Tag: illinois combine

Meet Patrick John Ryan (‘R’-CAND, IL-STATE 22).

Well… actually, if you can you’re one up on the Illinois Republican party, which is in the novel position of running a fundraiser for a candidate whom nobody can find.

Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady announced that the Party will host a fundraiser for Patrick John Ryan, the “Republican” candidate challenging House Speaker Michael Madigan in the race for State Representative in the 22nd House district.

“We applaud Mr. Ryan for taking on such an enormous challenge of trying to unseat Speaker Madigan, and we want to show our support,” said Chairman Brady. “He’s definitely got the intestinal fortitude we look for in our Republican challengers. I’d just like to meet him.”

Continue reading Meet Patrick John Ryan (‘R’-CAND, IL-STATE 22).

Jan Schakowsky (D, IL-09) saves Shorebank after all.

Back in May it was reported that the failing, yet politically-connected Shorebank in Illinois was to be bailed out.  The bank actually closed last Friday, but was resurrected yesterday and turned into a new bank – one that will of course have no obvious relationship to Rep. Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), who lobbied very strenuously to save Shorebank… even though it’s not based in her district.  It is, however, the bank that Schakowsky’s convicted felon husband Robert Creamer used to partially extricate himself from the consequences of his fraud scheme; the bank provided critical assistance to Creamer that allowed him to avoid default – which would have beneficial effects on his sentencing a decade later*.  There is a strong whiff of this transaction being part of a quid pro quo – with the latter half being paid off, well, right about now.

If you’re wondering why Jan Schakowsky can get away with having her and her husband being  tied up in a dirty bank deal without censure by the House of Representatives, while Rep. Maxine Waters is currently facing ethics charges for her and her husband’s involvement with OneUnited, the answer’s easy: Schakowsky is white, and is thus simply fundamentally real to Democratic leadership in a way that no African-American Member of Congress could hope to be to them.  It should not be a surprise that House ethics investigations are being allowed to continue only against those legislators whose seats are considered locked-in by the Democrats anyway.

Yes, let me clear: I’m explicitly calling the House Democratic leadership a bunch of racists.  They are, you know.  And it’s never more obvious than when you consider the things that they don’t do, when they don’t have to.

Moe Lane

PS: Joel Pollak is the GOP candidate for IL-09, and he’s been all over this topic.  I’ve met him: he’s a good guy.  Check him out.

Continue reading Jan Schakowsky (D, IL-09) saves Shorebank after all.

Cedra Crenshaw back on ballot!

Cedra, as you will recall, is a conservative Republican running for the Illinois state Senate who had been thrown off the ballot for being a black conservative Republican a ballot technicality.  That has been… resolved, and not in the Democrats’ favor:

State Sen. A.J. Wilhelmi has a fight on his hands, and his Democratic bosses have only made it worse.

Party leaders brought out the big guns to try to blow Republican challenger Cedra Crenshaw off the November ballot for the 43rd District seat. But a Will County judge ruled Wednesday that Crenshaw’s ballot petitions are valid, rejecting the argument contrived by the Democrats who wanted Wilhelmi to coast to victory unopposed.

Continue reading Cedra Crenshaw back on ballot!

Speaking Truth to Power: Cedra Crenshaw vs. the Illinois Combine.

Quick background: Cedra Crenshaw (website here) is a conservative Tea Party activist – and, not incidentally, one that NAACP President Ben Jealous would happily call a ‘race traitor,’ if it weren’t for the minor fact that not even the media would ignore that kind of hypocrisy – who is trying to stay on the ballot for Illinois state senator. Emphasis on ‘trying:’ she’s fighting having her candidacy tossed for reasons that Eric Holder would be firing up a civil-rights investigation… if it weren’t for that fact that Holder undoubtedly considers her a race traitor, too.

Hey. It’s not my fault that the Democratic party refuses to do anything about its racist elements. Besides give them powers of trust and authority, that is.

Moving along, the Tea Parties aren’t precisely willing to accept the Democratic Party’s race-based shenanigans, and they’re more than happy to speak truth to power, afflict the comfortable, and engage in all those other behaviors that have been sanctified by a half-century of Lefty usage:

Continue reading Speaking Truth to Power: Cedra Crenshaw vs. the Illinois Combine.

Alexi Giannoulias (D), call your office.

I understand that the man is desperate to escape to Washington, DC – but the bills are piling up.  And I am not being figurative in the slightest:

Even by the standards of this deficit-ridden state, Illinois’s comptroller, Daniel W. Hynes, faces an ugly balance sheet. Precisely how ugly becomes clear when he beckons you into his office to examine his daily briefing memo.

He picks the papers off his desk and points to a figure in red: $5.01 billion.

“This is what the state owes right now to schools, rehabilitation centers, child care, the state university – and it’s getting worse every single day,” he says in his downtown office.

Mr. Hynes shakes his head. “This is not some esoteric budget issue; we are not paying bills for absolutely essential services,” he says. “That is obscene.”

Continue reading Alexi Giannoulias (D), call your office.

Blago subpoenas Giannoulias.

A pleasant beginning to the week, no?

First it was President Barack Obama, then White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, now U.S. Senate Candidate Alexi Giannoulias is joining the Rod Blagojevich corruption trial subpoena list.

Giannoulias is in the middle of a hard fought campaign against Congressman Mark Kirk for the right to fill the U.S. Senate seat once held by President Obama.

So there’s no doubt that being dragged into the Blagojevich trial is not welcome news for the Democratic candidate’s campaign.

Continue reading Blago subpoenas Giannoulias.

#rsrh QotD, Burn, Baby Burn edition.

From George Ryan juror Leslie Losacco, who had all sorts of… interesting experiences from being on the George Ryan jury, on the likelihood of similar attacks on Rod Blagojevich jurors:

“Rod is not an insider, so I don’t see as much of a motivation to bother this jury,” Losacco said. “No one likes him. His strategy seems to be, ‘I’m going down and I’m taking all of you with me.'”

Burn it all, Blago.  Down to the bedrock.  To semi-quote Terry Pratchett/Neil Gaiman, give your enemies a fate that mothers will whisper in dark places to frighten their young take them to the bloody cleaners, pal.  What else do you have to do with your time right now, anyway?

Chicago politicos ‘’suiciding’ right and left…’

…mostly left.

When politicos play musical chairs in Illinois, what happens after the music stops and there’s no safe place to sit?

There have been four dead in recent years, unrelated cases of suicide, different except for the acts of the common pageant: The corruption investigators call. The music ends abruptly.

Two were done in by guns, one on a beach, the other under a bridge. A third was by pills in a construction trailer.

The fourth came Friday morning during rush hour, announced by that body under that white sheet on the Metra tracks in McHenry County.

The quote in the title is from Dan Collins of POWIP, who adds a fifth (a potential Burris perjury witness) to John Kass’ list of four Illinois political figures who suddenly became unavailable to prosecutors involved in corruption investigations.  While the latest one on Kass’ list is almost certainly not murder – he jumped in front of a train, carrying a “Metra manual on how to handle service disruptions in the event of a suicide” – there’s at least two on that list that are, well, iffy.  And five that are darned convenient for what Kass calls the Illinois Combine.

You know, it’s not that I think that this current administration is really, deeply, personally involved in any of this; it’s that I think that this administration effectively grew up breathing the poisonous air of the Windy City, got used to it – and that it now assumes that America is merely a larger Chicago.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Blagojevich & Obama.

Oh, Rod Blagojevich: why could you not have used your powers for good?

(Via Instapundit) John Kass has a thoroughly entertaining article up on the way that former Governor Blagojevich is doing his level best to drag President Obama into the equally thoroughly entertaining drama that is former Governor Blagojevich’s corruption trial.  To summarize: the government is using Tony Rezko to go after Blagojevich; Blagojevich needs to taint Rezko’s testimony; so Blagojevich wants Obama to testify about Rezko.  Obama probably doesn’t want to testify about Rezko.  Particularly about things involving offers for Obama’s former Senate seat, which is why many details about the Obama subpoena were redacted… and promptly reconstructed (via Patterico).

Summing up, Kass cuts to the chase to write:

Though Thursday’s new information is quite fascinating, remember that it comes from the same defense team that has turned the case into a circus from day one.

And demanding the president take the stand in a corruption trial is all three rings, and the dozens of tiny little clowns pouring out of the diminutive car, and the bearded lady. Oh, and let’s not forget the dog-faced boy.

(murmuring) That was not a very nice thing to say about the Chief of Staff.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Scott Lee Cohen bringing a knife to the IL-GOV race?

What?  Too soon?

What’s odd is the reaction to this:

Gov. Pat Quinn said he’s ready to take on Scott Lee Cohen in the general election if the embattled Chicago pawnbroker publicly announces he’s making an independent run for the state’s highest office.

“When all is said and done, there will be a robust contest of ideas,” Quinn said.

I mean, you would think that the normal reaction to this – to wit, shaking Cohen violently while shouting “YOU TOOK STEROIDS AND THREATENED YOUR GIRLFRIEND WITH A KNIFE, YOU FOOL! GET OUT OF MY STATE BEFORE I SET THE WOLFHOUNDS UPON YOU!” – would have been the expected one from Quinn.  I mean, let’s review: Quinn already has to deal with a Senatorial candidate who’s loaned money to convicted pimps and bookies, a Lt. Governor candidate who got selected (not elected) because she’s white and has a useful last name, and, well, a gubernatorial candidate who’s laboring under the burden of being Pat Quinn.  The last thing the man needs is to have to run against a guy who somehow managed to win a Democratic primary despite being somebody who likes steroids for himself and knives for his partners.

And trust me: this will come up on a regular basis.  The possibility of being able to use the slogan Vote Republican.  We don’t cut women and have it still be relevant to the race after all comes as most welcome news to those of us on the VRWC…

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.