-By Warner Todd Huston
Kirk really sounds good for having had a stroke only 15 weeks ago. I am so relieved to see him doing so well and in such seeming mental competence.
He made a very interesting video about his status…
He has a long way to go, of course, but he seems willing and able.
We here at the blog wish him good health and success in his recovery.
From the office of Senator Mark Kirk (R, ILL…
Gasoline prices are up 50 cents per gallon just this month, now averaging $3.65 in Illinois. Why are prices so high?
While much of the price rise is caused by instability in Libya, another cause is an obscure federal rule that mandates little gasoline monopolies in Chicagoland and Metro East, called the “Boutique Fuels Rule.”
The federal government divides the nation’s gasoline market into 17 separate zones, each with their own recipe for gasoline. While we can buy regular gasoline in Peoria, only “N RFG with Ethanol” is available in Chicago and in Metro East, we can only buy “7.2 RVP” gas. If one region runs short, it cannot borrow from another region – is it any wonder that gas costs 10 cents less per gallon in Green Bay?
This map illustrates the isolated pockets of the country where the federal government mandates the use of the complicated boutique fuel rule. This balkanization of fuel distribution leads to supply problems and high prices. Conversely, some say the regulation is necessary for compliance with the Clean Air Act.
-By Warner Todd Huston
On February 5, 2011, I attended the Illinois GOP Ronald Reagan 100th Birthday Diner and there I had the opportunity to have a quick few minutes with Illinois Senator Mark Kirk. I asked him about some of the issues of the day, chiefly the Egypt question.
I also spoke with a few other GOP notables that night. Unfortunately, I only got a scant few minutes with them all.
VIDEO: Short Interview With Illinois Senator Mark Kirk”
-By Warner Todd Huston
POLITICO posted a piece last week that shows the arrogance of our duly elected Senators in Washington D.C. After reading this piece, one gets the impression that this good old boys club is not only one that not just anyone is allowed to join but one that finds itself beyond even the voters that put them there. It is an arrogance of self-assumed stature in this great Republic that is galling and should be.
The piece, headlined “Mark Kirk not sorry for Senate ‘end zone dance,'” was all full of the tsk tsking by nose-in-the-air senators that didn’t like the fact that newly minted Senator Mark Kirk was ebullient about the GOP having won a recent legislative victory. It was gauche, these senators said, not proper, completely untoward, over-the-top, low-rent, “amateurish,”and entirely eyebrow raising.
What did Senator Kirk do to cause all this finger wagging to be unleashed like a torrent in his direction? In a news conference Kirk put on a “demeanor” that amounted to “spiking a football on the decorous Senate floor,” after the GOP defeated the Democrat’s $1.1 trillion spending bill riddled with pork, waste, and earmarks.
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A Snap Shot of Congressional Arrogance”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Senator Mark Kirk (R, IL) is raising a red flag over the defense bill because the Democrat led House of Representatives and Democrat led Senate has slipped in a provision that would allow accused terrorists to be housed in prisons in the interior of the United States.
In an apparent effort to get around the President’s decision to ignore his own deadline to shut down the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba terrorist detention facility, the Democrat leadership included the provision in order to give terrorists and detainees in Guantanamo a place to go so that the Cuba-based facility can eventually — and sooner rather than later — be shut down.
Senator Kirk blew the whistle on this horrible idea and vowed to put a hold on the defense bill until that part gets stripped. Kirk appeared on Chicago’s WLS radio and told hosts Don and Roma why he wanted to put the bill on hold.
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Democrats Slip Bringing Terrorists to American Prisons into Defense Bill”
-By Warner Todd Huston
On Dec. 11, 2010, I attended a townhall meeting held in the 14th Congressional District featuring Congressman-elect Randy Hultgren and newly minted Senator Mark Kirk. The event was held in the theater of a local high school in Saint Charles, Illinois.
The afternoon started out with an address by Senator Mark Kirk who already was sworn in for an interim term and will be starting his first full term as senator in January. After Kirk finished his opening remarks, Mr. Hultgren spoke and then there was some time for questions for the audience.
Kirk spoke for a strong defense, he spoke for fiscal responsibility and he spoke against the DREAM Act. For his part, Mr. Hultgren didn’t have much to say past his recently successful campaign talking points. But that is to be expected since he has not yet been to Washington to be involved in the issues in our nation’s capitol. Hultgren won’t take office until Jan. 5. Both men strongly spoke in favor of repealing Obamacare.
I have video of both men’s comments. I took the video with my hand-held Flip cam so it may be a bit shaky here and there. (And on the Kirk video I had to set the camera down for half a minute to turn my phone off as I got a call in the middle of his remarks. I thought I had turned it off, but obviously forgot to do so! So my apologies there.)
Here is the video of the two gentleman’s remarks…
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(Video) Townhall Meeting With Mark Kirk and Randy Hultgren, Saint Charles, Illinois”
In the Weekly Republican Address, newly-elected Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois says, “Last month, the American people sent a clear message to Washington: spend less, borrow less and tax less to put America back to work.”
Sen. Kirk expresses his disappointment that leaders in Congress have not heeded this message. “The current leaders of Congress should not move forward with plans that were just rejected by the American people. These leaders should not raise taxes and risk another recession. Instead, Congress should reduce spending and prevent another tax hike on American taxpayers.”
Sen. Kirk emphasizes, “Congress should set its highest priority on preventing the massive tax hike currently scheduled to hit our economy on January 1st.”
He also calls for “bipartisan solutions to cut federal spending” and suggests some ideas for tackling the “mounting debts [that] pose a clear and present danger to our future.”
-By Warner Todd Huston
I said it during the primary, Mark Kirk is a 45 percenter. His record in the House pretty much shows that he will only vote with Republicans 45 percent of the time if left to his druthers. True to my worst fears, Kirk seems to be right on track with my predictions. The man hasn’t even taken his seat yet and many are assuming he’ll support one of the Democrat’s favorite issues: the DISCLOSE Act.
The Hill is reporting that Kirk is coming under pressure by the left to vote “yes” on a watered down version of the DISCLOSE Act, ostensibly a campaign finance reform law. The Hill also correctly points out that Kirk has in the past been a proponent of changes in campaign finance rules even as he voted against the Democrat’s DISCLOSE Act in the run up to the election.
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Senator Kirk Already on Track to Vote Against GOP Interests”
-By Warner Todd Huston
You know that the Democrats are desperate when they pay thousands of their own campaign dollars in order to print and mail fliers touting the candidacy of another party’s Senate candidate! That’s what happened in downstate Illinois where the Democrat Party spent thousands of its own campaign money to print and mail fliers for Libertarian Senate candidate Mike Labno in order to stir conservatives against GOP Senate candidate Mark Kirk.
Rich Miller has scans of the flier HERE.
Now, it’s not a cut-and-dried case of misrepresentation exactly. After all, on the back of the flier they have clearly noted in a small notation that the ad was paid for by the Lake County Democrat Party. But nowhere else on the ad does it allude to the Democrats and the flier seems as if it is a legit Libertarian Party mailing. So call it mildly deceptive at best.
But it is clear that this is a Democrat dirty trick regardless. That the Democrat Party would fund a flier for a completely different party is telling. The Democrats know that Alexi is a horrible candidate and is behind in the polls. This is a desperate move to shave off some of Kirk’s votes.
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Desperate Illinois Democrats Dirty Trick: Funding Mailers for Third Party Candidate to Spite Kirk”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Illinois Democrat Senatorial candidate Alexi “The Mob Banker” Giannoulias has withdrawn from a scheduled debate that was to be held October 21 at the WSIU studios in downstate Carbondale.
Giannoulias said that he was pulling out because the Libertarian candidate, Michael Labano, was not invited to participate.
“It’s disappointing, but these things happen in politics,” Yepsen said. “The rules we put together were that we would invite any candidate of an established political party. We’re not going to change the rules for one candidate.”
Independent candidates would only be invited to the debate if they had received at least a 5-percent vote in neutral polls, Yepsen said, and no independent candidates met the requirements.
The debate was to include Republican candidate Mark Kirk, Democrat Giannoulias, and Green Party candidate LeAlan Jones.
One wonders what Giannoulias is afraid of. After all, the rules for entry into the debate was known by Giannoulias when he initially accepted the invitation.
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Alexi Bails on Senate Debate”
-By Warner Todd Huston
It’s almost like a bad Riddler quip from TVs Adam West Batman show: When is a banker not a banker? Well, apparently the Illinois Democrat candidate for Senate, Alexi “the Mob Banker” Giannoulias, is trying his hand at the riddle. He’s constantly told the voters that he was not employed by his family bank during the year that it met so much trouble, yet on his tax returns Alexi took deductions for his bank work during that same year.
So when IS a banker not a banker? Apparently when he’s trying to run for Senate and get out from under the mess his bank ended up in.
Giannoulias has claimed that he had left his family bank in 2005. But as the Chicago Tribune reports, “Giannoulias was able to take a $2.7 million tax deduction last year because he reported working hundreds of hours at Broadway Bank in 2006.”
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Alexi Tells Voters He Was No Banker, But Claims to IRS He Was”
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Chicago Tribune has some interesting poll data on the Senate race.
The poll also looks at the other candidates.
The Trib also has another graphic on the candidates you might find interesting.
-By Warner Todd Huston
It seems like a story written by a bad Hollywood script writer, but Illinois Senator Roland Burris is today challenging a federal judge’s decision to block any more candidates from being added to the ballot of the special election that has been ordered to fill the last few weeks of this Congressional session. Burris wants to be on that ballot but the judge said that only party nominees from the primary are allowed to be on the special election ballot.
First of all the whole thing is confusing. When Barack Obama vacated his Senate seat to take the White House, disgraced Governor Rod Blagojevich underwent a decision process to fill that seat that ended up getting him indicted. Blago gave the seat to long-time Illinois politico Roland Burris. Burris’ appointed term is up on election day but that would leave Illinois without a second Senator for the last 60 days of the legislative session. So, a federal judge declared that Illinois would have to vote on both a special election to seat a Senator for 60 days as well as the regular election for the full term starting after that in 2011.
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Temporary Senator Burris Challenges Special Election for Temporary Senator”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Chicago Magazine has conducted an extensive interview with Kimberly Vertolli, Illinois GOP Senate candidate Mark Kirk’s ex-wife, and the woman makes an interesting charge against one of Kirk’s current campaign operatives, Dorothy “Dodie” McCracken
Vertolli says that the campaign staffer is the one that came between them causing their divorce and is a “Svengali figure” in her former hubbies life.
Vertolli refused to assert that McCracken is in a romantic relationsjip with Mark Kirk, but she did say the woman is a “pernicious influence” on the candidate.
Here is the exchange:
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Chicago Mag: Kirk’s Ex-Wife Says a ‘Svengali Figure’ Influencing Him”
-By Warner Todd Huston
So far, the biggest negative that has stuck against Illinois Democrat Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias is that he is a poor money manager. The worst is that he was an officer in a family bank that has since gone under due to shady loans to mobsters — to the tune of $20 million in unpaid debt — and other bad banking practices . And now we can add another poor financial situation to Alexi’s already groaning deficit accounts: he’s still $200,000 in debt for his recently completed primary campaign.
As reported two weeks ago, Giannoulias has under performed in campaign fundraising so far in comparison to his GOP opponent, Mark Kirk.
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Ill. Dem Senate Candidate Still $200,000 in Debt From Primary”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Despite claims made earlier in his campaign, Democrat candidate for Senate Alexi Giannoulias has said that he’ll be quite happy to take campaign donations from lobbyists as he vies to take Barack Obama’s old Senate seat this year.
WGIL News reports that Giannoulias claimed earlier in the campaign that he wouldn’t take donations from lobbyists. However, Giannoulias limited the scope of that claim to encompass only federal lobbyists and political PACs. He has taken donations from state lobbyists.
The difference between a state lobbyist and a federal lobbyist seems vague with Giannoulias, but he claims there is a difference.
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WGIL: Giannoulias Says He’ll Take Lobbyist $$ for Campaign”
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Hill is reporting that Democrat Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias is having trouble raising money, which is amusing because as a failed banker he gave away millions to a pair of mobsters that never paid back the “loan”
The Hill reports that Giannoulias “struggled to raise money in the aftermath of his family bank’s collapse in April.”
Giannoulias has raised only some $900,000 since March 31 — the bulk of it in June. His Republican opponent, Mark Kirk, collected close to $1 million that same month. And Kirk was dealing with his own scandal — the fallout from inaccuracies in reporting his Navy service record at the time.
Giannoulias raised less than half of Kirk’s total, and the Republican now has almost a four-to-one cash on hand advantage.
If you’ll recall — and the Hill notes — that VP Biden recently ambled into town to raise finds for the Democrats “mob banker” but apparently even “no body messes with” Joe Biden isn’t able to help Giannoulias.
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Illinois ‘Mob Banker’ Can’t Raise Money?”
-By Warner Todd Huston
While the media has been all aflutter about Illinois Senate candidate Mark Kirk’s bio flap, even as the media has been sternly shaking a finger at the man he’s somehow raised $2.3 million in campaign cash.
According to the Kirk campaign he raised $1 million in June alone as the news over his bio inflation was at its height.
So far, Kirk has raised $9 million for the race and is starting some new TV ads.
Even With Troubles GOPs Kirk Raises $2.3 Mil”
Chicago’s NBC affiliate has the full video of Mark Kirk’s press conference where he finally addressed his resume puffing over the last few years.
Are you satisfied with the apology?
-By Warner Todd Huston
Mark Kirk has really made himself look foolish and if he loses this election it will be because of his ridiculous missteps on his biography. Why he felt the need to overstate his bio is anybody’s guess, but he did it. And not just once but at least five times. Politico details the bio inflation Kirk has perpetrated in a new piece headlined “Five questions for Mark Kirk .”
They say that Kirk was “once a favorite,” intimating that his stock has dropped. That is essentially true, but in my estimation Kirk has plenty of time to get past this if he handles it right and I think he’s still the favorite even with this foolishness because Alexi “the Mob Banker” Giannoulias has equally problematic bio problems — not the least of which was the $20 million that he and his bank lent to two known mobsters that never paid back the loan.
Politico presents five questions that they feel that Kirk must answer in a straightforward manner or expect to lose credibility as a candidate.
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Politico: Five Questions for Mark Kirk”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Conservative businessman Mike Niecestro has been making noise about running for the U.S. Senate against GOP candidate Mark Kirk for at least a year. Even just a few weeks ago he amped up his noise machine to say that he had the ballot petition signatures needed to make a run for the office as an independent.
But yesterday the filing time came and no Niecestro papers were to be seen. He told reporters that one of the operatives that promised him thousands of signatures didn’t even get him a single one. ABC’s Charles Thomas reports that Niecestro said the politician in question is “known as a ‘flake’ in GOP circles.”
This quote raises major concerns about the seriousness of a Niecestro campaign. If Niecestro knew the guy he was relying on to put him over the top in petition signatures was a well-known “flake,” then why did Niecestro rely on him in the first place? If Niecestro was putting all his eggs in a “flake’s” basket, this seriously calls into doubt Niecestro’s planning capabilities, doesn’t it?
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(Ill. Senate Race) Niecestro Says ‘Flake’ Denied Him Petition Signatures”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Michael Rogers has made an unsavory name for himself “outing” gay politicians. Today he has targeted for his next “outing” operation GOP Illinois Senate candidate Congressman Mark Kirk. It’s something Rogers says he’s known since 2004.
Why has Rogers waited some six years to “out” Kirk? Because, Rogers says, Kirk recently announced his support for the Pentagon’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy that keeps gay members of the military serving under a cloud of silence about their sexual preferences. Kirk has said that he does not want DADT repealed and Rogers thinks that is an affront to Kirk’s supposed gay compatriots.
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Gay Blogger Claims Mark Kirk (R, IL) Told Him He’s Gay”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Representative Mark Kirk (R,IL) has admitted that the bio on his webpage has had to be altered to reflect a change in the identification of a military award it had previously accredited to him.
Kirk’s bio page originally claimed that he had been awarded the U.S. Navy’s Intelligence Officer of the Year award. This, however, was in error. It appears that his unit received this award, he did not individually receive the citation.
Kirk told the press, “upon a recent review of my records, I found that an award listed in my official biography was misidentified.” According to Navy records the Vice Admiral Rufus L. Taylor Award was issued to the entirety of the Intelligence Division Electronic Attack Wing at Aviano.
Kirk’s opponent, Alexi “the mob banker” Giannoulias has played this up as a major transgression, of course. Amusingly, Giannoulias comes from the same leftist wing of the Party that is currently excusing Connecticut Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal who didn’t just goof up a particular award he was given but completely lied about his service as a Marine in Vietnam… as in he never served in Vietnam.
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Kirk Bio Wrongly IDs Military Award, is That Worse Than ‘Mob Banker’ Alexi’s Financial Failures?”
-By Warner Todd Huston
The famed Cook Political Report has just updated its reading of the race for Obama’s old Senate seat in Illinois to a “favors Republicans” rating!
This is pretty astonishing news:
As expected, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation seized control Friday of Broadway Bank, the community bank owned by the family of Democratic Senate nominee Alexi Giannoulias.
The bank’s financial problems and its business relationships with people associated with corruption and organized crime have dogged Giannoulias’ campaign since early February when he became the nominee. Broadway’s failure will have an enormous impact on Giannoulias’ campaign, and it is entirely possible that the fallout could force him from the race. As such, the race is moving from the Toss Up to the Lean Republican column.
…Given recent events, it’s impossible to justify keeping the race in the Toss Up column. While current circumstances would seem to lend themselves to a rating of Likely Republican, we know that it’s entirely possible that we could well be dealt a different hand – and a very different race – a month or two from now. As such, the race moves to the Lean Republican column.
I have to say, with a possible Republican pick up of Obama’s old Illinois seat AND the possible pick up of VP Biden’s Delaware seat also looking to go to a Republican (Mike Castle), it would be an amazing rebuke to the Democrats to have their two top men’s old seats switch parties!
This would be one for the record books, for sure. I mean, has this ever even happened before?
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Wow, Ill. Senate Race Rated as ‘Favors Republicans’”
Alexi Giannoulias has a very shady past yet the Illinois Democrat Party is still running him for the Senate. But the Illinois GOP has a few question for the nominee…
"Voters want to know about his role in his family’s struggling Broadway Bank, and Giannoulias promised he’d provide those details after the Feb. 2 primary election. "If I’m fortunate enough to make it out of the primary, we can have that conversation," he said. His plan now seems to be to stonewall until November." – Chicago Tribune Editorial, February 12, 2010
CHICAGO – Today marks the 20th day of Alexi Giannoulias’ silence since promising reporters he would answer questions surrounding his role in the near-collapse of his family’s Broadway Bank.
Ill. GOP Says: Put Alexi on the Phone!”
-By Warner Todd Huston
There has been some loose talk around conservative circles in Illinois about finding a more conservative candidate to run against both Alexi Giannoulias and Mark Kirk for the Illinois Senate in November. But the time for this was during the primary and that time is now passed. If we wanted a more conservative candidate than Mark Kirk we should have nominated him on February 2. A third party candidate at this time will only elect the mob banker, Alexi Giannoulias, to the Senate.
The only thing that wouldn’t make my statement above untrue is if a more conservative, third party candidate can mount a seriously funded campaign and can build a state-wide coalition over the next few months. By seriously funded, I’m talking at least four million dollars. The likelihood of this is remote at best.
And here is the thing: if a serious conservative candidate was able to get four million dollars together in only three months that candidate would have done so last October or November and would have been on that primary ballot.
It should also be pointed out that the state GOP will not be helping anyone but Kirk. Any insurgent candidate would have to build a state-wide network, or already have one, that could best the entire GOP establishment in order to run a credible race.
With Patrick Hughes out of the campaign due to his primary loss, there is no one else with the name recognition, state-wide network, or money to mount a serious campaign. Would that there was one.
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A Conservative Candidate to Face Kirk and Giannoulias in Nov? Better Be Careful!”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Robert Dold (Dold’s campaign website) has announced his entrant into the race for the 10th District House seat that Mark Kirk is abandoning for his run for the U.S. Senate.
Dold told CQPolicts.com that he’s running for Congress because…
“we’re seeing a tremendous amount of spending that I believe is going in the wrong direction. I think that the government is kind of overreaching at this stage of the game.”
“Unless we make some changes in Washington very quickly, we are going to bankrupt future generations,” Dold said. Dold said that Congress should be run more like small businesses, which he said are the nation’s “economic backbone” and create two-thirds of all jobs. He supports a “moratorium or cutting back on the payroll tax” as the “quickest way to infuse dollars into the system.”
Dold calls himself a fiscal conservative but says he’s a social moderate. Looking over his website and other information, it seems that fiscal issues are to be the focal point of his campaign.
Dold joins three others seeking the GOP nomination for Kirk’s old House seat:
One More For Kirk’s House Seat”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Republicans United Against Mark Kirk for US Senate, a blog to chronicle Representative Mark Kirk’s record by folks not very happy with his record has been set up to argue against his candidacy.
According to the opening main statement, the blog is set up to reveal Kirk’s “departure from the GOP’s state and national platforms.”
This blog is a response to US Rep. Mark Kirk’s bid for the US Senate seat from Illinois. It will reveal Mark Kirk’s voting record as a member of the US House of Reps. and address Kirk’s departure from the GOP’s state and national platforms. This site will provide a venue for Illinois voters to express their opinions on not only Kirk, but others who will be on the GOP’s primary ballot in 2010. Read letters to the editor, articles and commentaries regarding Kirk’s position on the issues.
Kirk’s Cap and Trade vote really set off a firestorm of anti-Kirk sentiment out there, it seems.
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Anti-Mark Kirk Efforts Begin”