It isn’t a spokespersons fault when a reporter skips figuring out the facts of a story, but you’d think that a quick Lexis search to figure out the whole story might be reasonable.

Roskam is attempting to claim that he really isn’t very close to Tom DeLay because he only worked for him 20 years ago and for about 8 months. That’s a reasonable claim if that were all there was to the relationship.

Unfortunately Marni Pyke at Daily Herald does a piss poor he said she said story.

The reality behind Roskam and DeLay is that they’ve had an ongoing relationship over the years. In the 1998 race for IL-13 there was this little tidbit from the Trib:

Word on Capitol Hill is that ideological conservative state Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Naperville) is getting behind-the-scenes help in his six-way Republican congressional primary battle from GOP House Whip Tom DeLay of Texas.

DeLay is the arch-conservative former pest-control service operator whose former profession and aggressive attacks on federal regulation of almost any type, including environmental laws, has earned him the nickname “The Exterminator.”

A top aide to DeLay has been calling around to some big conservative backers suggesting they “take a look at” (i.e., send money to) Roskam, said a congressional source.

Even better, in an April Sun-Times piece, Roskam said the following about DeLay

But state Sen. Peter Roskam, who worked for DeLay 20 years ago, voiced support.

“Trotting out some of … these old accusations that are two and three and four years old is a little bit tiresome,” Roskam said. “I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt.”

…..

Roskam, 43, is a lawyer who lives in Wheaton. He worked as an aide to DeLay in 1985 and part of 1986, but said he has “not had any contact with him essentially for 20 years.”

“I think everybody agrees that he’s one of the most effective legislators in Washington, D.C.,” Roskam said. “Knowing what I know now about what Tom DeLay’s been accused of, my attitude would be to support him.”

The obvious question given Tom DeLay is under indictment and clearly under investigation for his ties to Abramoff, does Roskam still support him? He clearly did 10 days before DeLay was indicted when DeLay hosted a fundraiser for a guy he hadn’t had any contact with essentially for 20 years. On top of that, Roskam received a $1,000 donation from ARMPAC (DeLay’s federal PAC) in 1998. I tend to think that’s more than no contact. Not many folks just hand me $1000 to run for office in a primary.

Secondly, why not donate that $1000 to charity? Obviously it was in 1998, but why not make the symbolic gesture if Roskam is pushing for ethics reform.

Better yet, why hasn’t the press got him on record concerning the DeLay rule change in the Republican caucus that would have allowed DeLay to continue serving under state indictment? Out of 10 Illinois Members of Congress at the time, only two supported it–Weller and Hastert. How would Roskam have voted?

Roskam’s ties to the finance scandals aren’t just to DeLay.

In the Sun-Times today:

“I think the Duckworth campaign is really stretched and desperate in trying to make this a close association,” Roskam said.

If you want to quibble over the word mentor, fine. However, Roskam has a long history of support from DeLay and has tried to hide that history.

Oh, and let’s not bring up the residency issue. From the 1998 race:

Sixty percent of the 13th Congressional District is in southern DuPage County. Part of southwestern Cook County and northern Will County are in the district. Roskam, whose state legislative district is mostly in Hyde’s congressional district but includes some of Fawell’s, lives outside the district but would move if nominated for the congressional seat.

27 thoughts on “Hand Feeding the Press”
  1. Roskam is still standing the elevator where DeLay let a time-released fart before stepping off on the third floor. The stink won’t wash off.

    Upper Mississippi River Basin Blog
    (UMRBlog)

  2. And you think people of the 6th District are going to like Duckworth’s much more relevant ties to Rahm Emanuel, whose campaign was cited in Hired Truck pleas as receiving illegal help from the Daley machine?

  3. Glad you mentioned Roskam was outside the district when he ran against Biggert and that it hurt him.

    That’s how voters in the area vote. Duckworth is the carpetbagger today, not Roskam, and it will sink her as well.

  4. So when Roskam was in the House, Daniels was never helping him out in DuPage? That game doesn’t work so well since Tristano flipped.

    But seriously, Hired Trucks is a problem for Daley, but there is nothing in the indictments that suggests anyone on Rahm’s team knew. If they had received money I’d tell them to return it.

    But Roskam has ties to some of the principals in what looks to be one of the largest Congressional scandals since Tea Pot Dome. That’s hardly not relevant.

  5. “And you think people of the 6th District are going to like Duckworth’s much more relevant ties to Rahm Emanuel, whose campaign was cited in Hired Truck pleas as receiving illegal help from the Daley machine?”

    At some point — it might take weeks if not months — people are going to realize that this isn’t a race about Rahm Emanuel but the Republican strangle-hold on Congess. Compared to that, Rahm is no more than a pimple on some tired-ass’s butt.

  6. The more local the better, when it comes to politics. Rahm and the entire statewide 2002 ticket was getting illegal help from Daley’s machine. Rahm didn’t know? Yeah, he’s a detached big picture guy, not in touch with his own political campaign. Regardless, the more the Dems play the DeLay card, the more the Repubs will play the Rahm ethics card, which contains plenty of material. And history shows that unless there’s a rare national movement, tied together by some positive vision, each election will rise and fall on its own merits. Do you think Democrats are going to be able to sell they are cleaner than Repubs with all the Blago-Daley federal investigations swirling around? Led by Rahm, the man who got rich instantly once he left the White House?

  7. “Regardless, the more the Dems play the DeLay card, the more the Repubs will play the Rahm ethics card, which contains plenty of material.”

    “Do you think Democrats are going to be able to sell they are cleaner than Repubs with all the Blago-Daley federal investigations swirling around?”

    “Swirling around” doesn’t count. Indictments count. Everything else is propaganda. Nice try.

  8. Apparently, Leo, you don’t read the news much because there have been plenty of Hired Truck INDICTMENTS and plenty of CONVICTIONS. And our Dem governor has been named Public Official A in a case that started with INDICTMENTS and produced at least one CONVICTION. And there are between five and 10 investigations underway of Blagojevich. And the husband of Rahm crony Jan Schakowsky was just sentenced to five months in prison for corruption. He was Rod’s field director in 2002.

  9. ===The more local the better, when it comes to politics. Rahm and the entire statewide 2002 ticket was getting illegal help from Daley’s machine.

    It doesn’t stick because–especially since the most local issue to this race will be Daniels. Assuming Tristano serves him up–and it certainly looks like he will, that’s about DuPage politics and Roskam is right in the middle of it.

    The local issues come out as a wash–minus an indictment high up in the Blagojevich administration. I think we agree that would spin it the other way and rightfully so if that comes to pass.

    But to the larger issue, Republicans in Illinois have some legit targets, but Dems can turn around and point to Ryan and Daniels. They pulled remarkably similar crimes (though probably HT is bigger monetarily).

    And honestly, I don’t think the instant rich thing works. If anything can touch Tammy is Creamer, but that’s even tough because if the battleground is women, I’m not sure how they come down over a husbands problems.

    In Roskam’s case, it’s even worse–while we like to talk about politics as local, I’m not sure it is in this case. The Republican base is set, but the middle ground of the District appears to be less active voters and probably pay more attention to national news–and that’s going to be about Tom DeLay, Blunt, and Ney for the next several months and maybe Plame.

    Other than a Blagojevich or Daley direct indictment, the Democratic troubles are background stuff and frankly Tammy can throw Blagojevich under the bus. Rahm isn’t under serious investigation.

    In terms of what Rahm knew? In this case, I’d bet he knew they were the Mayor’s guys, but didn’t realize the extent of the public time usage. In my experience, the other campaign calls up and tells you they have some help for you and you don’t ask many questions. That they were patronage probably wasn’t a question, but Tomczak was pretty bold in how far he went. That doesn’t mean Rahm was a good government guy in the case, just that he isn’t legally responsible–ethically–well hell the state would break down without this crap.

  10. It’s really hard to stick underlings indictments. Think about Edgar’s patronage chief–voters never even flinched over it.

    I don’t think voters look down very much for misbehavior, but they do look laterally when it comes to other supporters. Creamer and the indictments so far aren’t that profile–now say Chris Kelly or Rezko, those might do it. Illinois voters are pretty cynical, but a national scandal gets tons of earned media you can tie into your message. Given the District is close to the national split in 2004, I wouldn’t want to be a Republican running in it when Republican numbers are down across the board.

  11. And there are between five and 10 investigations underway of Blagojevich.

    That’s just it, there are all these investigations and never any indictments. How much did they spend on Whitewater? Same procedure here.

  12. I always hate agreeing with Dan, but several of those are legit investigations. These aren’t highly partisan investigations at all–most are federal probes into serious issues.

    If the Governor is innocent, he’s somewhat incompetent from what we’ve seen from the Auditor and other reports. Worse, he tries to pretend nothing is wrong. The CMS audit was, ahem, the magna carta of mismanagement.

  13. And there are between five and 10 investigations underway of Blagojevich.

    That’s the whole thing about investigations — they always look reasonable. But if you don’t finally indict someone, they’re nothing but fodder for the oppostion.

    Why should Blaggy give in to any of this? It’d just make him appear hugely weak and vacillating.

    Again, if he’s done something wrong, indict his ass. If not, no story.

  14. The Dems will definitely be able to “sell” that they are cleaner than the Republicans. There are just too many Republicans in power that are under investigation. The Dems may not be clean, but it will appear that way up through November.

  15. The Dems will definitely be able to “sell” that they are cleaner than the Republicans. There are just too many Republicans in power that are under investigation. The Dems may not be clean, but it will appear that way up through November.

  16. The Dems will definitely be able to “sell” that they are cleaner than the Republicans. There are just too many Republicans in power that are under investigation. The Dems may not be clean, but it will appear that way up through November.

  17. The uberpartisan conservative Dan Curry whined and screamed: “Led by Rahm, the man who got rich instantly once he left the White House?”

    Yeah Dan. At least he earned his money after leaving the White House unlike several conservatives — not the least of whom is arch-conservative lobbyist Jack Abramoff (Tom DeLay and Grover Norquist’s good buddy and super-donor to Bush) — who suddenly started raking in much more money around the beginning of 2001… Let’s see, who started in the White House in January 2001? That’d be your conservative leader, president Bush.

  18. When either Rahm Emanuel or Richard Daley resign in shame and amid a sea of indictments, and move to Northern VA to become a lobbyist, then maybe, MAYBE, Roskam can try and make the election a referendum about them.

    Until then, remember that a smiling mug shot remains a mug shot.

  19. “the more the Dems play the DeLay card, the more the Repubs will play the Rahm ethics card”

    If those are the stakes, deal me in.

    The chasm between being the indirect beneficiary of a patronage scandal, and being the lynchpin of a major sceme to use the machinations of government to both enrich your allies (and yourself) and keep a stranglehold on power is vast, and to attempt to put the two on equal footing is cynical at very best, and a ham-fisted attempt at spin at worst.

  20. Let’s not be to personally hard on Dan, he’s a nice guy–I think he’s miscalculating in this case, but the whiny comment isn’t necessary–save it for more deserving targets.

    I think Buck largely hits it–the other thing is that while something may well come of the Blagojevich investigations, DeLay is going to be heading the national news for months. You can’t escape that…

    I will disagree with Leo–it took a 6 year investigation to nab Ryan and the DeLay investigations are largely 4 years old. The Plame investigation is going on year 3–complex corruption cases take time. The Governor gets a benefit of the doubt on the investigations to some degree, but there’s also evidence from the audits that if it isn’t corruption it’s incompetence.

    Barring clear evidence I’m leaning towards supporting him, if for nothing else, All Kids and movement on preschool which are very dear to me, but I’m also open to changing that if the evidence becomes greater that it wasn’t just incompetence.

  21. According to reports in Washington, Delay isn’t a target and isn’t being investigated as part of the Abramoff scandal. Some top staffers are and that does taint Delay. The Texas indictments are a joke and anyone would be a fool to hang their hats on a conviction.

    I would add that $1,000 contribution and some phone calls to donors hardly rises to the level of a “relationship” in Washington, DC. Sometimes you can make the case that making phone calls on someone’s behalf is passing the buck instead offering real help. It might sound good back in the district, “Washington is helping me,” but I see in most cases it’s the minimum level.

    I don’t think there is anything wrong with you bringing this stuff up, but I wouldn’t make too big a deal of it. Because there is less there than meets they eye.

    …I mean unless someone can produce recent pictures with wads of cash coming out of their pockets, guilt by association isn’t going to fly.

  22. The only source saying DeLay isn’t likely to be indicted is Bob Novak, who today printed that DeLay only went to play golf in Scotland because he never has time. Despite 48 publicly disclosed golfing trips.

    DeLay’s backyard abuts a golf course just for good measure.

    I’ll bet a pitcher of good beer that DeLay is indicted by September 1st.

  23. Tom DeLay is becoming a household name. Do voters in the 6th CD even know who Rahm Emanuel is?

    Archpundit’s free advice is right. DeRoskam should donate all the money to charity. Not just the direct $1000, but also the money from the DeLay fundaraiser and any other directed contributions courtesy of DeLay. It’s the politically smart thing to do, but my guess is DeRoskam won’t do it, because DeLay really is his pal and he knows he needs his help to win.

  24. Larry, I was thinking more along the lines of dinner, but a pitcher of good beer is a deal. Just to be clear — federal indictment tied to Abramoff, right? And by Sep 1, 2006.

    Hell, I’ll even throw in the second one, no matter who wins.

    Also, Fred Barnes of Weekly Standard has commented that the word has gone out that Abramoff had nothing on Delay.

  25. I think Rahm will have less effect in the 6th than Tammy’s campaign and so far I’ve seen nothing coming from her campaign.

    She needs to start running now. Taking April off, and maybe longer, is not the way to win the district. I konw David Axelrod likes the last minute air blitz but it will not work here. Tammy needs to get out into the community and start pounding the streets or the DuPage Republican organisation will stomp her in November.

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