In 2004 they attacked Jack Ryan (not to be confused with Jim Ryan or George Ryan) as a Jon Corzine clone and insinuated that Corzine put him up to run because they both were millionaires that worked at Goldman Saches. Oberweis' camp put out a last minute hit piece a few days before the election with Obie and Jack Ryan side-by-side that read "Jim Oberweis: Conservative Republican. Jack Ryan: Liberal Democrat" and proclaimed Jack Ryan actually had a bunch of hidden "liberal" views (this from the guy who had run as a "moderate" two years earlier and only cared about lower taxes and gun rights at the time). After Ryan's divorce records were unsealed and JBT and Ray LaHood stabbed Ryan in the back, we learned exactly how friendly the "establishment insiders" were to Ryan. The Oberweis crowd naturally expected Jim Oberweis to be selected as the replacement candidate since he had polled second in the race, and when he wasn't, many of them screamed about how Jim had been "cheated" and promised to stay home.
In 2006, as I mentioned before, they started whispering about a grand conspiracy that the other conservative in the race, Bill Brady (who is not related to Jim & Sarah Brady and in fact had an unblemished solid conservative voting record in office), was a Topinka plant and had supposedly spent a year traveling around the state and put up hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money for the sole purpose of "taking votes from Obie" so RINO Topinka would get nominated. They'd even post crap on the Illinois boards saying they saw a "secret handshake" between the two on camera where Topinka whispers something in his ear and other tinfoil hat stuff like that. As proof, they pointed to the fact Brady endored Topinka in the general election monthes later (the fact that Oberweis did too and gave Judy a big fat donation at the "unity dinner" was immaterial to them). They also talked of "taking Brady out" of his Senate seat as "revenge" for his "splitting the conservative vote". A year later, the evil "establishment insider traitor" Bill Brady announced he was going to be Fred Thompson's Illinois campaign manager, and that finally shut many of them up with the "Brady's on Topinka's payroll" smear. They were strangely quiet when I asked then to weigh in on whether still thought Fred's campaign manager was a "Topinka shrill".
There was a simular race in TN at the time where Van Hillary and Ed Bryant split the conservative vote and a RINO got nominated, but you never heard any tinfoil hat stuff that Van Hillary was a RINO plant on Bob Corker's payroll...
In short, according to the Oberweis cult, Obie can do no wrong. Whenever a more likable, more popular Republican official who has spent years building up his conservative credentials and carrying the water for the conservative movement gets in Obie's way, they place the blame on him and sinister unseen forces who are backing him solely for the purpose of destroying Jim Oberweis (shades of Hillary's "vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since he first ran for office). It's never the fault of the Oberweis campaign itself for falling to get elected. Never.
I wouldn't worry about the rumblings of them getting "revenge" on Lauzen as I doubt they'll follow through on any of this. The concern now is getting Oberweis to realize he can't win in November. The only way he'll listen to this and decide to get out of the race is if someone in his inner-circle has a frank discussion with him and tells him the situation is dire. In other words, we need an Oberweis cultist (in the mold of Ron Paul & Lyndon LaRouche types) to take a long hard look at reality and stop drinking the kool-aid.
I do fear if Oberweis is on the ballot in November, he'll drag down all the GOP candidates in Illinois' 14th District. Combine that with an Obama candidacy and we're talking massacre in what is normally "safe" Reagan country.
Possibly, but he's already on the ballot.
Do you think Oberweis will take a hint and withdraw? I don't know much about him but from what I've learned so far such an act doesn't seem to be in character.