Monday, April 10, 2006

Shortest. Courtship. Ever.




A few weeks ago I noted that conservatives, led by Tom Roeser, were clearly flirting with supporting Sen. James Meeks for Governor this fall.

That courtship appears to have ended with a slap on the face and a slam of the car door.

Just days after my post, without retracting earlier statements, Tom Roeser said:

The idea that social conservatives should flirt with Meeks is ridiculous. He claims to be pro-life: a little more about that in a minute. He wants a spectacular tax increase for education without looking at vouchers or getting tough with the teachers unions…and supports at the top of his lungs furtherance of a confiscatory gun policy.

While Meeks is definitely anti-gay rights basis his church constituency which in the black community is hostile to this concept, there is no vote on pro-life in the legislature that would verify Meeks’ claim to be pro-life. Pro-lifers know he’s voted wrong on one key bill: the bill forcing insurance companies to pay for abortificients.
Then Roeser adds:
But election of Topinka would be a greater disaster than the reelection of Blagojevich: in that social conservatives will have lost any chance to gain control over the Republican party.
(emphasis added)

Tom, I just want to say, thanks for reading my posts. From one ideologue to another, I appreciate where you're coming from. You forgot to tell your readers that Meeks also supports public funding for embryonic stem cell research.

Now that they are officially off the Meeks bandwagon and since they clearly think they are better off with Blagojevich than Topinka, will conservatives have the guts, the gumption, and most importantly the cash to put together an anti-choice, anti-gay American, anti-gun safety, anti-government ticket of their own? Will conservatives ever return to their highpoint of 1998, when Peter Fitzgerald was elected U.S. Senator? Or are Tom Roeser and Jill Stanek only talking to themselves?

21 comments:

Anonymous,  8:54 PM  

Yawn. Judy will win.

Anonymous,  9:11 PM  

Meeks will run, gets lots of black votes and some conservative votes

Anonymous,  11:11 PM  

Conservatives will hold their nose and either vote for Blago or not vote at all in that race.

The combine wins... again.

steve schnorf 11:51 PM  

Dog,this is by far the funniest post I've ever seen from you. Next we know, you'll be getting someone to whitewash your fence while you sit in the shade.

Where, oh where, did your radical wing go? Without them in the mix it's hardly a fair fight, is it?

Where's the real Jane Fonda or the real Bernadette Dohrn when you really need them? I guess all yours grew up to be moderates or were killed by the police. We've had no such luck.

Anonymous,  12:52 AM  

I know that a lot of right wingers are dumb, but I don't think they're dumb enough to vote for Blago over Topinka because they want to make a statement. Unless of course they want to never win an election again.

Jonah 6:29 AM  

This poll suggest pretty much equal numbers of voters coming from the Republican and Democratic parties for Meeks, but I'm a little wary about how accurate it is.

Skeeter 9:07 AM  

Tom Roeser's HUGE REAR END said...
I know that a lot of right wingers are dumb, but I don't think they're dumb enough to vote for Blago over Topinka because they want to make a statement. Unless of course they want to never win an election again.

12:52 AM


Roeser thought Alan Keyes was a good idea for the ILGOP. Looks like "winning an election" is not his goal.

Daniel Darling 10:05 AM  

I predict that Meeks will run and that he will take more votes away from Judy than from Rod. I predict Rod will win a second term and do such a lousy job that in 2010, conservatives will grow up and unite in support of a leader they believe can win.

Yellow Dog Democrat 10:14 AM  

Schnorf --

"Not that lucky." Funny.

I wouldn't say that the liberals have become moderates, but I would say they've become pragmatists. We learned in 1994 what happens when you overreach your base. Heck, we loved Bill Clinton for being liberal and pragmatic.

The GOP's problem is that you've got too many multi-millionaires. "Pragmatic" means nothing to a guy with millions. I'd love to be able to afford to be idealistic all the time, but I readily admit it would probably get me into trouble.

Sometimes being idealistic can be good, like Peter Fitzgerald. But usually the idealistic become ideologues.

daniel darling - I predict Meeks will not run. I think the fall race is too close to call right now, but it is definitely Rod's to lose. He's got $15 million to remind Democrats that he's a Democrat with a strong Democratic record. We talk about corruption on this blog, but the polls show only a handful of voters care. They are much more concerned with education and health care.

Yellow Dog Democrat 10:31 AM  

Tom Roeser's huge rear end -- I doubt conservatives will vote for blago either. I'm betting that a good portion of them stay home.

Let's face it. They aren't turning out for Rutherford because of his support for gay rights. They aren't turning out for Radogno because of her support for reproductive choice. They aren't turning out for Pankau because of her support for gun control. And they aren't turing out for Stu Umholtz because they've never heard of him.

The only "true" conservative on the statewide ticket is Joe Birkett. But he picked Topinka as his running mate, which makes conservatives wonder just how "true" he is. Besides, conservatives can't vote for Birkett without voting for Topinka. And although I'm personally a strong supporter of equal rights for gay Americans, I know that Conservatives can't get this picture of Topinkaout of their head.

If conservatives have a visceral reaction to the sight of the Mexican flag being waved in the streets, you can imagine how they feel about a governor carrying the Gay Pride flag.

Thank God that's not my base.

Anonymous,  12:13 PM  

I am loving YDD's obsession with conservatives, it's such a hoot to read what he thinks they need to do, as I'm sure they're anxious for his political insight.

I think the only person who takes their blog posting more seriosly than YDD is Tom R...and that's not a compliment YDD.

Anonymous,  12:15 PM  

BTW, YDD....if this whole immigration debate is about illegal immigrants doing jobs American's won't do, how did so many find the time off of work to be in these staged marches? Explain, if you can.

And, no one really cares why you're not conservative, not sure why you need to keep explaning that, move on please, you're a broken record.

Also, I'll look for you and Skeeter holding hands in the gay pride parade this summer.

Skeeter 12:52 PM  

Oh no!

An anonymous person accused me of being gay! Please stop!

How stupid do you have to be when your best insult is "You guys are gay"?

Bad news my nameless friend. For real small government conservatives, that is not even an insult. Real conservatives could not care less what people do behind closed doors.

More bad news: I'm married. Turns out that women really like smart guys. Maybe you should read a book or something and then girls might talk to you.

Yellow Dog Democrat 1:51 PM  

Anon 12:15 - I wasn't at the rallies or marches, so I can't explain. I'm guessing that many of the demonstrators are students. Most domestic an hotel employees are at work long before you get out of bed and off work earlier as a result. Construction workers, lawn care workers, and other laborers generally start work by 6 a.m. and are off work at 3 p.m.

But maybe, just maybe, the folks at the rallies, who may or may not be legal citizens, decided this was important enough to take a half vacation day.

But, to answer your question more broadly, the average unemployment rates for whites, African Americans, and Latinos for 2005 was 4.0%, 10.0%, and 6.0% respectively. However, the high unemployment rates for Latino teenagers (18%) skews those numbers.

As for the Gay Pride Parade, I'm happy to hear you're a regular. Thong or chaps?

Anonymous,  5:29 PM  

"A national unemployment rate of 5 percent is irrelevant to the current debate over illegal immigration because illegals are overwhelmingly employed in only a few occupations, done mostly by workers with only a high school degree or less. In these high-illegal occupations, native unemployment averages 10 percent — twice the national average. Moreover, the unemployment rate does not consider the growing percentage of less-educated workers who are not even looking for work and have left the labor market altogether. ... What is clear is that the last five years have seen a record level of immigration. At the same time, the unemployment rate of less-educated natives has remained high and the share that have left the labor force altogether has grown significantly. Wage growth has also generally been weak. Thus it is very hard to see any evidence of a labor shortage that could justify allowing illegal aliens to stay or to admit more as guestworkers. Rather, the available evidence suggests that immigration may be adversely impacting less-educated natives. The statistical findings of this study are consistent with other research that has looked at the pattern of immigrant job gains and native loses in recent years." - Center for Immigration Studies: "Dropping Out - Immigrant Entry and Native Exit From the Labor market, 2000-2005"

Anonymous,  3:32 PM  

Anyone who thinks Meeks in the race will hurt JBT knows nothing of Illinois politics. Any conservative who would vote for Meeks would never vote for JBT and would probably protest vote for Rod or stay home. Black votes for Meeks, on the other hand will come directly from Rod's base.

Skeeter 4:02 PM  

Bob's right.

Nobody on the far right would vote for a Black man. That is why Keyes got kicked around. The wing nuts would not support him because of the color of his skin.

Or maybe Illinois conservatives are only about 25% of the electorate. I'm not ruling that out.

Anonymous,  12:41 PM  

Skeeter shows how wrong he is again, it was only the far right that voted for Keyes.

It was the moderates that didn't support him...man, get your facts straight would you?

Anonymous,  12:43 PM  

Ha! Skeeter complains about name calling, then dusts off the old "read a book" crack. What a clown.

Women do like smart guys skeeter...explain allt he free time you have to spend here puffing up your self worth?

Anonymous,  7:53 PM  

Skeeter says nobody on the far right will vote for a black man. Actually, as wacky as Keyes was and as popular as Obama was, Keyes won quite a few downstate counties. So I don't think the theory holds.

Anonymous,  7:53 PM  

Skeeter says nobody on the far right will vote for a black man. Actually, as wacky as Keyes was and as popular as Obama was, Keyes won quite a few downstate counties. So I don't think the theory holds.

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