-drug legalization and then say your fiancee’s father and political ally is off-limits even though that father is a big reason narcotrafficking is big business in Central America and leading to a weakening of the judicial system down there. Then to push people around because you are too important?
Who the hell is this clown?
I’m hypercritical of Bloomington-Normal for a variety of good reasons, but one thing growing up there taught me was basic manners. Too bad Weller didn’t pick that up as part of the redistricting.
Mr. Weller is Concerned about Drug Legalization?
That would be a conflict of interest, good Congressman, as your soon to be father-in-law has an interest in keeping drugs illegal so he can cozy up to mobsters and drug traffickers:
Mr. Berger or Mr. Colom to strengthen U.S.-Guatemala relations”.
For Washington, Rios Montt’s main drawback was his 18-month tenure as president after he seized power in a military coup d’etat against another general, Romeo Lucas Garcia, in 1982.
During his presidency, a counter-insurgency campaign against leftist guerrillas, which a United Nations commission later labelled ”genocidal”, reached its height.
While death squads worked freely in the major cities, several hundred Mayan villages were razed to the ground and thousands of people massacred by both the army and army-directed self-defence units, especially in the country’s central highlands.
At least 200,000 people were killed in a 30-year civil war that ended with the 1996 peace accords.
Despite that record, Rios Montt was embraced by former president Ronald Reagan who, in a memorable turn of phrase, assailed human-rights criticisms of his rule as a ”bum rap” when he visited Guatemala in 1982.
In more recent years, Rios Montt, who was disqualified by the Supreme Court twice in the 1990s from running for president due to his role in the 1982 military coup, led the Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG).
In that capacity, he served most recently as president of the Congress, and was widely seen as the power behind retiring President Alfonso Portillo.
In addition to his human-rights record, Washington was also concerned about Rios Montt’s ties to drug-trafficking and organised crime, whose influence, according to some U.S. officials, is unprecedented in Central America, at least since the rule of Panama’s Manuel Antonio Noriega, who has been serving time in federal prison since the U.S. invasion of his country in 1989.
If Weller wants to dispute this, then he can drive up 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and talk to the current inhabitant whose administration is the one that said it.
Drug War Rant has offered up a reply to the argument that a group endorsed Renner who favors legalization. In fact, Drug War Rant is a blog run by one guy. I happen to disagree on legalization, though I do feel a medical approach to drug abuse would be far more productive than a criminal approach.
Of course, that might hurt the soon to be father-in-laws backers.
Put Up or Shut Up
Pulling out the big guns–I’ve added a new picture of the girls because I hear it is pulling at heartstrings. How can you resist. Let’s shoot for at least $200 more before 7 PM (let’s face it my readers will be watching the debate).
Liberal Oasis and I have issued our final fundraising pleas for the Majority Makers contest put on by the DCCC.
For the last few months, I’ve tried to cover the three race in Illinois in some detail and I hope I have been at least a central place to find information. But today is one week out and it’s now or never. Currently, the Republicans are protecting a corrupt Majority Leader in the House of Representatives:
Tom DeLay, whom Roy Blunt serves under and presumably so will Matt given DeLay’s forays into state politics, has been admonished for three different actions including
1) “raising concerns of “using governmental resources for a political undertaking” for asking the Federal Aviation Administration to track the missing Texas House Democrats in May of 2003″
2) “creating the “appearance of impropriety under House standards of conduct” for holding an energy interest fundraiser while crucial energy legislation was pending before a congressional conference committee”
3) “. Last week featured another letter of “admonition” for the Bug Man from the House ethics committee, following close behind an earlier one in response to his strong-arming the Medicare vote last November”
But deferred is the juciest bit to come:
The committee deferred action on the most serious charge ? that the Sugar Land Republican had used the Texans for a Republican Majority PAC to “‘funnel’ corporate funds to Texas state campaigns in 2002” in violation of Texas law ? pending the outcome of the ongoing TRMPAC criminal investigation in Travis County. There was news this week on that front as well, as the TRMPAC players Jim Ellis, John Colyandro, and Warren RoBold took their first perp walk in an Austin courtroom, amidst more published reports that when they were working campaign donors, the group might as well have been called “TOMPAC.” And there is also the little matter of a congressional (and potentially criminal) investigation of DeLay associates Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon, who apparently traded on their connections with the majority leader to scam six Indian tribes (including the El Paso Tiguas) to the tune of $66 million.
To make matters worse, DeLay is claiming he was exhonerated and threatened a Republican on the Ethics Committee.
Remember to donate to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to ensure that Tom DeLay won’t be Majority Leader again. So far, I’ve raised $2275 from readers and friends. Donate $25 or what you can whether it be $10 or more. Contest ends at 8 PM Central Time.
Cegelis Debate Watching Parties
They’ll be watching the debate at these events.
Monday, November 1, at 7:00 PM, at the Bloomindale Public Library, 101 Fairfield Lane, Bloomingdale (just east of Bloomindale Road, about a mile south of Lake Street).
Thursday, October 28th from 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm at 900 North Franklin Street, Suite 401, Chicago, IL 60610.
When you enter the building, take the elevator to the 5th floor and proceed to the atrium. Free parking in a lot directly behind the building facing Orleans St. For further information call (847) 797-8317 or the host (Andrew Gerhardt) at (630) 212-8475.
Fine Quotes of Hyde from the Debate
Henry Hyde on Fiscal Responsibility
?We have to restrain federal spending. I must say that the Congress does not know how to say no and we have to learn how to say no, so that?s very important.?
[30 years was not enough to learn how to say no?]
Henry Hyde on Energy Independence
?We haven?t built a refinery in 20 years. We need refineries and pipelines as well as sources for petroleum.?
Henry Hyde?s Bipartisan Spirit
?You?ll never get tort reform out of the Democrats, because trial lawyers are one of the biggest supporters of that party?
Henry Hyde on Increasing Jobs
?The jobs may be there but the trained people are not, so give more money to junior colleges targeting or training for these jobs.?
[We are losing jobs because we have no trained workers?]
Henry Hyde on Campaign Finance Reform
?As far as I?m concerned you?ll never get money out of politics because money is advocacy, it buys speech.?
Henry Hyde on School Funding
?Illinois got so much funding last year that they turned back 2 million dollars, they couldn?t think of how to spend it ? There are people, school districts are sitting on money, they can?t spend it, so its very well funded.?
[Schools returned No Child Left Behind (NCLB) funds after they realized that the amount they got was far less than what they would need to comply with the NCLB regulations.]
Henry Hyde on Social Security
?There are six different bills pending in congress now to revise social security, I don?t know how that?s going to work [?] as to privatizing part of it, I wouldn?t rule that out but I don?t see much support for that because as Christine said the stock market has not been a tower of strength?
Henry Hyde on the Trade Deficit
?I don?t have a cure other than to, for us to sell more than we buy and we ought to be careful about what we buy, buy American.?
Henry Hyde on the Flu Vaccine Shortage
?Well I don?t know how you can control a circumstance where a large portion of the vaccine was tainted, it would take a magician would handle that situation. They?ve done the best they can.?
Henry Hyde on Minorities in the Armed Services
?On the draft, I just want to comment briefly I don?t quite understand the point about the minorities, it?s a volunteer service, nobody is dragooned into serving?
[His Response after Cegelis noted that a disproportionate amount of our soldiers are minorities.]
Henry Hyde on Foreign Relations
?Public diplomacy [is] the selling of America. This country created Madison Avenue and the advertising industry but we can?t sell young Arabs around the world that America is a good country and that they should help support it??
Henry Hyde on Why He Should Be Re-elected
?I am getting along in years I am not the kid I used to be. Maybe I?ve lost a step or two, I?ll be the first one to admit that, but I will say there are tradeoffs and one of them is experience, another one is judgment and the other one is influence [?]I think my judgment has been proven to be sound.?
[$80 million spent investigating Bill Clinton vs. $15 million spent investigating 9/11 ? an example of good judgment?]
And last but not least ?.
Henry Hyde on How He Spends His Time in Washington
?There?s a lot to do in Washington these days, homeland security needs attention and oversight, our relationships with other countries, the prime ministers, the defense ministers, the foreign ministers of most every country come and visit me in my office, some of them leave little presents. I?m going to have an auction sale one day, I don?t know what to do with them all but they?re there.?
Clean Sweep: Daily Herald Endorses Bean
Unfortunately, Crane has built another solid reputation in Congress that clearly is not admirable: That of a show horse, not a workhorse. After 35 years in office, he has accomplished little of significance.
Consider some of his Republican congressional colleagues from Chicago’s suburbs who became national figures. In less time in office, Dennis Hastert became Speaker of the House. Henry Hyde rose to chair the House Judiciary Committee that conducted the impeachment hearings of President Clinton.
Crane? His national claim to fame came in being unceremoniously rejected by his own party for the chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee. Crane’s tenure should have secured that powerful position, but his track record of nonperformance lost it.
Ouch.
By all accounts, it is a close race, and we enthusiastically endorse Bean as the candidate who will work hardest on behalf of the district and the candidate who best reflects the views of its residents.
Promotions as Tired as the Candidate
Bean’s campaign has handed out seat cushions labeled with Crane’s name, suggesting he has done little over the last 3-1/2 decades besides warm a chair in Congress. She’s blasted him for taking frequent trips — with expenses usually picked up by special interest groups — to vacation resorts in the United States and overseas. A series of postcards sent by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee label Crane the “junket king” and feature caricatures of him in Scotland, Antigua and Costa Rica.
Crane has returned fire, with his campaign recently handing out flip-flops to highlight what Crane says is Bean’s waffling on her support for tax cuts. He has blasted her for living just outside the district — thanks to the 2000 remap that changed the district’s boundaries — suggesting “that’s why she’s out of touch with the voters here.”
The best the Crane team could do was flip flops?That’s about as tired as Crane
Weller Poll
We now have two partisan polls fighting it out
A Public Opinion Stratgies (R) poll; conducted 10/20-21 and 23 for Rep. Jerry Weller (R); surveyed 400 likely voters; margin of error +/-4.9% (release, 10/25). Tested: Weller and professor Tari Renner (D).
General Election Matchup
Now
Weller 55%
Renner 27
Undec. 15
It’s impossible to gauge such polls, but the hard part to believe in this one is that Renner hasn’t moved in the past two months. That’s not right. Does it mean that Renner was as close as his last poll? Not necessarily, but Weller is at 49% favorability-just barely under 50%. Renner has to run the table, so help him out.