#rsrh Giannoulias bank lent to Rezko.

Before we go any further, let us never forget: Alexi Giannoulias (D CAND, IL-SEN) made his political career all about his experience in working in his family’s bank.

So it’s kind of fascinating to hear the state treasurer of Illinois claim he knows nothing, nothing! about the almost twenty-three million dollars that his family bank lent a notorious Blagojevich crony who was under federal investigation at the time.

Through a spokeswoman, Giannoulias says he knew nothing about the $22.75 million loan to Riverside District Development until reporters contacted him.

“Alexi left daily operations of the bank in September of 2005, months before this loan was made,” says Kathleen Strand of his campaign staff. “He had no knowledge of it, and his name is not on any documents related to the loan…

Continue reading #rsrh Giannoulias bank lent to Rezko.

Meet John Colbert (R CAND, CA-29).

It’s pronounced ‘Kohl-bert,’ he’s up against Adam Schiff, and John can’t stand that stupid delta smelt, either. That last is starting to be a theme among California candidates and legislators: well, the Republican ones, at least. Anyway, we talked yesterday:

John’s site is here.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

“Blame Bush,” RIP: 2001-2010.

It was a good run for the Democrats, but all things must come to an end some day.  I know, I know: it’s downright horrible for the American people to start expecting the political party that’s held Congress since 2006 and the White House since 2008 to actually take personal responsibility for the bad things happening to the economy.   But the Democrats will have to live with it, as the American people have started to assign more responsibility to Obama for the current economy than to Bush – at least, the Republican and Independent sections of the American people have, which is really the important thing these days.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 48% of Likely U.S. Voters now think Obama’s policies are to blame for the continuing bad economy, up three points from last month. Forty-seven percent (47%) say the recession that began under Bush is at fault.

There are, of course, many hidden victims here of this betrayal of the Democratic party by the people of the United States.  No, really.  I mean, think of all of those soon-to-be Democratic former Congressmen who have to hope that the lobbying industry can handle the sudden influx of new glad-handlers, parasites, and influence-peddlers that comes from a Congressional readjustment!  For that matter, think of those poor, poor staffers who next January will be facing the specter of having no job and no prospect of getting one – and in one of the more expensive metropolitan areas, to boot.  Some of them may even have to move back in with their parents.

The horror. Continue reading “Blame Bush,” RIP: 2001-2010.

Minorities and the GOP: not yet DOOM?

Sean Trende over at RCP finds something interesting going on with minority polling.  The basic numbers at the heart of what may or may not be an important trend are these: the exit poll numbers for 2004/2008.

2004 2008
Voters GOP Dem GOP Dem
African American 10 89 5 93
Hispanic 44 55 29 68

As Sean notes, how these numbers shake out in future elections determines how much of the white vote each party generally needs to win.  Using 2008 numbers, the GOP’s target number for white voters is apparently 60%, which is a number that gives Democrats some comfort. Continue reading Minorities and the GOP: not yet DOOM?

#rsrh NC-11: Heath Shuler in deep [redacted].

Crude of me, but when SuSA informs an incumbent Democrat that his R+6 district is only giving him a 45/44 advantage over opponent Jeff Miller* among registered voters, crude is pretty much the proper response.  The poll isn’t up yet, but Jim Geraghty** has the details. Shuler’s underwater both generally and with independents; Miller’s not as well known, but apparently a lot of voters are fine with him not being Heath Shuler.

Which makes sense, really.  Still proud of that job-killing cap and trade bill you voted for, Heath?

Moe Lane

*And, if you check out the NRCC’s Big Board, you can get to Jeff’s website within seconds! Thanks, Big Board! [Or… not: link fixed. Well, how many Jeff Millers are going to run for Congress, anyway?] Continue reading #rsrh NC-11: Heath Shuler in deep [redacted].

The NRCC’s Big Board.

The NRCC has drawn up a map of all 435 Congressional Districts, separated them out by state, and linked each district to the website of either the incumbent Republican that represents it, or the Republican that will be challenging the incumbent Democrat in November. 

Note that in cases of contested primaries without an incumbent (like, say, FL-05’s) the NRCC is explicitly not taking sides by picking any particular campaign to highlight; they’ll put up the website of a candidate who is the only one in a primary, which makes sense.

I’ve been playing with this feature for a bit, and the NRCC came through on this one: it’s straightforward, easy to use, and it’s going to save me a good deal of work.  I suggest that folks use it, particularly if they feel the need to concretely express their disapproval of the latest Democratic Member of Congress’s shenanigans.  And with 430 of 435 races being contested, folks usually can.

Moe Lane

“Indian music video with guns and dance moves and explosions.”

This comes to us via AoSHQ, and it is so totally moosh-sweet that I’m passing up the chance to put in a cheesy Amazon.com link.

Really, I don’t know whether to apologize to India for the cultural contamination, or to politely insist on them thanking us for it.

Book of the Week: “The Affinity Bridge.”

I just finished The Affinity Bridge: it’s slightly later-period steampunk (1900s rather than the 1880s, which seems to be the default period for this sort of thing) that combines the detective genre with some fairly subtle horror. It’ll be interesting to see whether the series that it’s a part of will go farther into the supernatural: even so, GURPS called this sub-genre ‘Screampunk,’ and it fits.  Good grasp of the time period and a good read, but I’m not sure that I would buy the later books in the series in hardback. Still, it’s the first book in a series which is worth looking at further.

So good-bye, The Evolutionary Void. You had a good run.

Obama to Democrats: you may deny Me.

Hey, remember when the White House thought that they were going to be a help for vulnerable Democrats running on all those tough, unpopular, unprincipled, and job-killing votes that the White House insisted that said vulnerable Democrats make?  Yeah, well, that’s gone by the wayside.    The White House is now telling said Democrats that the President understands if members of his party have to run for re-election without him ‘helping’ out.

Just savor that for a moment: imagine that you are a Democrat from a district whose Republican-leaning constituency has been looking at you funny for your votes on the stimulus, cap-and-trade, and/or Obamacare.  You know darn well that these were going to be unpopular votes, and when you brought that up with your party’s leadership you were given what South American drug dealers call the plata o plomo response.  That’s Spanish for ‘silver or lead;’  it means, ‘take a bribe or a bullet.’  In this case, the ‘silver’ was the promise that the President would be there for your election campaign if you played ball with his administration now… and the ‘lead’ was the promise that the President would not be there to help you out if you did not play ball.  You knew that you’d need the draw if you wanted to win, so you gulped nervously and voted against your district – and now that it’s done, the President is telling you that you have permission to deny knowing the One. And no doubt thrice, if necessary. Continue reading Obama to Democrats: you may deny Me.