Interesting the guy defending Lipinski is a Republican. Again.
Last Line:
Kirk gives Lipinski much better odds. “Netroots generally always fail,” he said. “We all remember the administration of President [Howard] Dean.”
We’ll consider this the team bulletin board for February 5th. And November 4th.
Stoller’s quote sums it up best:
Matt Stoller, the editor of openleft.com and the architect of the “Bush Dog” campaign, proclaimed Lipinski the first “Bush Dog” to be targeted in a primary by the “netroots.” In an interview, he said Lipinski was “not a good Democrat.”
“Bush has made it very clear that he’s not withdrawing from Iraq, and he’s not going to sign anything that would lead to withdrawal from Iraq,” Stoller said. “Either Lipinski knows this, and he’s misleading everyone, or he’s stupid.”
Tankersly also went to Jim Leach for comment. Those who follow the blog know that I think Jim Leach is one of the best Members of Congress to ever serve. While I think the David Broderism version of bipartisanship is a silly concept, Leach was everything right about bipartisanship. He stopped Bob Rubin and Phil Gramm from tearing down the walls between commerce and banking in the 1990s and then turned around and was one of only a few Republicans to vote against the Iraq war.
He ran for Congress against my College Advisor, David Loebsack, and when the RNCC went to run an anti-gay commercial against David, Leach threatened to caucus with the Democrats if they did it. He then lost a very close race to David, who also has a great deal of respect for Leach.
He also voted to get out in 2006. Lipinski voted with the President
Leach is also pro-choice, pro-stem cell research, and generally a man of principle who never would have let his daddy insert him in a Congressional seat. It’s a wonderful contrast.
To add to it, Jim Leach took $0 in PAC money and raised the vast majority from his District. Compare that to a guy who as an incumbent takes the vast majority of his money from national PACs in the case of Lipinski.
As I said to David when I was visiting before he decided to run, I love Jim Leach, but I cannot afford him as long as he is voting for the Republican leadership to which David agreed and said “Exactly!” And that is what David ran on and won. Many were saddened to see Jim Leach go, but the stakes were too high.
Lipinski says he’ll get his team up and running soon — and that his critics misunderstand the more conservative nature of his district.
No, you misunderstand it. It went 59% for a liberal Senator from Massachusetts in 2004 after going 58% (current boundaries) for Gore. It’s a solid Democratic District that favors abortion rights, opposes this war, and has strong support for immigrants to this nation.
I dunno. Doesn’t the Tribune have anyone closer to Illinois than someone from the “Washington Bureau” to talk about this?
In an article about “Bloggers Dog[ging] Lipinksi”, the only local blogger he mentions — and then only for a second — was “arch[space]pundit.com”.
Who is this “arch[space]pundit.com”?
And dang was that an old post to have googled.