Kirk slams Bright Start, but not Giannoulias [agrees with Democrat opponent]

The Chicago Tribune ^ | October 12, 2009 | Rick Pearson

[BillyBoy]

Kirk slams Bright Start, but not Giannoulias

For weeks, Republican Mark Kirk and Democrat Alexi Giannoulias have tried to play over the heads of their opponents in the Feb. 2 primary election for the U.S. Senate, attacking each other rather than engaging the opponents within their own parties.But at a downtown Chicago news conference today, Kirk addressed a controversy involving Giannoulias’ stewardship as state treasurer of the Bright Start college savings program—and appeared to take Giannoulias’ side.

[This is an excert from the original article. To see the article in its entirity, click the link the source page]

[BillyBoy]

I've been following "Republican" Congressman Mark Kirk for years. This is typical for him -- he pretends to be different from the RAT in the race but simply agrees with his RAT opponent on every issue. Several freepers have praised Kirk recently for newfound "opposition" to ACORN, failing to notice Kirk's RAT opponent took the exact same position of claiming to be outraged by ACORN corruption and committed to ensuring the feds sever all ties to them.

If Kirk is the "Republican" nominee for the U.S. Senate in Illinois, the fall election will be little more than a RAT primary with the two candidates competing over who's the most liberal.

Posting this one to add more ammo to my Mark Kirk Truth file.

[BillyBoy]

Rather than criticize the first-term Democratic state treasurer, Kirk went after “a state bureaucrat that has a bad record.” Asked by a reporter who that bureaucrat was, Kirk replied it was the person who ran the Oppenheimer “core plus” fund—who is not a state employee. That’s the argument that Giannoulias has been making in trying to recover the funds.

PING.

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MARK KIRK TRUTH FILE
JUST SAY NO TO SOCIALISM

" "The GREENEST candidate in the race... better than Barack Obama!"
- Carol Calabresa/The Sierra Club, 2008
" The strength of our campaign remains the Democrats"
- Mark Kirk, 2008

Freepmail me to get ON or OFF this list.

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MARK KIRK TRUTH FILE
JUST SAY NO TO SOCIALISM

" "The GREENEST candidate in the race... better than Barack Obama!"
- Carol Calabresa/The Sierra Club, 2008
" The strength of our campaign remains the Democrats"
- Mark Kirk, 2008

MARK KIRK TRUTH FILE
JUST SAY NO TO SOCIALISM

" "The GREENEST candidate in the race... better than Barack Obama!"
- Carol Calabresa/The Sierra Club, 2008
" The strength of our campaign remains the Democrats"
- Mark Kirk, 2008

[NormsRevenge]

The cream of the RMSP crop this year?

A rapidly group... and the sooner it and its members are tossed from Congre$$, the better.

[PhilCollins]

Kirk doesn’t have a democrat opponent, yet, since we don’t know who the republican and democrat nominees will be. Before the primary, he should concentrate on telling the differences between himself and the other nine candidates, in his race.

[BillyBoy]

The thing I found surprising in this article is Kirk publicly said he's willing to debate his primary opponents after the filing deadline. Let's hold his feet to the fire on that. I figured he would do his best to avoid them on the campaign trail and pretend they don't exist.

Of course, knowing Marky, he's probably agree to a "debate" on his terms, where the candidates can't question each other and everything in scripted in advance by his friends at the League of Women Voters and the Coalition for Immigration Rights to throw softball questions at him ("tell us more about your work in Congress to help families locate missing children...blah blah blah", while throwing questions at the other Republicans ("how much money have you raised in the first quarter?") to marginalize them.

If we could get Marky into a REAL debate where the candidates can ask each other questions ("Congressman, you've stated that you only voted for cap and trade because your constituents wanted it... but a recent survey of the 10th district voters, 44% said they were LESS likely to vote for someone pro-cap and trade and only 13% said they were more likely. Were you wrong about your own constituency?") and there's plenty of time allowed for response and then rebuttals, it could very interesting and expose GOP voters to the real Mark Kirk.

Kirk also says "I'm going to be generous" and not try to throw any other Republicans off the ballot. That I believe. It's in Kirk's best interests to have six conservatives running against him in the primary rather than a one-on-one race with Eric Wallace.

[PhilCollins]

I know of two endorsement sessions that will be held on Nov. 15. One will be for New Trier and Northfield Townships. The other will be for Evanston, Niles, and Maine Townships. I hope that Kirk and Wallace will attend both of those.

[Impy]

Mark and Alexi sittin’ in a tree, KISSING. First come taxes, then gay marriage, then comes Markie with the third trimester abortion.

[Hans]

Kirk's explanation of why he voted for Cap and Trade is astonishing. “I'm a whore, whores will do these things”
This level of integrity demands a seat in Senate of the United States.

[BillyBoy]

He was gonna hook up with Dede Scozzafava at the next La Raza fund raiser, but was crestfallen when he found she only dates other gals. Kirk, however, "plays both sides"

[Paleo Conservative]

Does he ever disagree with DemocRATS?

[BillyBoy]

>> Kirk's explanation of why he voted for Cap and Trade is astonishing. “I'm a whore, whores will do these things” This level of integrity demands a seat in Senate of the United States. <<

Worse than that. Kirk isn't even being truthful about voting for cap n' trade because his district wanted it. They took a poll in Illinois' 10th district last week and a majority of them OPPOSED cap and trade. I suspect the real reason he voted for cap n' trade is Chicago-based energy giant Exelon Corporation has contributed a total of $94,873 to Kirk since 2000 and would reap huge financial benefits after passage of cap n' trade. Kirk is bought and paid for.

[BillyBoy]

Here’s how Crain’s Chicago Business described things last week:

“[C]learly one of the biggest winners is Chicago-based Exelon, which could see cash flow increase by more than $1 billion a year if the bill passes, company securities filings disclosed last week. Restrictions on carbon emissions eventually will increase the market price of electricity, a huge boon for Exelon, with its relatively low, stable costs of nuclear power.”

Since 2003, Exelon has also contributed at least $227,000 to Barack Obama’s campaigns for U.S. Senate and for President.

[mosesdapoet]

I have trying to follow this debacle because of the push by the “McCain me-too’s”. Who are Kirks opponents in the Republican primary ? The filing dates are comming up I think the last date to file is Dec 27th. Who is filing for Kirk’s congressional seat ?
http://www.theusmat.com/

[BillyBoy]

As of now there's at least 8 or 9 people running against Kirk in the primary. How many will get ballot access remains to be seen. At least six of Kirk's primary opponents are conservatives. They are:

John Arrington (R) - Ex-Harvey City Alderman, Community Resource Center Founder & '04 US Rep. Candidate

Patrick Hughes (R) - Attorney & Anti-Tax Activist

Tom Kuna (R) - Businessman, Ex-Teacher & Pro-Life Activist

Dan Lowery (R) - Retired Circuit Judge, Ex-Massac County State's Attorney & Vietnam War Veteran

Robert Zadek (R) - Businessman, Real Estate Broker, Ex-Mortgage Broker, Ex-Corporate Auditor & USCG Veteran

Eric Wallace (R) - Apostolic Minister, Businessman & GOP Activist

There's also these two candidates, who are to the right of Kirk but fairly moderate. Andy Martin has a reputation being lawsuit crazy and a conspircy theorist, few people take him seriously. Varga is liberal on a couple of issues like gay unions and enviromental stuff but otherwise conservative. He's unlikely to get more than 1% or 2%. Don't know enough about Ms. Thomas.

Ed Varga (R) - McHenry County Board of Health Member & Professional Engineer

Andy Martin (R) - Frequent Candidate

Kathleen Thomas (R) - Ex-New Berlin School Board Member & College Professor

Zadek, Kuna, Thomas, and Varga have no shot at winning and will accomplish little aside from further splitting the anti-Kirk vote. IMO they should drop out of the race. Arrington, Hughes, and Lowery have potential and would be good recruits for another race, but IMO this is not the place or time.

The best of the bunch, IMO, is Dr. Eric Wallace, who has been active in GOP politics for over two decades and has a great life story as a successful entrepreneur in the private sector and a conservative black minister. He holds both a Ph.D. and an M.A. He has held appointed government positions and is a former candidate for state Senate. His multimedia company that provides media for black Christian churches is well known in black communities on the south side. He has been endorsed by prominent national conservatives like Ken Blackwell and Herman Cain. He's running on a platform called the LIFT standard, based on the principles of Conservatism drafted by former Senator Fred Thompson, and Dennis LaComb executive director of the United Republican Fund of Illinois.

His website is www.wallaceforillinois.com if you want to check it out.

I wish we could have a "conservative primary" in December via a statewide straw poll of the six conservatives, which the other candidates agreeing to drop out and throw their support to whoever wins so we conservatives can be united to stop Kirk. I'm confident that Dr. Wallace could win such a straw poll.

[BillyBoy]

>> Who is filing for Kirk’s congressional seat ? <<

So far we have the following announced candidates:

Patricia Bird (R) - Financial Consultant

Bill Cadigan (R) - Attorney & Ex-Congressional Aide

Beth Coulson (R) - State Rep., Physical Therapist & Ex-Medical School Professor

Bob Dold (R) - Businessman

Dick Green (R) - Stock Market Analyst

Jim Koch (R) - New Trier School Board President & Attorney

I don't know which of them is the most conservative or even if any of them are decent conservatives. There seems to be something in the water over in the north shore region of Illinois, as both Republicans and Democrats in that district seem hellbent on avoiding discussing the issues with voters and instead speak on vague generalities everyone agrees with, like "taxes should be lower" (in might have to do with the district's makeup -- in terms of elected officials and voters, the district was drawn to be almost 50%-50% party makeup, though in the huge Dem turnout of 2006 and 2008 there was a slight edge in RAT votes) I heard a while back to State Rep. Coulson is a Kirk clone only slightly better, lately I'm thinking she's even worse (this gal is such a RINO she photoshopped herself next to Blago in 2006 and ran on "the Blagojevich-Coulson agenda") I've heard Bob Dold (ballot name makes me think of Bob Dole and Chris Dodd unfortunately) is fairly conservative, but again there are conflicting reports.

The good news is that Obama clone and two-time loser Dan Seals is insisting on running for that seat a THIRD time (and if anyone thinks his 47% in that district is "impressive", bear in mind Obama won 61% of that district in the same election). Seals could be our own Myrth York, as voters are so tired of him they might elect a decent Republican instead. Assuming we have one to run. And assuming the Dems are dumb enough to nominate him a third time.

Freeper Phil Collins lives in the 10th, maybe he can shed some light on the GOP field.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Phil Collins for the 10th District (hell, if ChicagoLady can get the nod for the 5th, why not Phil ?). ;-)

[BillyBoy]

Actually, Phil’s decided to file for state rep. now that is RINO state Rep. Coulson is running for Kirk’s seat. I found out the other day the GOP bigwigs in this state are pissed because they wanted some RINO named “Hamilton Chang” (yes that’s his real name!) to be anointed unopposed in the primary to fill Coulson’s vacancy.

[Lancey Howard]

Does this scumbag Kirk stand a chance of winning the primary?
How stupid are Illinois Republicans?

[fieldmarshaldj]

Which IL Republicans ? The Reformist/Anti-Combiner wing or the Combiners ? The Combiners are crooks, regardless of their ideology, they are also the well-funded establishment.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Phil needs to give them hell. No more f’ing Combiner crooks.