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Home Front: Politix

Burris misnames Feingold as 'Ralph Feinberg'

2010-10-24

The brilliant Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.) misidentified the name of one of his Senate colleagues with whom Burris has been working for the better part of 22 months. Burris misnamed Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), according to a report in the Chicago Tribune, calling the senator from his neighboring state "Ralph Feinberg" instead. "We've had a great relationship," Burris told the Tribune, in a profile piece detailing Burris's closing days in office. The Illnois Democrat was appointed by Gov. Rod Y'gotta pay to play! Blagojevich (D), who had allegedly sought money or favors in exchange for the appointment. The winner of the general election between Rep. Mark Kirk (R) and Democrat Alexi Giannoulias in Illinois will take Burris's seat shortly after Nov. 2.

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Home Front: Politix

Obama back in Chicago for fundraisers

2010-08-05

With his poll numbers dropping through the White House basement floor and his 49th birthday at hand, President Barack B.O. Obama sure could use some real party time with the guys back home in Chicago. And nothing says "let's party!" like a political fundraiser. Obama will headline one Thursday for his beleaguered basketball buddy, Alexi Giannoulias, who is campaigning as a Democrat for Obama's old Senate seat. Naturally, all the guests will applaud when Obama gives Alexi a big hug, smiles and says, "My man." But who are the guys behind the guys who won't be there to soak up the recognition? Shouldn't there be table of empty chairs, to silently honor those who are otherwise indisposed? I'm guessing that Tony Rezko, the president's benefactor, friend and personal real estate fairy, would love to attend. He was the star of a Sun-Times report published Monday about a $22 million development loan from the Giannoulias family's now-defunct Broadway Bank to a Rezko company. It would be nice for Rezko to show up. That way, Obama could point, then shout for all to hear: "That's not the Tony Rezko I know!" Sadly, Tony has no time for fundraisers these days. He's in federal custody, awaiting sentencing on his convictions for political influence peddling. Rezko has other pending cases, too, including one involving bouncing $450,000 in checks written against his Broadway Bank accounts to pay gambling debts. The Rezko thing isn't Giannoulias' only problem. Giannoulias is getting thwacked on a daily basis for what Tribune investigative reporters David Jackson, John Chase and Ray Gibson disclosed in April. It was $27.7 million in loans from Broadway Bank to some earthy felons who ran their own street-loan business. Every 10 minutes or so, Giannoulias' opponent -- the serial embellisher U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk -- and his Republican allies suggest that Giannoulias was a mob banker. "To hear my opponent Congressman Kirk say it's a mob bank is offensive," Giannoulias told WGN-AM morning host Greg Jarrett the other day. "It's dangerously inaccurate. I wouldn't know what a mafia guy looked like if he walked down the street." OK, fine. But could he recognize Michael "Jaws" Giorango and Demitri Stavropoulos? They received the $27.7 million in loans from Broadway Bank. The majority was loaned when Giannoulias was a senior loan officer. He touted his bank experience in his campaign for state treasurer. Giorango and Stavropoulos, according to the Tribune, used the money for real estate deals and for street loans -- a curious practice that I'm told is legal. Giorango was convicted in 2004 of promoting a nationwide prostitution ring. Some of the call girls worked for famous Chicago madam Rose Laws. He was sentenced to two years in federal prison.

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Home Front: Politix

Giannoulias will pay no income taxes, receive return of $30,000

2010-07-04

Democratic Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias will pay no income taxes this year and stands to receive returns of $30,000 in income withheld from his state treasurer's salary. Giannoulias says he will donate the $30,000 to charity. He released his tax returns on Friday, as well as a financial disclosure statement that reveals that he lost nearly half of his net worth. The state treasurer's fortunes were tied up in his family-owned Broadway Bank, which the federal government seized and sold earlier this year. Giannoulias' share in family trust funds plummeted from an estimated "$8 million to $40 million" down to an estimated "$2.5 million to $11.5 million," according to the financial disclosure form he is required to file as a candidate for U.S. Senate. Other family trusts are doing well enough that his net worth could range from $7 million to $29 million, the report said. That's down from the $13 million to $62 million range he reported last year. Giannoulias' income tax returns show he earned $119,000 from his job as state treasurer. He reported $14,757 in capital gains. But he also reported a loss of $2.7 million from his holdings in his family's Broadway Bank. Will Giannoulias suffer the same sort of backlash that Republican candidate for governor, State Sen. Bill Brady did when he revealed he paid no income taxes on his $75,000 state Senate salary because his family business took a loss? Giannoulias was paid $119,000 in state salary and paid no federal or state taxes on it. Giannoulias' spokeswoman Kathleen Strand pointed out that Giannoulias is donating his federal and state income tax returns -- totalling about $30,000 to charity. Also, the night his family bank was seized, Giannoulias said he would not be filing for an income tax break he might be entitled to for struggling businesses. And unlike Giannoulias' Republican opponent Mark Kirk, Giannoulias let his staffers hand copies of his income tax forms to reporters to take with them. Kirk made reporters come to his office and just take notes without being able to take copies with them. Kirk filed his income tax report by the April deadline. U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk and his now ex-wife earned $239,000 in 2008 and paid nearly $49,000 in taxes. The bulk of the couple's income came from his $169,000 salary as a congressman, though investment income and $3,900 from a rental property they owned contributed to the total. Kirk has been needling Giannoulias since April 15 about when he would file his income tax and financial disclosure forms. Giannoulias has said the nature of his family's bank requires them to file late every year and they seek the proper extensions. "Alexi Giannoulias wants to raise our taxes but doesn't pay any taxes himself," Kirk spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski said. "After costing the FDIC $394 million and wiping out $73 million in college savings, Illinois voters can no longer afford Alexi Giannoulias."

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Economy

Giannoulias family races to avoid collapse of its bank

2010-02-28

The clock is ticking, and the real estate deals gone south are piling up, at Broadway Bank, the lending institution owned by the family of U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias. Many U.S. banks are struggling amid the worst financial crisis since the Depression. Almost monthly, at least one Illinois lender has collapsed, seized by the government because of poor performance, often due to real estate loans turned sour. At once-successful Broadway, headquartered in a former car dealership in the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago, the situation has turned awful at an inopportune time for the Illinois treasurer. Less than a week before Giannoulias' Democratic primary election victory earlier this month, the scope of the problems at Broadway became clearer after a regulatory order was made public saying the bank has just three months to get its financial house in order. Broadway's struggles have put Giannoulias on the defensive as Republicans eyeing Barack Obama's old Senate seat question what role he played in the bank's problems. Giannoulias, a friend of Obama's who is facing U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, the GOP nominee, in the November race, has repeatedly said he hasn't worked at the bank in four years. Still, the situation could become more politically harmful and provide more ammunition for the GOP if the family-owned bank is taken over by the federal government before Election Day. Broadway's chief executive, Demetris Giannoulias, Alexi Giannoulias' older brother, told the Tribune the family must raise at least $85 million by the end of April to stave off government seizure. Demetris Giannoulias said he doesn't expect the government to drag its feet on shutting the bank if capital-raising efforts come up short. "Regulators aren't cutting us any slack," said Demetris Giannoulias, 38, whose father founded the bank in 1979. Because you're an embarrassment. Have the young nephew start your car every morning ...

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Home Front: Politix

IL Sen Poll: Kirk(R) +6

2010-02-04

In the first poll taken following Tuesday's primary, Rep. Mark Kirk (R) leads Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias (D) by 6 points. The Rasmussen survey (Feb. 3, 500 LV, MoE +/- 4.5%) finds the moderate Kirk leading 59%-22% among independents, and with a higher favorable rating (55%/33%) than Giannoulias (46%/39%). In his home state, 54% approve of the job President Obama is doing. Kirk 46 Giannoulias 40 Und 10 To see other general election matchup polls between the two nominees, click here.

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Home Front: Politix

Obama's got real trouble at home

2010-02-03

Even in this winter of President Obama's discon tent, things appear likely to get much bleaker for him before they get any better. The first casualties were Democratic governors who fell in New Jersey and Virginia. Then it was Camelot, seized by the enemy in Massachusetts. These Republican encroachments deep in Democratic territory appeared almost effortless. Obama's pleas on behalf of Democratic candidates -- words of gold just one year ago -- fell like millstones around their necks. Today in Illinois, voters go to the polls, poised to send another stinging message to their adopted son. Eager to deliver a thundering rebuke to the corrupt Democratic machine from which Obama emerged in Chicago, voters are very close to booting Gov. Pat Quinn in his own party's primary. Even more ominous for Obama today is that voters will choose which Republican and which Democrat will face off in the general election to fill Obama's old Senate seat. If all goes as widely expected, Republicans today will pick Rep. Mark Kirk, an experienced centrist, and Democrats will pick Alexi Giannoulias, an Obama pal and state treasurer. In a general election, Giannoulias -- who, through his family's bank, has shady ties to mob figures -- will become a seamy stand-in for Obama. Things are so bad that even in Obama's alleged birthplace of Hawaii, Republicans are seriously talking about winning the House seat being vacated by a Democrat who wants to run for governor. The only place where Obama has roots that doesn't seem to be sick and tired of him these days is Kenya. Don't be surprised if Republicans start fielding candidates there soon.

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Home Front: WoT

'Gitmo Forever'?

2010-01-07

Michael Isikoff President Obama's decision to suspend sending any detainees being held in the Guantanamo Bay detention facility back to Yemen was "politically, a no-brainer," a senior administration official tells NEWSWEEK. But the move will do more than complicate Obama's commitment to shut down the base: it has raised new questions about whether the facility will be shuttered at all, at least in the first term of Obama's presidency. Isikoff of course has pushed far, far into the memory hole why it is that Gitmo had a bad rep in the beginning. The story that he wrote. The one that he had to retract. That was the story that pushed a lot of people into thinking that Gitmo 'had' to be closed. Wanna bet Isikoff won't ever bring that up? "I'm beginning to think that Guantanamo is not ever going to be closed," says John Bellinger, the top State Department lawyer under former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and a persistent advocate of shutting down the facility. Given the current political obstacles, "I would bet some money that it's not going to get closed in the Obama presidency." "To some extent, I think the administration has blown it," adds Marc Falkoff, a lawyer who represents some of the Yemeni detainees at Gitmo. "It has delayed, and they've gotten themselves into a reactive state and you can't get anything done when you're reacting to political winds . . . It looks like Guantanamo will be around for the foreseeable future." Publicly, of course, Obama is sticking to his pledge--made during the first full day of his presidency--even if officials acknowledge they will no longer come close to meeting his original deadline of shutting it down by later this month. Given the importance he attached to his original announcement, and the enormously positive worldwide response it generated, it would be "unthinkable" for the president to publicly admit he won't be able to close the prison, says Tom Malinowski of Human Rights Watch, who served as an adviser to the Obama campaign on Guantanamo matters. So HRW is 'advising' Bambi on Gitmo? Figures. Nope, no conflict of interest there. "Make no mistake: we will close Guantanamo prison, which has damaged our national-security interests and become a tremendous recruiting tool for Al Qaeda," Obama said Tuesday right after he announced he was stopping further transfers to Yemen. But the new pessimism is the result of a confluence of unanticipated developments, all of which relate to Yemen, a country that is home to about 92 Guantanamo detainees, nearly half the facility's current population of 198. Among those: the surge in attacks by Al Qaeda in Yemen, the media's intense focus on the role that former Guantanamo detainees (released by the Bush administration) are playing in the group, and the alleged Christmas Day bombing attempt by a Nigerian student who immediately told authorities he had been trained and equipped for his mission by Qaeda operatives in Yemen. The senior Obama administration official (who requested anonymity because of the political insensitivities) says that "security concerns" along with congressional politics prompted Obama's phone call to Attorney General Eric Holder this week in which he directed that further transfers to Yemen be halted. But a key development, little noticed by the national news media but a small bombshell inside the White House, was a statement issued by Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, last Tuesday stating that Yemen was now too "unstable" for any more Guantanamo transfers and calling on the president to suspend them, according to another senior administration official. Once the White House had lost Feinstein, who had previously sponsored legislation to close the base, officials realized they had little hope of sustaining any transfers back to Yemen. The original analysis--offered by the second senior administration official--is that blocking more transfers to Yemen won't necessarily affect the Guantanamo closure because it will simply mean more of the detainees will be moved to the new facility that the administration wants to build in Thomson, Ill. The proposed population for that transfer, which officials once had hoped to hold into the dozens, will now almost certainly swell to more than 100, the administration official says. But "numbers matter," says Malinowksi. Moving more than 100 detainees--the vast majority of whom would end up being held without charge--to a U.S. facility that is already being dubbed "Gitmo North" will blunt the positive message Obama hoped to send by shutting Guantanamo in the first place, he says. But the more serious question for the White House is whether Congress will even allow the transfers to take place at all. The administration is already blocked from moving any Guantanamo detainees to the U.S. for purposes other than putting them on trial. That's the result of a rider to a congressional appropriations bill that passed overwhelmingly last spring and which expires Sept. 30. In order to move the Yemenis and other Gitmo detainees to Thomson, the administration needs to persuade the Congress to lift the rider--in an election year, no less--a much more difficult task when the proposal is to move more than 100 detainees to the U.S. rather than 20 or 30. Already, moderate GOP Rep. Mark Kirk, the likely Republican nominee in next year's Illinois Senate race, has taken an increasingly hard line on the transfers, saying they would make Illinois "ground zero for jihadist terrorist plots." Part of Bellinger's reluctant calculation that Gitmo will stay open is that there is little chance in the midst of the 2010 midterm election campaign that Congress will lift the rider to permit detainees to be moved into the U.S. If Republicans make big gains in the fall elections, as many analysts now predict, the odds of lifting the anti-Gitmo rider would become even steeper. But the final irony is that many of the detainees may not even want to be transferred to Thomson and could conceivably even raise their own legal roadblocks to allow them to stay at Gitmo. Falkoff notes that many of his clients, while they clearly want to go home, are at least being held under Geneva Convention conditions in Guantanamo. At Thomson, he notes, the plans call for them to be thrown into the equivalent of a "supermax" security prison under near-lockdown conditions. "As far as our clients are concerned, it's probably preferable for them to remain at Guantanamo," he says.

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Home Front: Politix

GOP opponent claims front-runner Mark Kirk is gay in attack ad

2009-12-29

U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, the front-runner in the Republican primary election for U.S. Senate, finds himself the object of an unusual attack ad from one of his lesser-known opponents. Andy Martin, once known as Anthony Martin-Trigona, who has run for numerous elective offices over the last three decades in Illinois, Florida and Connecticut, taped a commercial saying Kirk is gay. So long as he's not teaching school children about fisting, or planning to seduce Congressional pages of either sex, I'm afraid I am uninterested in what happens in his -- or anyone else's -- bedroom, so long as both parties are there of their own free will. Martin's source? Statements some conservative Republicans made on a radio show saying they have heard "rumors" that Kirk is gay. "Illinois Republican leader Jack Roeser says there is a 'solid rumor that Kirk is a homosexual,'" Martin says in the ad. "Roeser suggests that Kirk is part of a Republican Party homosexual club. Lake County Illinois Republican leader Ray True says Kirk has surrounded himself with homosexuals. Mark Kirk should tell Republican voters the truth." Kirk, a U.S. Naval Intelligence officer, was unavailable for comment because he is on active duty over the holidays, said spokesman Eric Elk. But Elk issued this statement on his behalf: "The ad is not true and is degrading to the political process. The people of Illinois deserve better." In one of the many e-mails Martin sends to Chicago media -- often in the middle of the night -- Martin offers links to a tape of a radio show in which Roeser and True did make the comments referenced in the ad. "You've got Mark Kirk, who's been so strong on his homosexuals so long that the solid rumor is that he himself is a homosexual," Roeser said on the program, adding, "Who, in Christ's name, needs to get themselves identified as a freak in the sexual department?" They named other Illinois Republicans they suspect are gay.

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Home Front: Politix

Dems at risk of losing Obama's old Senate seat

2009-11-17

About a year ago, thousands jammed Grant Park in Chicago to celebrate Barack Obama's election to the White House, a communal civic defining moment. But those giddy days are long gone as Democrats in Illinois face the potential of losing the Senate seat President Obama once held next November. The Illinois primary is Feb. 2, and the Democrat and Republican races are ripening, with the deadlines to file or withdraw nominating petitions now passed. Democratic Party leaders in Washington -- and the Obama White House -- failed to recruit a candidate strong enough to scare Rep. Mark Kirk -- the Republicans' best bet -- from the race. The only luck they had was the decision by Sen. Roland Burris -- appointed by now-indicted former Gov. Rod Blagojevich to fill Obama's remaining term -- not to run to keep the seat. The chairman of the Democratic Party of Illinois -- Michael J. Madigan, the speaker of the Illinois House -- is the father of Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who rebuffed Obama and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee when they wooed her for the Senate. Papa Madigan, more concerned with keeping his state House majority, doesn't really care who the senator is. A look at the leading Democratic and GOP Senate candidates: Alexi Giannoulias is the Democratic front-runner. His main competitors are Cheryle Jackson, the former Chicago Urban League chief and former Blagojevich spokeswoman; former City of Chicago Inspector General David Hoffman, and attorney Jacob Meister, who is a factor only because he put more than $1 million of his own cash into the race. With days lost to Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's, well, it's practically voting day already. He's also a friend of Obama, and his family is connected to a mobbed-up bank. Just who you want as a state treasurer, eh ... The money: As of Sept. 30, federal reports show Giannoulias has $2.4 million on hand. Hoffman has $836,957 (which includes $500,000 he lent to his campaign). Jackson has $317,828. Name recognition: Giannoulias is the only one -- Democrat or Republican -- who has run statewide. Hoffman, Jackson and Meister have never run for elected office. The endorsements: Giannoulias locked up labor support. Hoffman has a string of endorsements from North Shore state lawmakers who like his good-government and ethics messages. Jackson has prominent African-American elected officials and the feminist EMILY's List on her side. The base vote: Meister is looking for a gay and Jewish base. Giannoulias' base will include labor, many city wards, county chairmen, Greek Americans and some support Downstate. Hoffman's base is the North Shore suburbs, Jews, and wards in Chicago with a lot of police and firefighters. Jackson's base includes females and African Americans. Burris is the Senate's only black member. The minus: Giannoulias' potential biggest liability is his former association with Broadway Bank, founded by his father and the subject of controversy because of loans made to alleged mobsters and convicted influence peddler Tony Rezko. Giannoulias did not make the loans. If I were Kirk I'd be loading up the commercials on that. Hoffman's minus is lack of name recognition and money. Jackson's Achilles' heel is Blagojevich. Meister's minus: He's unknown. On the GOP side: The money: Kirk has $2.3 million to $340,048 for Hinsdale real estate developer Patrick Hughes (including $250,000 of his own money). The others on the ballot have a few thousand dollars. Name recognition: Kirk, a veteran lawmaker from the North Shore 10th District, is a favorite of editorial boards. He's running a stealth primary campaign, however, refusing to disclose a political schedule. So far it has worked. Endorsements: Kirk has GOP establishment in Washington and Illinois. Hughes hits Washington on Tuesday to seek backing from conservative groups, hoping to catch a conservative wave, similar to a New York House contest where the moderate Republican was forced out by conservatives. Kirk, billed as a moderate, was caught up in a controversy last week when news leaked out that he solicited Sarah Palin for support. Minus and plus: For Kirk, running to the right, a plus for the primary and a minus -- maybe -- in the general election.

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Home Front: Politix

Mark Kirk: How can I get Sarah Palin to like me?

2009-11-05

Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) confirmed Wednesday that he reached out to influential Republican insider Fred Malek and sought his counsel on how to court former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's endorsement for his Senate bid. As first reported by the Washington Post, Kirk sent a memo to Malek seeking advice on how to acquire a "quick and decisive" endorsement from Palin urging Republicans to embrace Kirk as the "lead candidate" in Illinois. Kirk acknowledged the authenticity of the memo to POLITICO. The Republican's campaign said that it has sent materials to Palin, though Kirk spokesman Eric Elk downplayed the significance of the move. "The Kirk campaign provided the governor's team a briefing including talking points on Congressman Kirk and the Illinois Senate Race," Elk said. "The memo was like many others regularly prepared for high-profile visitors, pundits and media. The briefing provided details on the race and only requested supportive comments." Malek, in an email, acknowledged receiving the memo, but said he did not advise Kirk on how to land the former governor's endorsement. Palin spokeswoman Meg Stapleton did not return a request for comment. The endorsement of Palin might serve to insulate the Illinois moderate from criticism on the right that he is not conservative enough. Palin attracted attention recently for offering her imprimatur to Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman in the Nov. 3 New York special election. Palin's endorsement was followed by a flood of other Republican endorsements for Hoffman. Despite Hoffman's loss, Palin applauded the conservative third-party candidate Wednesday on her Facebook page for having the "courage" to run. "The race for New York's 23rd District is not over, just postponed until 2010," Palin wrote. "The real victors in this election are the ordinary men and women who voted for positive change and a return to fiscal sanity. Your voices have been heard." Kirk, a moderate, may also face a third-party challenge from the right, after fellow Republican Eric Wallace made clear in dropping out of contention for the GOP nomination that he may mount a Hoffman-like run. Kirk is also facing opposition on his right flank from several Republican candidates, including Andy Martin, who is best known in state political circles for having filed a lawsuit in Hawaii calling for the release of President Barack Obama's birth certificate.

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Home Front: Politix

RINO v. Conservative Brawl Across The US

2009-10-18

The rise of conservative "tea party" activists around the country has created a dilemma for Republicans. They are breathing life into the party's quest to regain power. But they're also waging war on some candidates hand-picked by GOP leaders as the most likely to win. In upstate New York, Dede Scozzafava, 49 years old, is the choice of local party leaders to defend a Republican seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, an abortion-rights candidate who could appeal to independents. Doug Hoffman, 59, is a local accountant backed by tea-party activists who has jumped into the race declaring himself the real conservative. Mr. Hoffman has siphoned so much support from Ms. Scozzafava that their Democratic rival has vaulted into the lead, according to a poll released Thursday. The election is Nov. 3. "I am not your run-of-the-mill politician, and maybe that's why the Republican bosses didn't like me," Mr. Hoffman told a recent health-care forum sponsored by the Upstate New York Tea Party. In an interview, Ms. Scozzafava acknowledged her discomfort at the event. "I knew it wasn't going to be an easy audience for me," she said. Republicans are poised to pick up a number of seats in next year's congressional elections, pollsters estimate, on the back of a deep recession, public unease about the growth of government and the size of the nation's deficit. Anti-Obama activism manifested in rallies and town-hall meetings has galvanized conservatives, injecting enthusiasm into the Republican base. But these newly energized conservatives present GOP leaders with a potential problem: The party's strategy for attracting moderate voters risks alienating activists who are demanding ideological purity, who may then gravitate to other candidates or stay at home. It's a classic dilemma faced by parties in the minority -- tension between those who want a return to the party's ideological roots and those who want candidates most likely to win in their districts. "The potential that the Republican Party puts up candidates that fail to excite the support of this movement is very real," says Lawrence Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance, University of Minnesota. The race in upstate New York is a somewhat extreme example of this phenomenon. No one is suggesting the tea-party movement will cause the GOP to lose seats overall next year. As the only congressional election this fall, the race stands an early test of the party's ability to navigate these conflicting impulses. In Florida, Republican leaders were elated when popular Florida Gov. Charlie Crist agreed to run for the Senate. He has adopted policies such as an aggressive approach to global warming that appeal even to Democrats. Those very policies infuriated conservatives, as did Mr. Crist's decision to campaign with President Barack Obama on behalf of the president's $787 billion stimulus package. "He was Judas to the Republican Party in the state of Florida and across the country," says Robin Stublen, 53, of Punta Gorda, co-state coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots, a loose national coalition. "He sold us out for 13 pieces of gold." A spokesman for Mr. Crist said the governor made sure stimulus dollars went to items important to Florida voters. Mr. Crist has drawn a primary challenge from Marco Rubio, a former Florida House speaker, who is aggressively seeking tea-party members' support. The GOP scored another potential coup when Republican Illinois Rep. Mark Kirk decided to seek Mr. Obama's former Senate seat, now held by Democratic Sen. Roland Burris. Mr. Kirk, however, voted for a Democratic climate-change bill in the House, prompting about 30 people to hold a tea-party protest at his office. Many activists vow never to support him. In New Hampshire, Republican leaders praise Senate candidate Kelly Ayotte as a new breed of telegenic Republican, even while some conservatives attack her record as state attorney general. Former Rep. Rob Simmons, who is seeking a Senate seat in Connecticut, and Rep. Mike Castle, who just announced his Senate candidacy in Delaware, face similar scorn. RINOs have demonstrated that they will support Democrats and the Democrat platform before they will support Conservatives. And the Conservatives have had enough of it.

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Home Front: Politix

Tea Party insurgency marches into key states

2009-10-18

Begun as a loosely affiliated groundswell of Constitution-waving protesters in tri-cornered hats, the Tea Party movement is now starting to rock the political establishment in key arenas. The growing numbers of Americans coming out to the Tax Day Tea Party, the Fourth of July Tea Parties, and then the 9/12 Tea Party march on Washington are going back to their home districts and keeping up -- even intensifying -- the fight for smaller government and more transparency on spending and taxation. In places like New York, Florida, California, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania, local, state, congressional, and gubernatorial seats are suddenly being tugged to-and-fro by the new and unruly political force. The upshot? The street energy is welcome for an otherwise moribund Republican party looking for new moorings amid a tumultuous electorate. The downside is that early examples shows that, in the short run, Tea Party-sponsored candidates could make it more difficult for Republicans as they -- Ross Perot-like -- split races as they target both "tax and spend" Democrats and those they like to call RINOs, or "Republicans-in-name-only." "In the Republican primaries, especially, the Tea Party movement could be a very significant force" -- and not always in the Republicans' favor -- says Charles Franklin, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin, in Madison. In New York's 23rd congressional district, Democrats may ultimately thank Tea Party conservatives for backing businessman Doug Hoffman, a Conservative Party candidate, in a three-way congressional race in November -- the sole national race this year. Mr. Hoffman's supporters have pulled voters away from the Republican moderate, Dede Scozzafava, leaving the Democrat, Bill Hoffman, with the lead, according to polls. The "NY-23" battle, as it's called, is already causing rifts in the Republican party, with Tea Party activists booing former House Speaker Newt Gingrich for backing Scozzafava. In Florida, former Republican House Speaker Marco Rubio is courting Tea Party activists in a primary challenge to Gov. Charlie Crist, whom Tea Partiers see as a "Judas" for supporting the $787 billion stimulus package signed into law by President Obama in February. In a perhaps unwelcome strike for Republicans near the President's home turf, Tea Party activists have turned against the bid by Illinois Rep. Mark Kirk, a Republican, to seek Obama's former Senate seat, citing Mr. Kirk's support for a climate change bill. Other Tea Party targets for scorn include Senate-seekers such as Republican up-and-comer Kelly Ayotte in New Hampshire, Rep. Mike Castle in Delaware, and former Rep. Rob Simmons in Connecticut. Tea Party activists also could play a role in Republican primary matchups in Texas (Rick Perry versus Kay Bailey Hutchinson) and in Pennsylvania (Pat Toomey versus Arlen Specter). "The American people are finally standing up and saying no to political correctness and no to the hijacking of our freedoms, liberty and our culture," says Tea Party activist Lloyd Marcus. "It's not about Republican or Democrat any more. It's about character and principle." In Washington, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and House Minority Leader John Boehner have both egged on the Tea Party activists, trying to "align the GOP with the protesters' frustrations," says the Wall Street Journal. "It's really interesting to see how the Republican party and its various entities try to sort of harness [the Tea Party movement]," says Andrew Moylan, government affairs manager at the National Taxpayers Union, which helped organize the 9/12 Tea Party protests in Washington. "The fact is it's really grown and become an incredible force that we're only now beginning to see the practical effects of." To be sure, some, moderate Republicans have started calling out their Tea Party wing (see Monitor writer Brad Knickerbocker's take here) -- epitomized by Fox News' Glenn Beck and former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin -- as ultimately deleterious to the party's chances to grab hold of key independent voters in swing states. Risking the alienation of divided partisans is commonplace, history shows, when a particular party has suffered heavy defeat "The people that get knocked off are your moderates and you become smaller and more ideologically extreme," says Peter Beinart, a senior fellow at the liberal New America Foundation and a Daily Beast columnist. "The Republicans are still early on in that process. They're in a ditch, but they haven't stopped digging yet." Pollsters say many Democratic lawmakers -- especially in blue states where Democrats made dramatic inroads last year -- are likely to be vulnerable in next year's elections because of the growing deficit, unemployment, healthcare votes, and other hot-button issues facing the country. Yet even six months ago, few political observers could have intuited the prairie fire speed and ferocity of the Tea Party movement -- or its already considerable impact on the national political debate and looming political races. The 9/12 event in Washington, in particular, "was a landmark event," says Mr. Moylan at the NTU. Like the 1963 civil rights march on Washington, he says, "Here was this outgrowth of frustration about policies in the country and problems that were going on, a huge outpouring of people, and then they translated it into action. That's going to be the measure of the Tea Party movement: How it can translate [protests] into action."

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