In case there was any doubt that former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson is now performing the same role for the Republican Party on the Washington Post opinion pages, today's column should put it to rest. Labeling former comedian turned Minnesota Senate candidate Al Franken a "vulgarian," Gerson proclaimed the Democrat's satirical writing of the past the "Federalist Papers of lifestyle liberalism." As it turns out, Gerson not only has no sense of humor, he has no sense of balance: the legion of Republican vulgarians whose stench still taints Washington needless to say go unmentioned.
Firstly, former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds and I were interviewed by Scott Horton for Antiwar Radio last week. The interview went live on Monday. From the blurb:
"Sibel Edmonds and Luke Ryland discuss the London Times series on her case and the international nuclear black-market network surrounding A.Q. Kahn, the U.S. government’s total clamp-down by gag orders even against Congress, the American foreign policy hypocrisy of demonizing certain nuclear ambitions and supporting others, the military-industrial-congressional complex revolving door, the bipartisan lack of enthusiasm in pursuing whistleblower cases, the movie about Sibel’s case "Kill The Messenger," and how it only takes one congressman to call her to testify to blow the case wide open."
You can listen (50 mins) to it here, and read the transcript here. The youtube version is here
Kudos to ABC News for (belatedly) taking the opportunity of Dennis Hastert's new lobbying job to give a run-down of some of the scandals Hastert has been involved in.
Despite the benign headline ("Ex-House Speaker Hastert Finds New Home"), Justin Rood mentions the Mark Foley / House Page scandal, Hastert's (under-reported) involvement in the Abramoff affair, and Hastert's dodgy land / earmarking deals. Rood's piece ends thusly:
"A 2005 Vanity Fair article alleged Turkish groups and individuals at the Turkish Consulate in Washington, D.C. had discussed funneling tens of thousands of dollars to Hastert in exchange for political favors; his spokesman at the time denied Hastert had any knowledge of Turkish groups and had done no favors.
Hastert's new firm has done work for the government of Turkey and Turkish companies, a spokesperson confirmed Monday. She could not say whether or not Hastert would be working on projects involving that country."
So, former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds is again proved right. For more than a year Sibel has been predictingthat Dennis Hastert will join a lobbying firm involved with Turkey, and now we learnthat Hastert is joining Dickstein Shapiro.
In the "Representative Engagements" section of Dickstein's website, we learn that they represented "the government of Turkey in connection with the development and financing by private sponsors of the Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline and TransCaspian gas pipeline spanning from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean."
Dennis Hastert, who is listed in Sibel's "Rogues Gallery," was caught on FBI wiretaps accepting bribes from Turkish criminal elements associated with the Turkish government, as documented in Vanity Fairin 2005 and elsewhere.
According to GOP sages like Pat Robertson, Dennis Hastert, and Newt Gingrich, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, indelibly tainted by her home district, has set about supplanting what the GOP is pleased to call family values with San Francisco values. The process will, they warn, be completed by the election of President Obama this year, an event they claim will leave the nation awash in sin.
Former Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) is expected to join the law and lobbying firm Dickstein Shapiro next month. An announcement is expected on Monday.
Huh-huh. Dickstein. Huh-huh.
The Hastert pickup would be the second lawmaker in as many months for Dickstein.
Former Maryland Democrat Albert Wynn will join the firm on Monday as well. Wynn announced in March that he was stepping down, following his primary loss to nonprofit executive Donna Edwards.
Huh-huh. Dicksteins.
So there you have it. If you're looking to have your lobbying done by people who no longer have the trust of the voters of their district (like Wynn, who lost his seat), or their own former colleagues (like Hastert, whose colleagues booted him from their leadership), head on over to Dickstein!
You know, though? For all the times these politicians tell everyone what regular guys they are, and how they're so connected to their districts and hometowns, how come none of them can ever find other kinds of jobs after they leave Congress?
The Republicans are in deep, deep trouble. If they lose in these districts (the other two were a Louisiana seat they had kept for three decades and Dennis Hastert's former seat in Illinois), they can literally lose anywhere. The whole electoral map can be redrawn.
So, what's their new plan? Go further to the right! No, you schmucks, that's what got you in trouble in the first place. The problem is the Republican Party has become so extreme there are no moderates left to tell them they should head in the opposite direction.
Well, for those of us living in New York this has been, shall we say, an "interesting" week. I discuss the scandal surrounding Eliot Spitzer in some detail in this newsletter. In the end it just may be a good thing. Our new governor, Governor Paterson, is untested in many ways...and some consider him a bit weak. But I have a better feeling about him than I did about Spitzer when he was elected. But time will tell.
This week also has been horrible for our economy. Things are getting worse and worse and no end in sight. I am seriously concerned about the economic situation. But Bush has been "reassuring" America that the economy is just fine. This reminds me of his father telling us "Don't worry, be happy." Which, of course, led to the brilliant counter line, "It's the Economy, Stupid." Well, "It's the Economy Stupid" applies more than ever, as I write on Culture Kitchen.
When Martin Meehan (D-MA) resigned his House seat in 2007 to serve as chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Niki Tsongas, widow of the late U.S. Senator, Congressman, and all-around good guy, Paul Tsongas, ran for the vacant seat in a special election. To place this in its proper context, Democrats have controlled the economically-challenged Massachusetts’ 5th District for thirty-some years. When Mrs. Tsongas managed only a bare majority (51% of the vote) over Jim Ogonowski, her Republican opponent, the GOP and their bought-and-paid-for media hacks hailed this as a huge "victory" in deep-Blue territory, a sign of an impending Republican comeback, and a small step towards their "inevitable permanent majority." So, was it really raining, or were they just pissing on our legs?
I was part of the effort of NDFA's drive to boost turnout in the critical race which Bill foster won on Saturday.
The headline about the election in the Chicago Sun Times was
BOMBSHELL
That was accurate.
Of the 8 Republicans who are in the US House from Illinois currently, 6 received a lower percentage of the vote in '06 than Hastert did. Only on the far-west edge of the 14th CD is there anyone who is represented by a Democrat in the legislature. Putting as money much into Republican open seats with lower winning margins in Illinois as the RNCC put into this losing race would take more than it has on hand. Never mind the other 49 states.
My experiences after the jump.
The 1980 election which ushered Ronald Reagan into the White House had a considerable coattail effect.
Reagan's coattails refers to the influence of Ronald Reagan's popularity in elections other than his own, after the American political expression to "ride in on another's coattails." Chiefly, it refers to the "Reagan Revolution" accompanying his 1980 election to the U.S. Presidency. This victory was accompanied by the change of 12 seats in the U.S. Senate from Democratic to Republican hands, producing a Republican majority in the Senate for the first time since 1954.
In light of yesterdays IL-14 special election, where Bill Foster defeated Jim Oberweis handily for Dennis Hastert's old seat, we should take note that a democratic candidate should bring about similar victories in the general election. Now IL-14 is heavy republican district that Bush won 55% to 44%.
I'm going to try to keep up with the results, though since there doesn't seem to be a good aggregated result reporter, I'm going to have to do it county by county.
Remember, this is Dennis Haster's old district, with Democrat Bill Foster running against all-around-jerk Jim Oberweis. Jim Oberweis is best noted as the person who was passed over in favor of Alan Keyes in the 2004 Senate race.
Update [2008-3-8 21:56:47 by dmsilev]::Bill Foster has won! CNN just mentioned it during their evening blabfest, along with "Republicans are worried". This will be the last update of this diary, as we're at 97% in, so things won't change much.
It could not be easier: use this link on Barack Obama's site to help get out the vote for Bill Foster. He is a wonderful Democratic Party candidate running in the 14th Congressional District in Illinois. You may recognize that District . . . it is the seat once held by former GOP operative and House Speaker Dennis Hastert. It's also the district I grew up in, where my mother still lives. Needless to say, it is chock full of nice people who deserve a fantastic Representative like Bill Foster.
There is a big election going on in the IL-14 congressional district this Saturday. The choice is between Jim Oberweis, a Republican businessman, and Bill Foster, a Democratic scientist who is formerly of Fermilab.
It would seem a no-brainer, right? Who should I be supporting, but a fellow FNAL family member and scientist?
Well, it's not that easy for me.
I am writing to let you know that I am supporting Jim Oberweis for Congress in the Illinois 14th district.
(Some more analysis on tomorrow's special election in Illinois, where the Republicans are getting so desperate they're breaking House rules to try and keep the seat from flipping blue. SusanG)
Tomorrow's the big day in Illinois' 14th District. The polls are good, and the media is savaging Jim Oberweis. This time, it is over an Oberweis ad which depicted four families which were, according to Oberweis, going to be leveled by hateful Bill Foster's hateful tax hikes.
Only thing is, they didn't exist:
If Bill Foster gets his way, the Wadsworths will pay an extra $8,905 a year!
Total fiction. All of it. These people don't exist. They were created by Oberweis' campaign, which bought stock photos to use in the ad.
They're nice-looking folks, although they're sporting awfully big smiles given that they could be slapped with Foster's huge tax increases.
Oh, wait, these families don't exist. They're fake.
Oberweis' response? It's hard work, finding real live people.
Democrat Bill Foster appears to have the momentum going into the election, which has led both CQ Politics and Rothenberg to change their ranking of this race to Toss Up/No Clear favorite.
Again, this seat would be a major coup for Democrats heading into election season. From CQ:
In fact, the race seems close enough that CQ Politics is applying a rating of "No Clear Favorite" to the Illinois 14 contest — a change from the Leans Republican rating that previously applied to the race. Should Foster win — and private and public polls suggest that is a plausible scenario — it would mark the first time in nearly four years that a special election caused a shift in partisan control of a congressional district.
Republican strategists acknowledge that the race is very close and that they’re aware of the implications of a Democratic victory in the former Speaker’s district.
"We understand the symbolic importance of the race," Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole , the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), told reporters Monday at a breakfast meeting that was organized by the Christian Science Monitor. "It will be spun out of all proportions if we were to lose it. It will be ‘my God, it’s the end of the Republican Party, the Speaker’s seat is gone.’ "
The wild card in this race will be turnout: I don't think anyone is quite certain what to expect from a Saturday special election. This being a Republican district, I think lower turnout should favor Republican Jim Oberweis, so every vote counts.
With just a day left, the campaigning is at fever pitch. Here's the DCCC's latest ad on Oberweis' dishonest campaign tactics:
Needless to say, Oberweis didn't care for the ad. He couldn't really think of a good reason to complain, though...so he has his company, Oberweis Dairy, file suit against the DCCC, alleging that their ads were hurting business.
Now, this has backfired, as the DCCC has filed an FEC complaint against the Oberweis campaign for so using the resources of one's business to benefit one's campaign.
It doesn't matter how much Oberweis screws up, though, if we can't get voters out to the polls tomorrow. So help out at Blue Majority, or visit Foster's website for information on volunteering.
Subscription-only Roll Call has a story up today with breaking news: Democrat Bill Foster leads Republican Jim Oberweis, 52% to 45%, in the race for Dennis Hastert's old seat in Illinois' 14th District.
The House seat recently vacated by former Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) is in danger of flipping to the Democrats in Saturday’s special election, according to a poll conducted this week for Roll Call.
In the poll of 517 likely special election voters, conducted by Survey USA exclusively for Roll Call on March 3 and 4, physicist Bill Foster (D) led dairy company executive Jim Oberweis (R) 52 percent to 45 percent. The poll had a 4.4-point margin of error.
Foster appeared to test particularly well with women and independent voters, who preferred him by a 3-2 margin. The survey also suggested Foster had locked down his party’s base, taking 97 percent of likely Democratic votes and perhaps stealing 10 percent of likely GOP votes.
These numbers are wonderful to see just two days before the election, particularly from a reliable pollster such as SurveyUSA.
It is going to be difficult to forecast turnout for the Saturday special election (I believe it's the first Saturday special in Illinois history). It is a Republican-leaning district, without question.
But a win here would be an awful embarrassment for the GOP, losing their former leader's seat. It would be seen as a harbinger of a continued Democratic wave in the fall. It could well lead to a rift in GOP leadership, and the downfall of NRCC Chairman Tom Cole, who has thrown over $1.2 million, over 15% of the NRCC budget, into this race.
