illinois – Page 12

Burris promised a campaign contribution to Blagojevich.

Ace of Spades (H/T, by the way) has kindly given me permission to use the Flaming Blagojevich Skull for this, so I shall:

Sun-Times exclusive: Burris promised Blago campaign a check by mid-December

In a November conversation caught on an FBI wiretap, Roland Burris promised Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s brother that he’d write the governor a campaign check by mid-December, Burris’ lawyer said today.

That was about a month before Rod Blagojevich appointed Burris to the U.S. Senate.

But lawyer Timothy Wright told the Chicago Sun-Times today that his client never sent the check because he believed it wasn’t a good idea given Burris’ interest in the U.S. Senate seat appointment. Wright said Burris’ decision not to send the check had nothing to do with Blagojevich’s Dec. 9 arrest.

Continue reading Burris promised a campaign contribution to Blagojevich.

Blagojevich/Burris wiretap to be released.

It’s been a while since we visited the Matter of Blagojevich, but one thing that you can always count on: there’s always going to be something new coming out from that glorious trainwreck.

Judge OKs release of wiretap of Burris

CHICAGO (AP) — A federal judge said Tuesday he would allow the U.S. Senate Ethics Committee to have a federal wiretap of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s brother having a phone conversation with U.S. Sen. Roland Burris.

To summarize why the Senate might want to listen to this recording: Burris, in the course of getting the US Senate to seat him…

Signed an affidavit indicating that he never talked to Blagojevich’s aides.
Admitted in his testimony that he actually talked to one of the Governor’s unofficial aides.
Said in the same testimony that he didn’t remember talking to anybody else.
Signed another affidavit later on – after he officially became Senator – that he actually had talked to some of Blagojevich’s aides.
Admitted to reporters that he tried to do some fundraising for Blagojevich.

At this point, as the AP remarked:

Then he stopped answering questions, letting others speak on his behalf.

I’ll let Vice President Joe Biden, who is himself no amateur at this sort of spin control, provide the Democratic response:

Succinct, that.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Jan Schakowsky (D, IL-09) loves her tax fraud.

I assume, at least. There’s no indication that their marriage is in trouble.

[UPDATE]: Welcome, Instapundit readers. No, I don’t think that we’re very squashable, either.

I agree with Glenn Reynolds that Rep Schakowsky’s comments about the Tea Parties (‘despicable’ and ‘shameful’) were ‘pathetic.’ I also agree that the fact that she’s married to a convicted tax fraud (not to mention, Huffington Post writer) to be ‘ironic.’ But I’d like to add one:

Utterly Typical: “The husband of an Illinois congresswoman was sentenced to five months in prison Wednesday. Robert Creamer is married to US Representative Jan Schakowsky. He was convicted on charges of writing bad checks and tax evasion.”

Why do people like Creamer think that they can get away with tax evasion? Because when you’re married to a Democratic Congresswoman, very often you can. That’s because people like Schakowsky don’t think that the rules apply to them. Which is her problem with the Tea Parties, really: the people involved with them have a distinctly different opinion, and they aren’t the sort that get amused with the argument that social justice sometimes requires bank fraud. Best to try to squash them quick.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Turnout low in IL-05.

This has been noticed by both Ace and Geraghty (and again, here): turnout’s low in IL-05. How low? Rahm Emanuel forgot to vote. I am not writing this to offer false hope: it’s an incredibly tough district for us to win, and Rosanna Pulido hasn’t exactly gotten her party behind her. But, oddly enough, neither has Mike Quigley. He’s heavily favored to win, but he’s gotten virtually no support – which is odd; you’d think that the Democrats wouldn’t turn their nose up at hyping an easy win, particularly since they’re either 0-for-3 or 0-for-4, depending on how you think NY-20’s going right now. But this one is being pretty much left up to the candidates.

If I had to guess, I don’t think that establishment Democrats want to lose the seat, per se: they just don’t think that making sure that they don’t lose it is worth the effort. After all, Emanuel’s going to want to go back to the House some day. Quigley in that seat will be harder to dislodge than a GOP interloper.

I guess that we’ll see tonight. In the meantime, if you live in IL-05, go vote. Either way, you’re probably going to tick off the Illinois Democratic party.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Blagojevich to be indicted today.

Brought to my attention by Riehl World View. The best part? This:

Sources: Blagojevich indictment today

The U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago says that later today it is announcing developments in a “significant criminal matter.” Sources familiar with the situation said the announcement is expected to be the indictment of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and others on corruption charges.

Bolding mine. “And others.” That has such a fun ring to it, don’t you think?

Crossposted to RedState.

Appeals to the grassroots: NY-20, IL-05.

NY-20: The recount for this race – which is actually at plus 25 right now, not plus 57 – is going to be expensive. There’s a new pledge drive up to pay for that recount, in the same style as the one that gathered over 120K for Jim Tedisco: I encourage people to help out there, or where they can. It’s already at 9K (the target number is 40K), which tells you that there are people out there who share your concerns about the potential for abuse of the recount – to say nothing of the absentee ballot count. We’re in a good place to take a seat away from the Democrats, here; one that progressives are annoyed to have had to fund (military-hating opponents of the death penalty for terrorists are ‘centrist’ to that sort, you see). Think of it as a civic obligation.

IL-05: On a more ideological/idealistic level, though, it doesn’t get any better than Rosanna Pulido‘s campaign. As the below video shows, she’s fighting in a heavily-Democratic district against a guy with the full support of the state Democratic party apparatus, with no equivalent support from her own party… Continue reading Appeals to the grassroots: NY-20, IL-05.

By the way, we’re having a trade war with Mexico.

Yes, yes, I know: NAFTA’s supposed to prevent that sort of thing, but we’re having one anyway:

Ricardo Alday, spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Washington said pressuring politicians by hitting imports from states with key Democratic leaders with tariffs of up to 90 percent “is one the main considerations,” for the action, the Dallas Morning News reported Wednesday.

The official list of products has not been released, but a draft obtained by economist Dermot Hayes at the University of Iowa suggest the tariffs will pinpoint almonds from California, sunglasses from Illinois, bowling equipment from Nevada and books from New York — the home states of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, President Barack Obama, Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

And before you ask: yes, it’s because of the bill that Dina Titus (D-NV) said that she read. Continue reading By the way, we’re having a trade war with Mexico.

The latest New York Times did yet another story on Steele…

…only this time it had a very welcome sentence in it.

“Mr. Steele declined a request for an interview.”

Dan Riehl caught this first, and I concur: there are times when you pick yourself up, walk it off, and get back to work – and Steele’s gotten to that point. Yes, the media doesn’t love the GOP, except as a punching bag. And yes, the media loves to see Red-on-Red fights, the latest of which has spent far too much time occupying people’s brains than it should have for the last two weeks. And yes, there are ongoing philosophical issues between the various factions of the GOP that are causing all sorts of dynamic tension / impending meltdown / what have you.

Meanwhile, there’s a race going on up in NY-20. Is that less important to you than whether Steele’s sufficiently pro-life? If it isn’t, Tedisco can always use the help. There’s also a race going on over in IL-05. Are you looking for a better hill to fight and maybe die on than whether or not Rush is going to doom the GOP? If you are, Pulido wants to hear from you. Virginia and New Jersey are having elections for governor this year. Are you tired of the debate over who should be the next Presidential candidate? Then the NJ GOP and the VA GOP would be happy to redirect your interests to something a bit more topical.

I could go on, but hopefully you get the point. There is business that must be attended to, and at this point we are merely amusing the Other Side.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Real estate shenanigans and the Democratic Party.

Rep. Alan Mollohan (D, WV-01) is merely the latest on the list.

Reading Brian Faughnan’s piece about Rep Alan Mollohan’s (D, WV-01) steering earmarks to his landlord while receiving free rent reminded me, of course, of Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s (D, formerly IL-05) steering lucrative polling contracts to his landlord while receiving free rent. And now I’ve been reminded by fellow RS Contributor Mark I that Senator Bob Menendez (D, NJ) notoriously steered earmarks the way of – and greased the path of federal funding for – a tenant of his when he was both a landlord and a Congressman. There’s apparently money in real estate shenanigans: I’m starting to wonder whether the House orientation session for freshmen Democrats includes a quick rundown on the topic. Continue reading Real estate shenanigans and the Democratic Party.

Senator Durbin (D-IL) abandons Senator Burris (D-IL).

Abandons him quite comprehensively, in fact:

WASHINGTON–Embattled Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.) is cancelling his Thursday schedule, where he was to have met with Rockford area civic, elected and religious leaders as Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) sent out a very frosty statement, saying Burris failed to disclose under oath the nature of his relationship with former Gov. Blagojevich.

Continue reading Senator Durbin (D-IL) abandons Senator Burris (D-IL).