-By Warner Todd Huston
The Illinois Tea Party (illinoisteaparty.net) held its sixth annual Chicago Tax Day Tea Party rally, but this year without the “Chicago” part as the group held their rally in the western suburbs. Specifically, the event was held in the Arcadia Theater in St. Charles where some 300 participants attended to hear candidates for office, activists, and patriotic music.
The April 15 rally targeted Obamacare and Senator Dick Durbin, of course, but mentions of the Illinois Republican Party, Sec. of Treasury candidate and establishment GOPer Tom Cross, and Senator Mark Kirk drew as many boos as the Democrats showing that grass roots conservatives have about had it with the feckless, powerless Illinois GOP.
Head of the Illinois Tea Party Denise Cattoni
Not all elected Republicans were opposed, though. One of the very first speakers introduced by Ill. Tea Party chief Denise Cattoni was State Rep. Jeanne Ives of Wheaton. Ives, while not a dynamic speaker, had a great five-minute speech written up with her key point being that she was going to be troublesome to the state Republican Party. “I will continue to be troublesome, just as troublesome as possible in Springfield,” she said warming to her theme.
State Rep. Jeanne Ives
The first speaker was State Senator Jim Oberweis, who went on first so he could get to a fundraiser.
Candidate for U.S. Senate Jim Oberweis
Oberweis is running as an admitted “underdog” to ultra left-wing Senator Dick Durbin. Obie, as his supporters affectionately dub him, noted that we need to stop the extremism in Washington and made to whip the audience up to dump Durbin by having them repeat, “Millionaire. Career politician. Dick Durbin. Must Go!”
Congressional candidate for the 8th District Larry Kaifesh
One of the more dynamic speakers of the night was 8th District Congressional candidate Larry Kaifesh. A former Marine that was shocked and saddened by what he saw working in Washington D.C., Kaifesh reminded me a lot of Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service Agent and candidate for Congress in Maryland.
Kaifesh had it all together, knew what he wanted to say, had historical references on his side in the saying, and did it without stumbles, ums or ahs. If Kaifesh isn’t able to topple Congresswoman Tasmmy Duckworth from her undeserved post, I hope he runs for something else. I think this man would make a fantastic representative of we, the people.
WLS radio personality and conservative activist Dan Proft
WLS talk show host Dan Proft spoke, too, and really brought home just how far out of the mainstream Illinois has become by noting that every state surrounding the Land of Lincoln is doing quite well financially even though only recently all of them were collapsing under destructive Democrat regimes. Proft told the crowd to buck up because all those states were failing until new Republican majorities came to power and turned those states around in less than a decade. If it can happen there, he told the crowd, it can happen in Illinois.
Among the others that spoke were candidate for Attorney General Paul Schimpf, former candidate for State Treasurer Bob Grogin, long-time conservative activist and foe of teachers union Jack Roeser, McHenry County Board member Andrew Gasser, healthcare insurance expect C. Steven Tucker, For The Good Of Illinois President Adam Andrzejewski, and the head of Americans for Prosperity-Illinois David From.
Jack Roeser
Candidate for Attorney General Paul Schimpf
Healthcare insurance expect C. Steven Tucker
For The Good Of Illinois President Adam Andrzejewski
Tea Partiers Rally Outside the theater…
Danielle Rowe and Paul Schimpf
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, Wizbang.com, among many, many others. Huston has also appeared on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN, and many local TV shows as well as numerous talk radio shows throughout the country.
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