Monday, February 04, 2008

DownTowner: IL-14 The Losing Strategy

DownTowner writs an excellant history of Bill Foster and his campaign in IL-14.

Prior to leaving his job at Fermilab in disgust over lost federal funding in 2006 for the project he managed, multimillionaire Foster's FEC record of donations to Dem candidates totaled two, one in 2000 to fellow physicist Rush Holt and one in 2004 to Obama. There is no record of multi-millionaire Foster contributing a single dollar to any local Dem organization or candidate, and he was at that time wholly unknown to any local Dem organization. Foster's campaign manager has confirmed that prior to his 2006-07 year-long sojourn in DC, he was just not political.

Upon leaving his job at Fermilab and moving to DC, Foster stated his distress with the federal funding situation at Fermilab, noting as he did that since Dennis Hastert would shortly no longer be the Speaker, he would no longer be in a position to defend Fermilab funding. Foster also stated that his intent in moving to DC was to seek a non-partisan job on Capital Hill and that upon his discovery that non-partisan is not an option there, he chose the Dems. A perusal of the FEC and statewide records will reveal that his family in Wisconsin, in stark contrast to Foster himself, have a history of donating early and often to a wide variety of Dem candidates, so this choice should be unsurprising.

While in DC he attended a Rahm Emmanuel DCCC Red to Blue fundraiser, decided to work for the Patrick Murphy campaign in Pennsylvania, and spent six weeks doing that.
Gives you a taste of Foster but please go over and read the whole post.

Foster's grated me from the get go not because of his politics, but because of his phoniness. Read all of Downstate's post and you see Foster's whole phoney story.

The Democrats dilemma is they believe they can't run a Laesch-style progressive in Il-14 CD and other places, but they make it impossible for Lieberman-style Democrats to find a home in the party.

So Illinois Democrats are stuck with a party of progressives and phonies. Worse, the phonies have all the money. So it's no wonder besides being the most Liberal State, we also seem the most corrupt.

I think that's what happens when progressive roll over for the phonies.

11 comments:

Anonymous,  12:32 PM  

I think somebody's a little worried about a well-funded Democrat taking on the Republicans in November (and in March).

Bill Baar 12:49 PM  

I know people say that. If it wasn't for Iraq, I would probably vote for Foster over Oberweis if it came down to an election like that.

The War just really changes things.

Foster and Oberweis both rub me the wrong way. Foster because he seems so phoney, and Oberweis, well.. he's real, but just really Oberweis.

I think the Hastert endorsement will hurt Oberweis though and I hoping for a Lauzen Laesch match up which I think is the best of politics. Two guys with clearly different sets of ideas.

Anonymous,  2:38 PM  

If Hastert's endorsement is so bad, why did Lauzen desire it until he knew he wouldn't get it?

And the D's tolerate a Lieberman-style moderate in certain areas. Look at Little Lip, he sorta fits the mold, as does Melissa Bean. Why not the 14th, where it would seem a prerequisite for winning? Sometimes the D's can be as bad as the R's for their Circular Firing Squad.

Anonymous,  2:40 PM  

BTW-

Lauzen crushes Laesch head to head. Take it to the bank.

Anonymous,  3:10 PM  

Anon 2:40,

You're probably right, but you're handicapping the consolation race that happens only in grammar school basketball tournaments.

Neither is going to be their party's respective nominee.

Bill Baar 3:15 PM  

If Hastert's endorsement is so bad, why did Lauzen desire it until he knew he wouldn't get it?

Peole don't always know what's good for themselves.

I'm guessing tomorrow night Lauzen will be thankful he never got it.

Laesch gives a good accounting of himself. I've watched him in debates and while I don't agree with lots he says, he's not the oddball some progressives would have us believe.

He makes a case for universal health insurance saying expland Medicare to all... it's simple explaination and my first thought is if it's good enough for grandma and grandpa, well...why not...

I'm just betting with McCain and Obama in the leads, this is a time when people are going to be thumbing their noses at old orders and Hastert and Oberweis side by side just look about as old order as you can get.... they're not a pair of winners.

Anonymous,  5:40 PM  

Foster's honesty about Iraq puts him squarely above Leiberman, the biggest "phony" on the block when it comes to the highly questionable nation-building efforts in the Middle East. I wish Lieberman had been a student of history and learned from the mistakes that were made by the French, British and Russians in this region. What scares Bill is that Foster will appeal to many moderate Republicans and independents, who want to see a more balanced, well thought-out foreign policy and understand that you can’t spread freedom with bombs.

Bill Baar 5:44 AM  

I think Oberweis could hand the 14th to either Laesch or Foster.

I don't think Foster could win it though. Have you ever watched him debate?

Bill Baar 7:17 AM  

...well thought-out foreign policy and understand that you can’t spread freedom with bombs.

Check the pic of Blagojevich in 2004 between Auchi and Alsammarae, two Iraqis who fleeced the Iraqi people. That's an association that's going to be explored for sure and cast a lot of doubt on how well thought out Democrats were on foreign policy, or maybe better put, what were they thinking?

Anonymous,  8:40 AM  

Downtowner and the other Laesch acolytes are tiresome. I like their passion, but they are part of the reason I won't be voting for Laesch today.

Foster is the guy who can beat Lauzen or Oberweis in this district. Period. End of story.

Calling a moderate Democrat a phony is just like the circular firing GOP squad attacking people as RINOs. There really are moderate Ds and Rs out there and middle-of-the-roaders actually are the majority. We just don't jump up and down and whine that only our guy represents the true party.

Bill Baar 6:45 PM  

Stuck...I was the moderate Dem. I was the Dem who voted Gore-Lieberman because I was concerned about national security and Republican Isolationism.

The party no longer wants us or welcomes us...so we'll head for McCain.

Foster not moderate, just phoney.... it's why I can take Laesch (heck I talked like him once) but not this Foster fellow.

  © Blogger template The Professional Template by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP