Moe Lane

Getting rid of Phil Hare in IL-17 last year was one of life’s little pleasures – originally because Phil Hare was an odious little apparatchik toady who inherited the seat and kept it from inertia, but later because I grew to like Bobby Schilling.  Small business guy, pretty friendly, enjoyed taking whacks at Hare at every opportunity: what wasn’t to like?

Turns out that Representative Schilling hasn’t lost his taste for afflicting the comfortable: he’s publicly taken up the President on Obama’s kind offer to talk to Republicans about fixing the health care bill.  Bobby’s got a bunch of things to discuss:

• The individual mandate.  Which is on track to be thrown out as unconstitutional.  Oopsie!
• The 1099 disaster.  Short version: Obamacare added legislation that would force small businesses to have to make truly insane amounts of disclosure on their transactions.  Obama opposed fixing this until after his party got shellacked in the midterms.
• Schilling’s family’s Health Savings Account.  Which is on the chopping block once Obamacare is fully implemented, and so much for keeping your health plan if you wanted to keep it (Schilling chose not to use the Congressional health plan).
• And, oh yes: the general lack of transparency in the Obamacare ratification process.  Although the election of Bobby may be taken as a sign that the first corrective measures along those lines have been taken.

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You know, in some ways I’m going to miss this miserable ignoramus, once he’s gone: Phil Hare’s such a marvelous chew toy, and the ones that I had expected to be savaging this season were unexpectedly unsatisfying.  Alan Grayson?  Too slimy; I wanted to take a shower every time I saw him in the news.  Carol Shea-Porter?  The room-temperature IQ problem made it kind of unsporting.  Okinawa Jack Murtha?  Died on me.  But Hare (and Russ Carnahan, who I will also kind of miss smacking around) has been reliably bad since he first hove into view.

His latest goof-up?  Claiming the endorsement of the Illinois Corn Grower’s Association, only to have the ICGA explicitly contradict him in public. Needless to say, the Bobby Schilling campaign – which will not miss Hare in any way, shape or form – was happy to point this out… and to point out that people don’t like career politicians for a reason.

The Schilling campaign also has a van, of which they are very pleased:

I mention this because, again, they are very pleased with the van.  And with their last campaign ad, which can be seen under the fold.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

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This would be the guy running against two-termer Phil Hare – who, I have just recently found out, had pretty much just inherited his seat from the previous incumbent (Hare’s former boss), and who was coasting on that for 2006 and 2008.  Good luck for Hare then, bad luck for Hare now, huh? In other words; don’t assume that this guy will have to be pulled out of his district like a rotting tooth.

Anyway, Bobby Schilling‘s Good Week:

• Currently operating with a $100K cash-on-hand advantage.
• Made Politico’s 12 hottest House races to watch.
• Sen. Durbin came by to rally the crowd for Hare last week.  All sixty of them.

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That’s not an euphemism, by the way: Bobby Schilling‘s new ad shows him making a pizza.

An interesting skill to have, and frankly more useful than the skill set exhibited by his opponent Phil Hare, which these days mostly seems to involve lying about his opponent and being in deep, deep denial about the federal debt.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: Interestingly, the bipartisan John Deere PAC endorsed Bobby yesterday.  Something about him being more likely to help with starting up job creation again.

This cropped up at one of Phil Hare’s events. Some background (you can see the raw video here): Phil Hare was doing his best to ignore his constituents’ rather pointed questions about Hare’s lack of awareness when it came to Constitutional law; eventually Hare fled to an area where said constituents could not follow; they turned to leave; and then a Democrat called one of them a seven letter obscenity.

And that’s when the fun started.

Turns out that the guy is apparently Charles Giger, the husband and the chief of staff of DK Hirner, who has been tapped to lose the IL-18 Congressional election to Aaron Schock. Which leads to an interesting question: did Giger try to hide his wife’s campaign button to protect her, or to protect Phil Hare? – Because Hirner’s not only far too progressive for IL-18 (R+6); these days she’d be iffy for IL-17 (D+3). The last thing that the Hare campaign needs right now is any sort of association with left-wing extremists.

After all, isn’t Nancy Pelosi enough? (more…)

He’s running against Phil Hare; yes, Hare’s the guy that can’t tell the Constitution from the Declaration of Independence. Interestingly, Bobby reported in the interview that apparently this isn’t the first time that Hare’s done this. It’s always sad when our elected officials start treating their seats as rights, not privileges…

Bobby’s website is here.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

[UPDATE] This is the guy who shot the original video, apparently. It never hurts to put your contact info in the end credits…

Think of this as a teachable moment, Congressman Hare.

Background here: and check Hot Air for more.

Moe Lane

PS: He read the bill, mind you. Three times.

PPS: Bobby Schilling for Congress.

Crossposted to RedState.