seems a bit hypocritical when one is being supported by Tom DeLay, Grover Norquist, and the Republican establishment at the center of the Culture of Corruption in DC.
Roskam isn’t an independent operator or a Mr. Smith going to Washington, he’s a movement conservative who has had Tom DeLay and Grover Norquist to raise money and campaign with him. DeLay is at the center of the Abramoff investigation and Norquist is being shown to be one of the conduits for money for Abramoff with his non-profit Americans for Tax Reform, that
Hiram did a good round up on this last year. The issue isn’t, as the Roskam campaign has tried to deflect it towards, that Roskam worked for DeLay in the 1980s. The issue is that Roskam has been a movement conservative receiving support from just such movement conservatives in both 1998 and 2006. The two most prominent supporters are neck deep in the Abramoff scandal.
Roskam brags about his award from Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform on his web site.
So, on one hand, we have Tammy Duckworth being supported by DCCC chief Rahm Emanuel who was a Daley aide, but isn’t under investigation as far as anyone knows, while two of the most prominent supporters of Peter Roskam during this election cycle are actively under investigation by federal prosecutors.
Patterson made a crack about six degrees of separation in regard to Roskam’s position on Social Security, but the charges about machine politics with Duckworth are far more like six degrees of separation especially since Durbin and Obama recruited her originally. On the other hand, Peter Roskam is strongly supported by two of the major figures in what many scholars such as Norm Ornstein and Tom Mann view as the biggest Congressional scandal in over a century.
I agree with you post completely. But Duckworth’s ties to Chicago pols give Roskam the ability to obfuscate the issue, and downplay his ties to corruption. If one looks at the facts, they are not in his favor by any standard. But, in this day in age of soundbyte politics, how many look at the actual facts? Roskam’s campaign will play the “everyone does it” game regardless of reality, and thereby keep the focus off his extreme views.
Ditto the comment above. Too much of Duckworth’s support comes from outside of DuPage Co. She’s forced her way into the Nov. election. Roskam can minimize his corrupt connections a lot because of that. I also think he has 1 or 2 “hold cards” on Duckworth he hasn’t shown yet. He’s just waiting for the right time. None of this will make her favorable in the eyes of DuPage Co. voters.
Whatever happens, I don’t put much faith in Duckworth winning this election. She’s just the most wrong person on the ballot.
1 or 2 “hold cards?”
The “most wrong person?”
What does all that mean, exactly?
Hoping for a GOP victory here won’t bring Christine back.
I write the following as someone who know a great many of Christine’s supporters. I myself think any of the 3 candidates in the Dem primary would’ve been great representatives of the Democratic Party going into November, each had positives and negatives (heck, I’m just happy there even was a **contested** primary in the 6th).
The continuing rigidity of Christine’s supporters astounds me. Folks, never fall in love with a political candidate — every now and then they lose, your heart gets broken and you lose your friggin’ focus (which in this case ought to be *Speaker* Pelosi).
Alison wrote: “She’s [Duckworth] forced her way into the Nov. election”
BS. With a capital B and S!
She did it the same way Christine did it in ’04 — she ran in the primary and earned the nomination. The nuts and bolts were different, but she didn’t force her way on the ballot any more than you or I did.
You don’t have to support Duckworth, but for the love of God stop giving the conservatives fodder and encouragement.
Don’t like Duckworth? Help Rob Biscegelie, Dan Kotowski or other Dems running downballot in the 6th’s territory and maybe we’ll at least see Democratic turnout increase overall.
Our country can’t afford this shortsightedness (and, to be honest, I don’t know if our state can afford an unchecked Blago-M/Madigan-E/Jones triumvirate either, and Biscegelie and Kotowski might at least check that too).
Rise up from thine keyboard and schlep thyself door-to-door, for whichever candidate you choose. Now’s the time.