Cruz For President Announces Illinois Leadership Team

TED CRUZ for President ^ | Jan. 7, 2016 | Ted Cruz Campain

[stars & stripes forever]

Presidential candidate Ted Cruz today announced his 46-person Illinois Leadership Team that will help direct his strong grassroots organization and bring his consistent, conservative message to voters throughout the Prairie State...

[stars & stripes forever]

There are several on that endorsement list whom I respect.

[BillyBoy]

And yet you continue to dodge my reasons for objecting to David Smith.

David Smith, personally, went out of his way to help the worst RINO in this state (LaHood is so bad he makes Topinka look good in comparison) personally install his son to a cushy, lifetime job in Congress, and vouch for what a "good Christian man" the guy was. He, as an individual, repeatedly tried to "sell" the conservative base on creating a LaHood dynasty in politics and dissuade them from voting for a conservative challenger. He even told me, personally, that this country wasn't started to get away from that kind of thinking (I guess George Washington must have forgotten to install the Washington family as heir to the presidency forever)

(Incidentally, one of LaHood's first actions in Congress was to vote with the Democrats on the EX-IM Bank to send jobs overseas).

Do you agree with David Smith that Darin LaHood is a "good Christian man" who was absolutely right to stand by and say nothing while his dear ol' daddy Ray LaHood relentlessly went to bat for Obama and trashed conservatives? Is this the kind of behavior that a "good Christian" displays? Would you do the same thing if your dad was trashing everything you held dear?

Yes or no?

[Impy]

So this Garber fella backed a candidate for Governor who had less than stellar primary opposition and has acceded my exceptions since he’s been elected, and he’s hosted a fundraiser for an incumbent Republican Senator with no serious primary opposition who’s the #1 target of the DSCC scum? And now he’s backing Ted Cruz?

You’re right, what a bastard. Not like that Jim Gilmore, he’s a real dynamo. He’ll get tens of votes.

[BillyBoy]

>> There are several on that endorsement list whom I respect. <<

One of the reasons Smith's name is so odious compared to the rest of LaThug Jr.'s fan club is the reasoning behind the endorsement.

Many of the conservative elected officials in this state are greatly respected by me, and have otherwise staunch conservative records, but were caught between a rock and a hard place. I'm greatly disappointed that "conservatives" Jim Oberweis and Bill Brady endorsed LaThug's kid in the primary, but since they are elected officials, they were probably pressured to do so. The combine did the same thing in twisting arms when Kirk was running. Even Joe Walsh, who's currently out of office and as anti-establishment as it gets, was probably told that if he didn't endorse LaThug Jr., the powers that be in this state would get revenge and sabotage any future campaign he launched.

David Smith has no such excuse. He's not an elected official, is head of a privately run conservative organization, and despises the powers that be in this state, and doesn't care if Rauner or Kirk "go after" him. The only reason for him to endorse LaThug Jr. is he's either hopelessly naive and incredibly foolish, or he was promised something by LaThug's people and sold out to the combine wing of the party. Take your pick.

It's a bit similar to the Santorum vs. Gingrinch endorsements of RINOs. Both were cringeworthy and very disappointing. But you could understand Santorum's endorsement because Specter was the senior senator from his own state and President Bush twisted Santorum's arm to endorse him. Gingrch had no such excuse when he endorsed Scozzafava. He freely choose to inject himself into another state's primary and loudly champion a terrible slimy RINO. Why? Only Newt knows.

>> So this Garber fella backed a candidate for Governor who had less than stellar primary opposition <<

Sorry, no excuses for backing Rauner in the primary when he had credible, legitimate conservatives running against him. You said so yourself at the time, Impy. :-p

>> he’s hosted a fundraiser for an incumbent Republican Senator with no serious primary opposition <<

I can't get excited about "James Marter" either. Kirk will be re-nominated in a walk as long as he has a no-name, zero-funding primary candidate. The combine designed it that way. Still, there's no excuse to actively raise $$$ for Kirk in the primary unless you're a RINO GOP official. I wouldn't donate a cent to Kirk even if he was unopposed. Lindsey Graham had more laughable primary "opposition" and you'd get crucified here just for pointing out the fact that Graham will win easily (unless your name was Jim DeMint, then you could endorse Graham all you wanted in the primary and your fan club would look the other way).

>> Not like that Jim Gilmore, he’s a real dynamo. He’ll get tens of votes. <<

Heh. Well he's got PhilCollins vote at least.

[Impy]

Kirk will hardly need to spend in the primary, he’ll be using that money against Suckworth.

I didn’t back Rauner in the primary, but in hindsight it wasn’t such a bad thing he won so I’ll not castigate people who did back him in the primary. Brady (My vote, Distant 3rd place 15%) being a Bush dude makes it even less bad. :/

[Impy]

Rutherford (very distant 4th place, dead in the water) while I wasn’t 100% convinced he was trustworthy was my original choice.

Then boom, accused of trying to rape a dude, an ugly dude at that. This state.

[PhilCollins]

I didn’t say that Garber is a bastard, but I don’t know why a conservative would support Rauner and Kirk, before their primaries.

[BillyBoy]

>> Then boom, accused of trying to rape a dude, an ugly dude at that. This state <<

I'd say the same thing happened to Herman Cain on the federal level. He was not my candidate, I gave him exactly 0% chance of winning the nomination, but I never expected him to be derailed by some sordid "sexual harassment" allegation that came out of nowhere. Both Cain and Rutherford's supposed "sexual harassment" suits disappeared the instant they dropped out of the race, and they've been accused of nothing since then. Interesting how that works.

The worst in this state was the "Jack Ryan wanted to have kinky sex with his OWN WIFE" non-scandal that forced him out of the Senate race when Topinka, LaThug, and the rest started firing inward at him.

Bill Brady, Steve Forbes, and Joe Arapio (maybe Sarah Palin too) have all ended up in my "otherwise good conservatives who have made some really, really AWFUL endorsements" list. Weird for Brady to go from backing Fred Thompson to backing Jeb Bush.

Newt Gingrich and David Smith make my "USED to be good conservatives but gleefully stabbed us in the back too many times and have ZERO excuse for the scumbag they eagerly endorsed" list.

[Impy]

Re Rauner see post 25. To expand, in DEC 2015 Brady (the conservative choice) was running third in every poll. #2 Dillard in my view at least was worse (despite being socially conservative on paper).

While I certainly wasn’t backing Rauner at the time he’s turned out ok in my opinion, so endorsing him in Dec 2015 is hardly something I view as horrendous today.

Re Kirk, his primary is a formality he will easily win with minimal expenditure. The money raised will be used against the democrats.

I guess you could say there was still hope in March that Kirk would have viable primary opposition that could beat either him or a democrat, but I didn’t have any.

I don’t think given the circumstances that either example is significant evidence of significant RINOtude.

Shrug.

[Impy]

No maybe about it, Palin endorsed for AK Governor an ex-RINO running as an Independent, whom the democrats illegally withdrew their nominee to support (the law said they couldn’t leave the spot blank after nominating someone) and illegally inserted their LT Gov nominee to run with him. Her reason? The conservative Republican Governor Sean Parnell repealed her pet tax on the oil industry, in accordance with the wishes of the voters who voted to uphold the repeal in a referendum. The new Governor has already showed himself to be a miserable cur. EPIC fail.

And Sheriff Joey McAwesome endorsed that lib whore Napolitano for Governor. NOT in 2006 when she was 100% certain of reelection but in 2002 when she was in a close race with conservative Republican Matt Salmon. Epic fail.

As idiotic as supporting Jeb for President is, it’s not that bad compared to those.

[BillyBoy]

Back on the topic of the thread, in addition to PhilCollins running as a Gilmore delegate, Chicagolady is running as a Trump delegate. Her former favorite politician, Jim Oberweis, is a Rubio delegate. I would have filed as a Walker delegate if he hadn’t dropped out.