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Vallas a Republican

ArchPundit August 25, 2008 No Comments

Errr…

It was in this column three weeks ago that I reported something Daley, House Speaker Michael Madigan, County Board President Todd Stroger and a whole host of ward bosses hate to think about.

Vallas, who back in 2001 resigned after differences with Daley, is considering something, well, drastic.

He is considering running for president of the patronage and contract rich Cook County Board as — brace yourself — a Republican.

“Paul has a lot of options,” his brother and adviser Dean Vallas said at the time.

“We would certainly welcome any Democrat,” said Illinois GOP Chairman Andy McKenna by phone Sunday. “We certainly respect Paul Vallas. … He has demonstrated he knows how to administer a complex governmental entity.”

The state Republican Party, which has been almost as big a mess as Stroger’s Cook County government, needs a messiah. A uniter. A vote-getter. A maverick.

Though neither McKenna nor Vallas confirm there is something in the works, trust me, there is.

And the raw political fact of the matter is that Vallas could win.

Cook County residents are so fed up with having the highest tax rate in the nation, so disgusted with Stroger’s family and friends feeding at the public trough, and so sick of inheritance politics where the father’s job is passed on to the son regardless of qualifications.

This could be the time for a revolt.

Or it could just be time for Vallas to end any chance for a career in Illinois politics.  It’s one thing to say that the conditions might be right for a revolt, but it’s important to remember a poorly funded candidate who ran a crappy campaign.  Beyond that, it assumes that the winner of the primary will be Stroger which I don’t think is a safe bet at all.  Running against a Dem who isn’t Stroger would just make him look foolish.

Barack’s Walking A Fine Line

ArchPundit August 25, 2008 No Comments

Criticizing Cubs fans:

“You go to Wrigley Field, you have a beer, beautiful people up there,” Obama said, according to transcripts released by ESPN. “People aren’t watching the game. It’s not serious. White Sox, that’s baseball.”

Okay, usually games are getting ruined at Wrigley by drunk dumbasses who don’t know the game. Not the time to bring it up thoguh

The Tribune: The New Sun-Times

ArchPundit August 25, 2008 No Comments

Before the Sun-Times got better.
Seriously? The Red-Eye editor?

Oh, and the worst news:

James Warren, managing editor/features, will leave the paper, completing a management exodus that has largely rewritten the Tribune’s masthead in the eight months since real estate magnate Sam Zell took the paper’s parent company private in a debt-heavy $8.2 billion buyout.

Warren is a top notch reporter and editor–Keith Olbermann mentioned his impending departure on Friday.  Just consider Zell the new Alien (AKA Murdoch).

I Demand Illinois NOW Pull It’s Collective Head out of Its Ass

ArchPundit August 25, 2008 No Comments

About as effective as their call on Emil Jones to step down.

It didn’t sound like Jones, and now that we know Grabenhofer is part of the fiasco, there’s no reason Emil is even being bothered with this.  You might remember Grabenhofer as the one who doesn’t even know who else voted like Obama on abortion bills, claims Illinois NOW didn’t endorse him because of it, but cannot explain why the endorsed Lisa Madigan who did the same thing. Update:  As Rich points out, it does sound like Jones, actually, I’m just not sure it deserves this kind of coverage.  That said, I’m not sure why it’s getting as much attention as our Governor trying tear apart the Illinois Constitution.

“That was a pretty horrible comment,” said Illinois NOW president Bonnie Grabenhofer, also a Clinton delegate, who issued the demand for Senate President Emil Jones’ resignation.

Feminists who make up the Illinois Clinton delegate contingent at the Democratic National Convention were outraged to learn of today’s exclusive Chicago Sun-Times report about Clinton delegate Delmarie Cobb’s accusation that Jones directed the racially loaded slur at her.

The flap comes at a particularly sensitive time for the Obama campaign, which is slumping in national polls and has struggled to bring Clinton delegates across the country into the fold.

“I’ve never heard anything as awful or as sexist or as racist as to call her that for supporting Hillary,” said Clinton delegate Gay Bruhn, another NOW member in Illinois who called for a public apology from Jones.

What is missing is that Bruhn isn’t just another NOW member, she’s Bonnie’s partner. That would be mentioned in any story referring to a heterosexual couple.  So the story misses the context and treats same sex couples differently.

Governor Jackass Continues General Jackassery

ArchPundit August 25, 2008 No Comments

Transparent:

Blagojevich said he will use his amendatory veto power to re-write the legislation to include restrictions on legislative pay raises and lawmakers who have more than one job. At the same time, he signed an executive order that includes the fundraising restrictions in the bill lawmakers sent him. The order, which takes effect in January, also adds restrictions on lawmakers’ fundraising.

“By using the executive order and by applying it to all of us we will have taken the bill that was passed by the legislature and made it better, make it stronger and make it more meaningful and widespread,” Blagojevich said at an afternoon news conference.

The bill, which passed both chambers of the state legislature with overwhelming majorities in May, sought to prohibit supporters who have or want major state contracts worth at least $50,000 from giving to the statewide elected officials who dole out that business.

The governor has said the bill doesn’t go far enough, but critics – including some good government leaders who helped pen the bill — have questioned the governor’s motives. They’ve said the legislation is the best chance to change Illinois’ infamous pay-to-play system of politics.

Utter Bullshit:

“I have waited more than three years to get the Illinois General Assembly to send me a vehicle that I could act on that would reform a system that takes care of itself at the expense of the people,” Blagojevich said in a statement. “We are long overdue for laws that place restrictions on campaign contributions, end the tradition of legislator double dipping, shine a light on legislative pay raises and strengthen disclosure laws.

I’m not sure it even matters if he’s overridden because I think there is a serious question in the courts whether this would even be germane to each other and thus be a different subject–which is limited by the State Constitution.  Moving from campaign finance to salary votes may well not be germane in which case it would be invalidated.

But I doubt we even get there.  His attack on ‘double-dipping’ where those who work for state or city governments and are Lege Members will kill the bill if the amendatory veto isn’t simply overridden.

Now we’ll get the Blagojevich bleating about how the Lege is killing off real reform and how he is taking on the the real powers and how he is the only one who isn’t corrupt all the while he’s laughing because he thinks he has outsmarted everyone else.

The problem?  Emil might have his back, but Halvorson needs this bill to go through and all the better if she gets to give the Governor a whole bunch of hell about it.  They will override his veto instead of killing the bill.  Emil views Blagojevich as a useful tool to fight Madigan, but he’s not putting Halvorson at risk to save the Governor’s sorry ass one more time.

Fritchey only slightly off:

I’m guessing that you AV the bill while everybody is focused on the Democratic Convention, while most of the major political reporters who are familiar with the story are half a country away, and while stories of Barack’s nomination are taking up most of the media space. I’ll even predict a Thursday or even Friday announcement of his action, so as to provide for maximum story burial potential, under the shadow of Barack’s acceptance speech.

Fritchey and Hynes have been pushing this bill for months, but the Governor has sat on his ass ignoring it the entire time. All of sudden, he has decided he will improve it after ignoring those who put it togther.

And notice, even out of his frustration, Fritchey is willing to put forward the Governor’s proposals, just as separate bills.

Giannoulis Blogging

ArchPundit August 25, 2008 No Comments

Over at Prairie State Blue.

I am also blessed to be able to address the convention tonight.  Yesterday I went straight from the airport to the convention center for rehearsal.  I had already provided the DNC with my speech and they had it loaded into the teleprompter so that we could rehearse.  We were able to fine tune it a little bit from the podium and I’m pretty excited about how it turned out.  I should be speaking tonight between 6:30pm and 7:00pm central time.

Okay, That’s Enough

ArchPundit August 22, 2008 No Comments

Announce it you bastards!

It’s Gephardt

ArchPundit August 21, 2008 No Comments

Less than 48 Hours for Obama to Name Gore His VP

ArchPundit August 21, 2008 No Comments

Or Not.

LOL.

Today’s Tosser: Illinois Review

ArchPundit August 20, 2008 No Comments

If you are really bad at math, you scream about the manliness of your opponent apparently:

The 14th CD’s newly-elected U.S. Congressman Bill Foster is among a group of Democrats’ who’ve been taunting constituents by saying they’re “re-considering” their position on offshore drilling.  Today, House Minority Leader John Boehner challenged the 22 swishy Dems in a letter to “put up or shut up” on the issue.

So the 200,000  barrels a day are going to affect the price of oil?  The United States alone imported 10,031,000 barrels a day in 2007.  We consume 20,680,000 barrels a day in 2007.  We net imported 12,040,000 barrels a day in 2007 meaning the 200,000 barrels a day would only replace 1.7 percent of US imports. Just US Imports.

Of course, it’s a world market and so the effect has to be compared to what it does for the world market and given the daily consumption in 2005 of 83,607,220 the 200,000 barrels a day account for .2 percent (not 2, but .2) of total daily oil consumed.  It’s a pointless exercise.

Being too stupid to make an argument and screaming fag at those who aren’t as dumb as you are is something most people grew out of in elementary school.