Ease up a little, Axe
Wednesday, Sep 28, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller
* There’s no doubt that Tammy Duckworth is a war hero who has given a lot for her country. I, for one, am in awe of her service and her toughness. But this fundraising e-mail from David Axelrod kinda rubs me the wrong way. Emphasis is in the original…
Like you, I can’t wait to see Tammy Duckworth walk down the aisle on those titanium legs and stand in the well of the U.S. House, a woman with a spine of steel who has always done her duty, exhorting the Republicans in Congress to do theirs.
That’s a bit much, if you ask me, but nobody did.
* Debbie Halvorson says she will announce her decision next week…
Former Congresswoman Debbie Halvorson says she’ll announce by the end of next week whether she’s running again for the U.S. House. She would challenge U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., in the Democratic primary.
Halvorson lost her seat in Congress to Republican Adam Kinzinger last year. But when political boundaries were redrawn, her home was swallowed by the district held by Jackson, a fellow Democrat but longtime adversary of Halvorson’s.
“I’ve decided I didn’t want to keep everybody waiting,” Halvorson said Tuesday. “I want to make my decision by this weekend,” with a public announcement “absolutely” coming the following week.
* After comparing the budget fights to “Fort Sumter in the Civil War,” Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger is now complaining that the Democrats are unfairly using a potential government shutdown in the latest budget argument…
U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Manteno, on Tuesday said Democratic leaders are using the threat of a government shutdown as a “nuclear bomb” and that a deal on government spending for the next two months is likely.
* Over in the 10th, one of Republican Bob Dold’s potential Democratic opponents has just picked up a couple of endorsements…
Brad Schneider, one of the Democratic candidates in the new north suburban 10th Congressional District, has pulled in a couple of big endorsements.
Two state senators who had been wooed to run, Jeff Schoenberg, D-Evanston, and Susan Garrett, D-Lake Forest, Tuesday formally threw their backing to him. […]
The endorsements sure will help Mr. Schneider in his goal to take on GOP incumbent Robert Dold. But they also are a tacit sign that the Democratic field in the district is pretty set.
* Dold, by the way, was recently whacked in HuffPo for duplicity…
An ardent opponent of the federal stimulus plan showed up Monday in Winnetka, Ill., to smile and cut the ribbon at a ceremony unveiling a local project funded by that very stimulus.
“Originally built in the 1940s, the [train] station not only got a facelift but three heated platform warming shelters, two new elevators and a new pedestrian bridge to allow commuters to wait in the station and then quickly cross over the tracks to the Chicago-bound platform,” Winnetka-Glencoe Patch reported Tuesday morning.
* Whatever else you can say about him, Joe Walsh is almost always pitch perfect when he speaks to his base…
Walsh then told an audience filled with concealed carry advocates exactly what they wanted to hear in pledging to be a “cheerleader” for gun rights in Congress.
“We are an embarrassment (in Illinois),” Walsh said. “We are the last state standing when it comes to concealed carry. There’s no issue when it comes to freedom that matters like this, like the Second Amendment. The most important amendment in that Bill of Rights is the Second Amendment. It protects every other amendment. It is the last line of defense between us and our government.”
Walsh said Congress should move to cut off all funding to the United Nations as well as any exploration of restricting gun manufacturing or arms trading through the U.N.
“There’s no way the United States should be restricted by any international law,” Walsh said. “It amazes me that we’re even looking into it.”
* Related…
* Freda Manzullo honored at capitol
- Loop Lady - Wednesday, Sep 28, 11 @ 2:38 pm:
IMO, Duckworth needs to drop Axelrod ASAP if she wants to win this race..it is apparent to me that he has drinking his own koolaid ever since he left DC…no candidate wants their campaign manager to be an issue in their race, and he is fast becoming just that…
- just sayin' - Wednesday, Sep 28, 11 @ 2:38 pm:
It is a bit much. But it’s not nearly as bad as a hit piece I remember Roskam did on Duckworth, something about her “ducking” away or running away. Disgusting given that she gave both legs in service to this country and that includes Roskam and his absurd hair plugs.
- shore - Wednesday, Sep 28, 11 @ 2:41 pm:
Winnetka is in the top 1/10th of 1 percent of American community’s in terms of wealth. If the president is going to rail against millionaires and billionaires and ask for them to pay their fair share why is he giving winnetkans a bridge and warming areas at their train station?
Just because you are a war hero doesn’t mean you are going to be a good congressman. sorry.
- Because I say so - Wednesday, Sep 28, 11 @ 2:48 pm:
My guess is that Halvorson will run. I think she’s been itching to get back in the game. This will be a fun race to watch.
- 47th Ward - Wednesday, Sep 28, 11 @ 2:56 pm:
===why is he giving winnetkans a bridge and warming areas at their train station?===
First off, Obama isn’t giving Winnetkans anything. The funding went to RTA, which decides where to spend it. Second, it is less about the wealthy 1/10th of 1 percenters who’ll get to stay warm while they wait for their train, it is about the electrician, carpenter, laborer and the contracting companies who remain employed who actually build the bridge/station upgrades.
And I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that the employees who worked on the project don’t live near or use the upgraded station. And I’ll go even further out on the limb and bet that Dold, who couldn’t be bothered to vote for the spending, is nonetheless pleased to take credit for it.
You’re becoming a one-trick pony Shore.
- Louis G. Atsaves - Wednesday, Sep 28, 11 @ 3:01 pm:
Dold was not in congress when the bill passed. Am I missing something here or the Democratic hypercriticism of every breath Robert Dold takes going over the top again?
- Responsa - Wednesday, Sep 28, 11 @ 3:01 pm:
The problem with pandering is that to be most effective it needs to be a bit subtle. It needs to be used with a light touch. Otherwise, it just comes across as — pandery. And kind of insulting to all involved.
The Tammy email sounds amateurish. David Axelrod used to be so good at this stuff. But it takes two to tango, and I’m very sad and rather surprised that Tammy is apparently willing to let herself be used in this way.
- Interesting - Wednesday, Sep 28, 11 @ 3:16 pm:
Very interesting, the email sent out by the campaign today appears to have been sent to me using a sign up on Rahm Emanuel’s list.
The email was addressed to a name that I had used to sign up for an Emanuel campaign event on behalf of a friend, and never used for anything else before.
I am also on her ‘regular’ list and received almost the same email last week from the campaign addressed to my actual name.
I guess there is the mayor getting involved. albeit, at least somewhat under the table.
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Sep 28, 11 @ 3:21 pm:
Hey, Interesting, could you forward me those two emails please? Thanks.
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Sep 28, 11 @ 3:31 pm:
“We are an embarrassment (in Illinois),” Walsh said.
If he’s using the royal “we,” I’m with him to this point.
- shore - Wednesday, Sep 28, 11 @ 3:39 pm:
47th ward that’s actually good analysis, but stimulus money went to one of the wealthiest communities in the country to pay for platform heating.
- 47th Ward - Wednesday, Sep 28, 11 @ 3:48 pm:
Or you could say a stimulus project in Winnetka put several people from elsewhere to work or kept them employed. Last I checked, that was the point of having a stimulus program in the first place.
What did you think the stimulus was for?
- dave - Wednesday, Sep 28, 11 @ 3:58 pm:
**47th ward that’s actually good analysis, but stimulus money went to one of the wealthiest communities in the country to pay for platform heating.**
Was there something that said stimulus money could only go to poor communities?
- Six Degrees of Separation - Wednesday, Sep 28, 11 @ 4:29 pm:
stimulus money went to one of the wealthiest communities in the country to pay for platform heating.
Wouldn’t bother me too much, except I have stood on many a cold station platform in the south suburbs waiting for a Metra Electric train and knowing if I had to “go”, my next opportunity would be at Millenium Park station. Call it “class warfare” if you will.
- ChicagoR - Wednesday, Sep 28, 11 @ 4:29 pm:
I think Duckworth is a great speaker and a compelling person. But this over-the-top pandering is just too much. The fact that they kept pushing her for Congress before she had any political experience at all always seemed too cynical by half to me. Now she’s gone back and gotten some needed governmental leadership experience, and I find her a much more attractive candidate. But if they keep pushing her main qualification as her “titanium legs”, they are just going to turn people off.
- Dooley Dudright - Wednesday, Sep 28, 11 @ 4:59 pm:
Heh. I was at the Winnetka Metra station last week. The new concrete platform on the “To Chicago” side already has fissures in at least three places, upon which someone tried to smear silicone caulk. (Like that’ll work.)
(Winnetka-as-stimulus. Cracked as metaphor for the federal stimulus program. Excuse me while I……swoon.)
Geez, they can’t even get the place dedicated before it starts to fall apart!
Well — at least Metra was on time.
- k3_Spfld_Chi - Wednesday, Sep 28, 11 @ 5:14 pm:
Having served with Duckworth, I think she will have some problems in the nature of John Kerry when she really gets this going. I hear of a less organized and not so well funded group of NG people who never were fond of ther when she was in the NG. I guess we will see.
- Ace Matson - Wednesday, Sep 28, 11 @ 5:23 pm:
Dold also railed against the 2008 RTA reform bill in his 2010 primary- at least three mailings attacking Coulson for voting for it. This bill made the Winnetka project, and others in the District, possible with the state/RTA match. So Dold is a double hypocrite. He ran as a fervent anti-transit candidate, now he’s posing for ribbon-cutiing photos!!! Washington deserves him; the District does not!
- collar observer - Wednesday, Sep 28, 11 @ 6:03 pm:
I agree wholeheartedly that Axe has gone way over the top - and Duckworth needs to be held accountable - it is her name on the campaign. At this critical time in our history - we certainly need serious campaigns and candidates like the Raja for Congress campaign. He has my vote!
- Observer of the State - Wednesday, Sep 28, 11 @ 7:02 pm:
The Axelrod email tells me she is having trouble raising her own money.
It will be interesting to see if who passes her petitions. Last time only a few people from the District passed petitions for her, most came from Chicago.
Raja’s campaign has already knocked on my door to sign the petition. He has volunteers going door to door to get his petitions signed.
He is working the district and that more than anything tells me he will work for the district as well.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Sep 28, 11 @ 7:16 pm:
It’s not like only “rich” people use Metra, Shore. Look at how many people use Metra to work in the North Shore from other communities? Whether it’s at 6am or 10pm, I see dozens of workers at Panera or McDonald’s get on and off Metra. I see dozens of high school students.
The SECOND Amendment is the most important? Oy. Oy. Oy. There is something seriously wrong with that statement. Whatever makes Joe Walsh feel like man since he WON’T support his kids…
- x ace - Wednesday, Sep 28, 11 @ 8:12 pm:
The Axlerod solicitation for Duckworth rubs me wrong also.
Reminds me that former Rep. Larry Hicks had TV ads with Vietnam helicopter footage designed to capitalize on his service record. They rubbed me wrong too. ( but he was elected to multiple terms)
- hisgirlfriday - Wednesday, Sep 28, 11 @ 8:44 pm:
What is it about Tammy Duckworth that gets Rahm and Axelrod so fired up to push people around for her? Is it just he’s so smitten with her biography that lets him send out fundraising appeals that tug on the heartstrings of people? Or is it something else?
Because I for one have not forgotten they did the same thing to Christine Cegelis that they are doing to Raja now, except this case makes even less sense to me because while Cegelis-vs-Duckworth was grassroots Progressive wing-vs- establishment DCCC/Rahm fighting, Raja-vs-Duckworth is Obama-wing on Obama-wing crime.
Did Axelrod and Rahm learn something really horrible about Raja when Raja was working on Obama’s 2004 Senate campaign?
I seriously don’t get it.
- amalia - Wednesday, Sep 28, 11 @ 10:15 pm:
I think Tammy Duckworth is just great, but LOVE your headline, Rich Miller.
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Sep 28, 11 @ 10:29 pm:
=== I hear of a less organized and not so well funded group of NG people===
If that happens, they can expect a very major pushback. And I won’t be sitting on the sidelines, either.
- Coach - Wednesday, Sep 28, 11 @ 10:50 pm:
Axelrod’s “P.S.” statement implying Duckworth would face off against Walsh is misleading, inexcusable and more than a little shady. Certainly, Axe knows Walsh is running in the 14th, and that Walsh therefore won’t appear on the ballot in the 8th (even if he does win the primary). So, rather than sending a factual message saying something to the effect of “We need Tammy in Washington to beat down the right wing loons like Joe Walsh,” Axe instead tries to exploit public ignorance and confusion over the new map/districts by connecting dots that don’t connect. Glad to see we’re transcending the politics of the past.