Hastert’s longtime GOP district turns blue
Don’t worry, be happy? Or is this a sign of things to come? You tell me:
A longtime Republican district fell to the Democrats Saturday when a scientist snatched former House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s congressional seat in a closely watched special election.
Democrat Bill Foster won 52 percent of the vote compared to 48 percent for Republican Jim Oberweis. With 564 of 568 precincts reporting, Foster had 50,947 votes to Oberweis’ 46,125.Foster’s special election win means he will fill the remainder of Hastert’s term, which ends in January. The two will square off again in November, for a new, full term.
The 66-year-old Hastert, who lost his powerful post as speaker when Democrats took control of Congress, resigned late last year.
The race between Foster and Oberweis spawned a contentious campaign that saw both men turn to high-profile supporters to help sway voters in the longtime GOP district.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama made a TV ad praising Foster; Oberweis had fundraising help from the apparent Republican nominee, John McCain, and Hastert’s backing.
“It is a stunning rejection of the Bush Administration, its Republican allies, and presidential nominee John McCain,” said Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen in a statement.
Just fyi, I got an e-mail tonight from the NRCC responding to the loss. Is this wishful thinking or hopeless spin? You tell me:
Today, NRCC Communications Director Karen Hanretty made the following statement on the results of Illinois’ special election:
“The one thing 2008 has shown is that one election in one state does not prove a trend. In fact, there has been no national trend this entire election season. The presidential election is evidence of that. The Democratic candidates are trading election victories from week to week and the nomination could hinge on a few news cycles. The one message coming out of 2008 so far is that what happens today is not a bellwether of what happens this fall.”
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Perhaps if the GOP stood for something besides Democrat Lite, they could have held on to the district.
The left is energized this cycle like we were in 1994.
The only good news about this trend is that McCain will be nowhere near the White House.
Oberweis is not a strong candidate. He’s run for so many offices and lost that it’s getting to be kind of funny. He does have good ice cream though…
The Il GOP is more confused that the national GOP. Excellent candidates keep getting pushed aside for unelectable ones.
Yes, Rinoalert, but the bad news will be that Obama will be President. As I’ve been saying a bit, it’s time to start working towards the 2010 midterms.
The lib’s co-opted the Blue state designation crap to cover their Commie-red antics. I,for one, don’t accept this from these liberal dung-beetles. They may have won Denny’s seat but the stain they’ll leave is anything but blue….
I wouldn’t be surprised if it is a trend. Oh well.
I’m just curious when the Dems take power of all branches of government how they will manage to blame those evil Republicans for everything (even the weather) to maintain power?
Here is the Obama TV ad supporting Bill Foster:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnaGlxUUFv4
Barack not only showed the impact of his coattails for November, but picked up another superdelegate in the process.
Perhaps if the GOP stood for something besides Democrat Lite, they could have held on to the district.
The left is energized this cycle like we were in 1994.
You’re right in your assessment of the GOP, but for the life of me….I will never understand why socialism, more government, and a welfare state is more attractive to a free-thinking individual who takes complete responsibility for his/her own actions and needs nor wants any intervention, help, or handout from anyone to succeed in life.
But then again, I’m not a Democrat.
I guess people are really impressed with Nanci Pelosi’s do-nothing “most ethical congress ever”.
I believe more and more Americans no longer care about personal responsibility. They want the government to take care of them.
No surprise. It’s always attractive to be able to vote to have somebody else pay for what you want, nor is it something unexpected. The Founding Fathers fully anticipated it. I don’t know any way of stopping or slowing the inevitable decline, either. You’ll never get elected to anything promising to take goodies away from people, or raising their taxes to pay for them (as opposed to raising taxes on “the rich”).
Until a vaccination can be found for the chronic neocon virus liberals will win elections.
Why hire a faux liberal when you can elect a real one?
Are you kidding? They’ll excuse every failing, every jihadi attack, every time it rains or snows, on Dubya and the shambles he made of everything during his “eight year reign of error.” Who’s going to speak Truth to their power and set the record straight? The Treason Media? HA! Fox News and Rush Limbaugh? They’ll be silenced when their Orwellian “Fariness Doctrine” is imposed.
For anyone who was sad that they missed out on their chance to live under Soviet rule, their second chance will begin on Jan. 20, 2009.
Your question is incoherent because it supposes that a “free-thinking individual” would want a welfare state. (Perhaps you misspoke?) People like us just want to be left alone because we’re happy to take care of ourselves.
However, there is no political profit to be gained by expecting your citizenry to be self-reliant. How can you get elected on a platform of promising to transfer the wealth of the producers into the pockets of the moochers if everyone is a producer? Ergo, you create a larger number of moochers who have been programmed to believe that they are victims and that anyone who has more than them achieved their riches thru exploitation and shenanigans.
We labor under the delusion that most people want freedom like us. They don’t. They want SECURITY. They want freedom from uncertainty; freedom from want; freedom from predation. They do NOT want freedom of choice in any way, shape or form. They want because they’ve been told they’re entitled and anyone who denies them their “needs” is an enemy of the people. The moochers don’t see it as state-sponsored theft of wealth; they see it as simple “fairness”. It’s free to them, so who cares where it comes from?
The problem is that eventually an “Atlas Shrugged” scenario is inevitable. When more and more people realize that working is a sucker’s choice forn you can get what you want free for the demanding, why would they live in the past and take care of themselves. Narcotized into addiction to transfer payments, the subjects of this liberal fascist government will gladly provide the rabble necessary to bully the dwindling producer class into providing their comforts until the producers simply refuse to be slaves funding this leviathan. Society will then collapse.
Sorry that there is no happy ending to this tale. It’s been said that societies may not get the government they want or need, but instead get the government they deserve. We are a government of the people and right now, most of the people are voting for a liberal or socialist form of rule. The generations the government education edifice has spent inculcating the toxins of liberalism and multi-culturalism are bearing their bitter fruit.
We are the new heretics. We will be deemed the enemies and silenced, figuratively and quite possibly literally. In a government of the PEOPLE, there is no room for the PERSON.
Egad, I’ve bummed myself out something fierce.
All politics is local.
Oberwies was smeared with a scandal by the press and local media. That’s on top of beign a very weak campaigner and the “candidate by default”.
Clear him out of the way and get a replacement who campaigns on conservative principles of strong defense, lower taxes, smaller government, personal responsibility and is “squeaky clean” (the last two are what sunk the GOP in this race) and the GOP can win this “red” district back.
That’s the problem wiht the GOP over-all: the GOP politicians have not been LIVING the principles they are supposed to endorse, so they get voted out as hypocrits.
Wishful thinking.
I reject the premise! It’s the media who should be blamed for what’s going wrong with the republican party. Sure there are republicans who aren’t conservative enough for conservatives. But what has happened to the republican brand is in part the media’s narrative of republicans and the preemptive capitulation to the media by republicans. The media has branded us corrupt, racist, theocrats and we just pick our teeth, banter back and forth about media bias, go to a blog, leave a comment on how the media is bias and then go back to whatever we were doing. Be Back Later. Got to watch TV.
I think Foster’s win was a combination of Obama’s coattails, McCain’s unattractiveness, the welfare nature of the district, and the job the press did on Oberweos.
Lots of pople in that district have their snouts in the Government trough; Northern Illinois University, and the big labs, Fermi & Argonne. Of course they’ll vote for someone who keeps the dole flowing.
The press really butchered Oberweis; he was consistently referred to as a “dairy magnate” and Foster was the “scientist’. PR stuff like the 28 Nobel endorsements was also trumpted.
Oberweis had honorable positions, and a strong position against illegal aliiens, in spite of a smear. Is he really expected to monitor what every subcontractor of his does? In spite of verbal endorsements, the Republican establishment didn’t really help him. You have him in Illinois with the presumptive Democratic nominee, a national contest, & no signifcant Republican help. Of course the shambles of the Republican party in Illinois didn’t help either.
Change… Hope…. Change…. Hope….
I hope these dolts wake up to realize what kind of change they have wrought…
Your question is incoherent because it supposes that a “free-thinking individual” would want a welfare state. (Perhaps you misspoke?) People like us just want to be left alone because we’re happy to take care of ourselves.
To be clear, I was being rhetorical.
Unfortunately, Rinoalert is a free-thinking individual (at least in theory)who has decided he/she does indeed want a welfare state- choosing to be a sycophant, to the government and to others.
That is unbelievable to me. Your Atlas Shrugged analogy is apt. And people like you and I do ‘just want to be left alone’. Incredibly, Rino and millions of other liberals don’t want to be.
Your other observations were spot-on.
The one message coming out of 2008 so far is that what happens today is not a bellwether of what happens this fall.”
Fat, sloppy backroom dealmaker, apologist for corrupt democrat colleagues costs the Republicans a seat in the House: News at 11. It has always amazed me that Hastert wasn’t on the receiving end of more vitriol from the party faithful. He was a national disgrace. A lazy, worthless slob in it purely to line his own pockets or get the big office. Every time he came on TV, I thought he was Ted Kennedy’s twin separated at birth. There’s your legacy, Mr. Speaker, now go have another cheeseburger.
The federal government is currently debating just how much of people’s MORTGAGES they’re going to pay, for God’s sake. When they start paying people’s mortgages because they got into more house than they can afford, thus allowing them to keep said big-ass house, this election is over. By Election Day, they’ll be fighting over which candidate wants to pay for more of our groceries. It’s called “bread and circuses,” and it works…for awhile.
…and the Legacy of the Bush, McCain, Graham, Spector coalition to destroy the Republoican Party continues.
This is what happens when Republicans try to “Out Liberal, Professinal Liberals”.
You know who is the Happiest??? The Mexican Gov’t and Drug Cartels…they see the invasion doors opening a bit wider.
OK. I’ll tell ya, MM.
Many of the folks in here already nailed it: the repubs sold out and became dems lite. They tried to out liberal the libs to show how ‘compassionate’ they can be – and put the nanny state on ‘ugly ‘roids’ & sent the nat’l debt through the roof – all the while courting NAFTA and globalism – which sent all them jobs over seas.
How many times did GW use his veto pen???
But the dems have one more thing in their corner that is more intangible: They’re cashing in on a general world weariness that the electorate has with opening a can o’ woop @ss on every fascist flash fire around the world.
Isolationism spells doom, but the dems see an opening to prey on the fat, dumb & unhappy with pie-in-the-sky promises to tend the fires here at home and ring in utopia.
I think that is what gives the obamanator his halo with most folks.
Gawd, we’re a myopic bunch.
Happy Sunday!
The RINO’s had a chance to make our votes count regardless of the media bias. When they were in the majority they could have passed a national voter ID verification. This could have guaranteed only American citizens voting in our elections.
Sorry….only living American citizens voting.
The politicians know there is massive voter fraud, but refuse to address the issue.
How else would the likes of some of these miscreant, meglomaniac, corrupt LIFER’s (Lazy Ignorant F@*k*r$ Expecting Retirement) keep getting elected?
It’s simple, republicans are demoralized and are not voting, that is how a republican district was won by a dem. WE see the Rinos make promises that they don’t keep, so why should people even go out to vote for these rinos? they don’t want to. I suspect something similar will happen in November, unfortunatelly.
It is not that people want socialism on the republican side, it is that they are not motivated to go out and vote and I suspect many will simply stay home, like in 2006 and as it is happening in almost all primaries. Low Republican turn out. Fear of the other cadidate is not enough to motivate republicans to come out and vote for our candidate who is dem lite. or even for congress, when you have a bunch of do nothing politicians (they did nothing for years before 2006).
If you skipped reading number 12 you need to read it.
Great post Dirk.
IMHO, what voters are tired of is “big government conservatism” as opposed to the fiscally responsible genuine article. In other words, if we are going to have a big government, let it benefit the little guy rather than the K Street fat cats. Also, I believe voters have had enough of Bush’s act of failing upward. After 9/11, he could have mobilized the country behind a concerted push to crush radical Islam, to give these evil people the jihad they were screaming about. Instead, he announced business as usual.
I agree with most of the posts as to the RINOs, the media, the left drift of the GOP and the leftist policies of the dem candidates. On the other hand, this was Illinois. A traditional big union, big gimme, big political machine state where the GOP is as nearly as corrupt as the dems, and one of the few places that can compete with NOLA for violations of the public trust.
This is a sign of things to come, no doubt about it. Though the democrats are in disarray as far as the Presidential primaries are concerned, they are united when it comes to, well, everything else. Historically, the democrats always come together on election day, and since the economy is indeed heading for recession — I knew it as soon as Bush denied it — expect a slaughter of the Republicans. McCain even if he wins will not be a factor. And since it is obvious that McCain, like Bush, much prefers democrats to the Republican conservative base, he should get along swimmingly with them. So forget about the fantascized supreme court nominees of the right and also forget about tax cuts and spending cuts. Like the Border Fence, they aint going to happen.
However, there is good news, kind of. One day not too far from now, economic reality will indeed strike back, along with our enemies, and the whole thing will collapse horribly upon itself. At that point we may be lucky enough to have a military take over and the process of building up the republic can begin again with whoever is left.
I look for a less apocalyptic change…like the ones we have always had. Not to say your vision is not possible; just unlikely. For both the reasons you cite, I think it will come, and conservatives will be there with the ideas and ideals that the GOP has decided are passe…
or have they, really???
Why, we need to ask, is McCain reciting the lie that he is a conservative? Only one reason I know…
he and Huckleberry and the rest know that you have at least to color yourself a conservative to win. Even if it is a false color.
But the ideas and the ideals are true, and will assert themselves again. You know…the ones the nation was found upon and which drove its development…
I don’t think this portends much of anything except that the Obama folks are going to work hard to extend his coattails to fellow Democrats, as a sign of good faith that he can carry them forward in the fall.
Besides, there will be plenty of time to turn this around by the fall – once the Clintons have finished annihilating the Dems!
Sounds good, but I don’t believe it will ever happen. There are now way too many people who will only accept what they are given, they have little or no desire to be given an opportunity to succeed, they want the results of success handed to them without the effort.
What is going to change that?
RINO loses election, go for the real deal liberal. No news there.
Bye RINO John, we hardly knew you. I do hope he keeps it to only a 48 state loss.
When you consider most of these “young voters” don’t even remember 1989 when the Soviets fell, who can blame them for answering the jive talking call for a room full of freebies, get drunk and hookup. I predict it won’t take the current global warming Democrats the two years it took Jimmy Carter to wreck the economy again.
The people who think that giving the Dems control of everything because when the roof caves in and it all goes to hell, they’ll be tossed out faster than you can say “Jimmy Carter” need to stop dreaming and get back into the real world.
As I mentioned above, who do you think is going to tell the Truth about Dem failings? The Treason Media? They’re the de facto propaganda arm of the Dems, so when the bad times start, they’ll all be hung around Dubya and the Stupid Party’s (there’s a good band name) necks. In 2012, after they’ve really screwed the pooch, they’ll come back and say, “George W. Bush had eight years to wreak havoc on our formerly great nation and the damage he caused as the Worst. President. Ever. may take 50 years to repair, if we’re lucky. How can you want to return to the failed policies of only four years ago? Reelect us and allow us to fix everything that he did wrong.” And they WILL win again and again and again.
This is why that as loathsome and unacceptable McCain may seem, it will be far better to have a President who only feels compelled to thumb his nose at us half of the time than someone who will be against us 110% of the time.
Never forget Dirk’s First Rule of Politics: “A well-told lie will always beat a badly-told truth.” We’ve got a deck stacked heavily against us, but that means we’ll just have to fight harder and smarter.
I think reality always works, every time it’s tried.
Just now, things are so good in this country that we can afford delusion and illusion.
That can change rather quickly, as history has taught us…
repeatedly.
This democrapic socialism will be the end of this country as we know it…it will be much worse than the Carter yrs…in a much shorter period of time. The left(public schools, media, unions, government) doesn’t play politics to win any longer, they play to control, dominate and eliminate. The left has been consumed by whole hearted deep hatred for conservatism and it’s people.
The youth of America have had their minds warped by the NEA, MTV etc. the have no idea of the hardship in store for them…it’s like it’s all a fantasy. That is the future…sad but true.
The revolution already happened my friends. Seventy years ago. That is when we got screwed and socialism took over.
Give us your vote and you will never want for anything. The more freedom you give up for security, the more freedom we have/take to control your life.
The final nail in our coffin will be universal healthcare.
Out liberty handed over to corrupt drugged up politicians with no more brains than a mosquito. Yeah, they have all of the answers.
Geez, guys…
How do you get up in the morning?
MM is a KID compared to most of those here.
She isn’t unique in her generation (well, uniquely talented, perhaps)!!! A lot of younger people get this. Our military is filled with them, and so are our campuses.
The radical Left has failed to totally indoctrinate them, and remember…
the majority of people in this country have always HAD TO BE LED. It was that way in the Revolutionary War…
its that way today.
This is typical. Around the time the GOP was first ignoring the open borders problem, I was sending all the contribution request mailers back with reasons why I would not support the party until they started acting like the conservative party of the past. Two things happened; They were ignored and I started throwing them away unread.
I think this is why some republicans would rather vote for a donkey instead of John McCain- They are tired of being ignored.
Eventually the will see a trend- when the money dries up and they lose elections. (Apparently the democratically controlled congress was not enough).
Watch who you accuse of faulty memories or intellectual laziness.
Oberweis is known primarily for a strong anti-illegal alien position, and hasn’t fared well running in Mexinois for obvious reasons.
They won’t have any complaints. Everything will be sunshine and rainbows. (Remember MSM in 1993 on the Clintons? Time magazine put them on the cover saying “Get ready for the most glamorous administration since Camelot”.)