Call It A Comeback
According to comments in the Leader’s Discussion Board it was announced tonight—not that I take the Leader’s Discussion Board seriously in most cases.
I stand corrected. It was announced at a Lake County Republican Golf Outing Dinner tonight that Kathy Salvi has formed an exploratory committee for her own bid to run for Congress.
Is only the beginning of the problem for Republicans attacking the pension offset that underpins the budget. Aaron Chambers explores it in a bit more detail:
At the end of May, as the legislative session ended, the Republicans complained the pension maneuver would cost the public upward of $30 billion, perhaps even more, through 2045. But on Wednesday, the Rockford Register Star put the projected tab at less than $7 billion, a far less dramatic sum.
The doomsday figures touted by the Republicans failed to account for savings associated with cuts in retirement benefits for future state employees, university employees and public school employees — restrictions that were built into the pension measure.
The doomsday figures also assumed the state would skip 100 percent of its obligation to the retirement systems for one or two years. As it happened, the state deferred only about half its obligation over two years.
The bait and switch is that Democrats are arguing this puts the system on better footing because of reforms, but what would have put the system on better footing is the reforms combined with meeting the funding requirements. Instead of having to pay later, if the state had met its current obligations, it would have improved the long range fiscal situation. Instead, the state will now have to catch up for lost dollars.
While the impact isn’t nearly as dramatic as Syverson and other Republicans are claiming, they are essentially right that this is putting off reckoning for a future day–exactly what is going on in DC these days.
AURORA ? House Minority Leader Tom Cross thinks Judy Baar Topinka is the Republican Party’s best bet to beat incumbent Gov. Rod Blagojevich in 2006.
In a meeting Monday with The Beacon News editorial board, the Oswego Republican said that when compared to the field of announced GOP candidates and those considering a run, Topinka stands out.
However, that informal vote of confidence appeared conditional ? especially if former Gov. Jim Edgar makes the unlikely decision to take another run at the governor’s mansion.
“I think she (Topinka) is the best candidate against Rod, right now,” Cross said.
Topinka could draw support from women voters and is a proven candidate, Cross said, having been elected state treasurer three times.
But Cross also called U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood of Peoria a “solid guy,” and said he would make a formidable candidate if he can find a way to raise significant campaign contributions.
Strangely, the crew only mentions that Cross isn’t interested in being Guv right now. Talk about burying the lede–your boss makes the Hotline with comments and you guys don’t even mention it.
You had to write a really inflammatory op-ed in the Washington Times—c’mon Tom–the New Democratic Network is where it’s at for centrists in the party now.
From Charlie Cook’s Off to the Races Column at National Journal
But we keep reminding ourselves that the scarcity of vulnerable Republican seats in the House and Senate makes it almost impossible for the GOP to lose control.
Having said that, I don’t think anyone has figured into the equation that Republicans would begin engaging in profoundly stupid and potentially suicidal actions that might prove us wrong and put them back into minority status.
There are two words that should give House Republicans pause before they take a leap aboard Thomas’ proposal — Rahm Emanuel. I am sure that Emanuel, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, is kind and loving to his wife and children and others in his immediate family.
But having known and watched the guy for almost 20 years, he does not strike me as an overly nice person. In fact, I’d lay odds that he would use a Louisville Slugger and treat like a pi?ata any Republican foolish enough to sign onto this thing. The murder scene in “Fargo” will look like patty-cake compared to what Emanuel will do to those guys.
It does not take a particularly creative mind to conjure up the television ads Democrats would air to harpoon the suggestion of a surplus. Some of the better ones would probably include Bush’s own words warning of an impending Social Security crisis. Even the least creative media consultant could successfully handle this job.
Can Liberal Agit Prop offer us some visuals?
Just because there does not appear to be enough vulnerable Republican seats for the GOP to lose control of the House does not mean the party is free to do whatever it wants without regard to electoral consequences. If a party tries hard enough, it can succeed in blowing its majorities. History holds many examples of this.
Drudge thinks Obama is taking a swipe at Lincoln with this:
Still, as I look at his picture, it is the man and not the icon that speaks to me. I cannot swallow whole the view of Lincoln as the Great Emancipator. As a law professor and civil rights lawyer and as an African American, I am fully aware of his limited views on race. Anyone who actually reads the Emancipation Proclamation knows it was more a military document than a clarion call for justice. Scholars tell us too that Lincoln wasn’t immune from political considerations and that his temperament could be indecisive and morose.
But it is precisely those imperfections–and the painful self-awareness of those failings etched in every crease of his face and reflected in those haunted eyes–that make him so compelling. For when the time came to confront the greatest moral challenge this nation has ever faced, this all too human man did not pass the challenge on to future generations. He neither demonized the fathers and sons who did battle on the other side nor sought to diminish the terrible costs of his war. In the midst of slavery’s dark storm and the complexities of governing a house divided, he somehow kept his moral compass pointed firm and true.
What I marvel at, what gives me such hope, is that this man could overcome depression, self-doubt and the constraints of biography and not only act decisively but retain his humanity. Like a figure from the Old Testament, he wandered the earth, making mistakes, loving his family but causing them pain, despairing over the course of events, trying to divine God’s will. He did not know how things would turn out, but he did his best.
I think it’s a swipe at anti-intellectual twits who think that the top box office gross is important as a war and that corniness is personality
This has to be a hard pill to swallow for Rauschenberger who went and jumped off a cliff for Roeser in recruiting Alan Keyes to Illinois. Always implicit in that bargain was the idea that Roeser would support Rauschenberger running for Governor.
The question will be on whether Rauschenberger can report a strong financial showing despite Roeser backing Oberweis. If he doesn’t, it’s hard to imagine Rauschenberger stays in the race.
Second hand, but they usually get this stuff correct. Unless Roeser is trying to push him out of the race, looks like Dems ought to start cheering for Dave McSweeney!
Most ridiculous thing heard recently:
But to some Capitol Hill Republicans there is a dark cloud on the Nats’ horizon: the potential that their newly adopted home team could be purchased by billionaire financier George Soros.
Earlier this month, Soros joined an ownership bid being led by entrepreneur Jonathan Ledecky. Their group is one of more than a half-dozen angling to take over the Nats, who are currently owned by Major League Baseball.
In addition to being a well-known currency speculator and philanthropist, Soros is also known in political circles for having pumped more than $20 million in the last cycle into groups seeking to unseat President Bush and elect Democrats.
While the Soros-Ledecky group is not seen as the frontrunner to win the bidding for the Nationals, who should be awarded to their new owner at the end of the 2005 season, the very prospect that Soros could have a stake in the team is enough to irritate Congressional Republicans.
“I think Major League Baseball understands the stakes,” said Government Reform Chairman Tom Davis (R), the Northern Virginia lawmaker who recently convened high-profile steroid hearings. “I don’t think they want to get involved in a political fight.”
I’m sorry, but what does Soros political activities have to do with the Major League anti-trust exemption? Last I checked George Bush’s partial ownership of the Texas Rangers didn’t bring threats from Democrats nor does the current ownership of the Cardinals, the Dewitt’s, for whom Democratic Governor Bob Holden tried to get a stadium deal done, yet are big Republican donors. George Steinbrenner’s illegal donations to Nixon apparently weren’t a problem, but George Soros’ bid is…
News Corp owns the Dodgers, Jerry Colangelo is a big Republican donor.
In other sports, is Herb Kohl the next target? This is just thuggery.
Now, if they want to threaten the NHL to boot Wirtz, that’s not political, that’s just good sense and hopefully better hockey (assuming it’s ever played again).
And the Speaker found a good one this year. Rich Miller does a good rundown on the Speaker’s effort to reign in predatory lenders.
The Speaker is a creature of what he is–political power. He’s good at using it and good at generally doing things that Democrats approve, though he seldom uses it for an all out progressive bill. One should always be skeptical of his motives (other than keeping the majority), but there’s also a human underneath that scowl, somewhere, and in this case, the human brought a great victory for poor home owners who have been preyed upon for too long by predatory lenders. The bill essentially forces an area hit hard by predatory lending to have the mortgages reviewed by the State of Illinois. While that will slow down some transactions, it will also mean that areas hit hard will have someone to watch for contracts that seek to nickel and dime individuals out of their homes through a process of fees that never end.
More from Crane’s here
Having done some work related to this, consumer counseling is one of the more effective means of teaching citizens to know what to look for and how to budget for housing costs.
ArchPundit