32 Comments - DOWNSTATE - Friday, Mar 17, 06 @ 8:41 am: I really want to see, after this is over, if Obie has enough sense to back the winner or he takes his merry band of idiots into hiding until it is over in November.Second thought after some of the stunts he’s pulled off I don’t know how much help he could be. - anonymous - Friday, Mar 17, 06 @ 8:54 am: A lot of class from Brady to not unload on Oberweis after that. The possibilities are endless. Hopefully all of this latest nonsense is due to lagging numbers in his internal polls. - Marta Elena - Friday, Mar 17, 06 @ 8:56 am: Forgive with trying to create an anology with Star Wars since Obie appears to be that ’sith’ (I think) character at this point. He is going after anyone who is even the slightest lead in this campaign. Even though Brady is not neck and neck with JBT - his number are rising. - grand old partisan - Friday, Mar 17, 06 @ 9:01 am: “But after the forum, Oberweis said, “It should be obvious to everybody” that Brady had no chance to win the nomination.” - Um, couldn’t you say the same about yourself there Jimbo? You know, as the grand old partisan that I am, I have tried very hard to remain at least equally tolerant - if not supportive - of all the Republicans seeking the nomination. But Jim Oberweis has simply made it too hard. I mean, I’m not exactly a huge Gidwitz guy, but at least he has a record of being engaged with the issues. What has Oberweis done to earn the right to be our nominee, besides blow millions of dollars attacking members of our party? Nothing. After he lost the Senate nod to Durkin in ’02, did he do anything to help defeat Dick Durbin? No. After he lost the Senate nod to Jack Ryan in ‘04, did he do anything to help defeat Obama? No. Did he do anything to help Jim Ryan defeat Blago 4 years ago? Not a thing. Has he ever spoken out about an issue or policy NOT for the purpose of promoting his own selfish ambitions? NOT ONCE! Topinka, Brady, and Gidwitz each may have made mistakes in the past during their tenures in the various elected and – in Ron’s case – appointed positions he has held. But each of them has been on the front lines of policy and politics fighting for a cause other than their respective candidacies. That is something Oberweis has never done. Let’s hope the third times the charm, and we’ll finally be done with him after next week. - Schiznitz - Friday, Mar 17, 06 @ 9:11 am: Oberweis and the Tin-Foil Network have made their last gasp their ersatz belief they can actually win something. They lack continuity, much less credibility, by attacking Brady. And what is with supporting Wegman. That’s just silly. Its good to they are discrediting themselves. Brady can be given a lot of credit for unintentionally unifying the republican party. - T.J. - Friday, Mar 17, 06 @ 9:20 am: The day after the primary, Oberweis was the first to donate to Ryan. - SalukiDog - Friday, Mar 17, 06 @ 9:23 am: I just hope after this election, Obie FINALLY gets the hint. He obviously knows no boundaries when it comes to stretching the truth, all the while operating under the guise of being some kind of great leader who will “save” the state. Well, being able to tell the truth is usually a good place to start in wanting people to trust you when you make such statements. As Jim Edgar says in JBT’s ad (and I am not doing a plug - simply making a point), some of their attacks say more about them then it does their opponent… - the Patriot - Friday, Mar 17, 06 @ 9:29 am: Oberweis obviosly has no grasp of the legislative process which shows by his comments. By the way, where did Obe vote? Oh that is right, he has never been an elected official. Don’t criticise unless you have had to be in the seat and post the yea or nay. I hope Bill pulls it off. At least he will be very close or in front of Oberweis. I wonder where Bill Brady would be if he spent the money Oberweis has in one of his 3 elections. By looking at trends it is clear, if Brady had dropped that kind of cash he would be winning this race hands down. Fact is, Jim will get few more votes then his first run. Tens of millions and 6 years down the drain and nairy a vote gained. To error is human, not to learn from it is stupid. Move on Jim, Move on! - Bradys the Guy - Friday, Mar 17, 06 @ 9:38 am: Well said, Grand Old Partisan. As back up, it is important to note that in his first run in 2002, Obie got 260,860 votes. In 2004, he dropped to 155,794 votes, a dramatic fall off. Adjusting that to the overall drop in the 2004 primary vote (from 861,231 to 661,804 in the Senate primaries), Obie lost 31% of his vote over two years. He is in no position to claim that Brady is the spoiler. Not only that, Oberweis screwed himself out of the chance to succeed Jack Ryan as the GOP Senate nominee in 2004. After he lost in the primary, Obie’s next crusade was inept, failed attempt to oust Kjellander as National Committeeman at the State Convention in May 2004. All he succeeded in doing was to make an enemy of Kjellander. Bad move when the Senate seat opened up in July. Of course the State Central Committee could have (and did) vote to override Kjellander’s sentiments, but Oberweis again shot himself in the foot by appearing before the Committee, presenting a pose of ENTITLEMENT to the appointment, and stating to them that he would only ACCEPT their appointment if they committed to a multi-million dollar bankroll for his campaign. As we now know, even Keyes’ and Barthwell’s offers were more attractive to the Committee, and Obie was passed over. If Kjellander just behaved himself as a loyal party guy after the primary, lobbied the central committee, and modestly presented his credentials, the Syverson faction would have adopted him as their Senate candidate in 2004 in a heartbeat, instead of Keyes. But leave it to Obie…. - grand old partisan - Friday, Mar 17, 06 @ 9:43 am: T.J. - okay, after spending over $2 million on his own bid, Oberweis donated a whooping $500 to Jack. What a guy! - Bradys the Guy - Friday, Mar 17, 06 @ 9:44 am: No, Rich Miller, Obie didn’t “stretch the truth”…he LIED about Brady’s record. Brady never voted for the criticized increases. Brady was one of the few reps to challenge George Ryan on his bloated spending plans that put us on the path to insolvency. For his stand of integrity, he was subject to Ryan’s vengefulness. Obie, on the other hand, courted the indicted George Ryan at his home in Kankakee during his 2004 campaign…. and he put a George Ryan intimate on his staff (and he was still there two months ago)…leave it to a hypocrite to lie… - Bradys the Guy - Friday, Mar 17, 06 @ 9:47 am: Too bad Obie went on a lying and distortion binge at the debate…. it gave the MSM an excuse not to cover Judy Baar Topinka’s cowardice in ducking the debate. - Backyard Conservative - Friday, Mar 17, 06 @ 9:55 am: Oberweis is clearly a vanity candidate. Got Gov? Please. - grand old partisan - Friday, Mar 17, 06 @ 9:55 am: sorry for the back-to-back post. But, TJ, it’s about more than just writing checks. There are lots of wealthy businessman who contribute to campaigns and PACs. Are they all qualified to be a statewide nominee? Maybe some are, but not all. Gidwitz helped found the IL Coalition for Jobs, Growth and Prosperity as an engaged and active leader in the Chicagoland Chamber. Brady used his money to start small, and learn about how Springfield works before presuming he could run it. What has Oberweis done? Standing up against corruption, taxes, and liberalism is all well and good. But when has Oberweis done that while not running for office? It’s about more than just money. Btw, getting back to his generous support of Jack Ryan, do you know he donated almost as much to Judy Baar Topinka as to Jack that year? - VanillaMan - Friday, Mar 17, 06 @ 10:04 am: By stunting Brady’s support, Oberweis has kept the GOP from nominating a candidate with no chance of victory in a state bluer than Wisconsin or Pennsylvania. A sweet conservative from Bloomington has no chance in a statewide election at this level, at this time. No one will vote for him north of I-80. The situation is serious in that without moderate, or incumbant GOP candidates, Democrats have been winning and enacting 20th Century social welfare programs that do not belong in today’s or tomorrow’s world. With their free reign, we have kooks like our current governor capable of winning and wrecking Illinois. The GOP doesn’t even count in the General Assembly anymore. So, we are witnessing a Democratic Party going wild with our money, and giving it away to create monster social programs. Instead of emulating fast growing states like Texas or Florida, Illinois is following dying states like Massachusetts and Vermont. Without adequate GOP victories, we have witnessed an insane Dick Durbin run amuck, spouting embarrassing anti-US statements on the floor of the US Senate. We have seen a nobody named Barak Obama walk into office without even a sweat. We simply had no clue what Obama stood for, but without a real GOP candidate, he didn’t have to tell us a thing - and didn’t. Without Topinka, the GOP would have no statewide office holders. A party of no incumbants? Yet, there are ideologues questioning whether she is worthy of their votes. There are two Illinois’, one with the votes, and one without. The GOP has been deciding to appeal to the one that has no votes. So, for those who do not want to see the extinction of the two party system in Illinois, vote for Topinka, work like mad to get her elected, and hope somehow she will be able to revive the Illinois GOP. After the fiascos of Salvi, Keyes, and Ryan, the GOP is on life support. The longer the GOP wallows around losing races, the quicker Illinois is going from Prairie State to Welfare State. We are at a tipping point, where the GOP is looking more and more like a party with no chance of winning, so it will no longer attract candidates with wide winning appeal. There is no GOP in Cook County. Lets not repeat that disasterous situation in the rest of the state. - ISU REP - Friday, Mar 17, 06 @ 10:04 am: Bradys: Cowardice? That’s laughable…do you also believe the world is flat and that blood letting cures diseases? - Yellow Dog Democrat - Friday, Mar 17, 06 @ 10:07 am: My question is: did Brady vote for the spending increases? It’s disingenuous of Republicans to say they opposed the tax increases when they voted to support the spending. And hey, guess what? Brady did vote for HB 4439 — twice. And he voted for SB 630 — twice. We DO have a balanced budget requirement, and if you support increased spending, your support for the tax increases is de facto. - anon - Friday, Mar 17, 06 @ 10:09 am: No one has answered my question for a couple of days now. Has ANY Representative or Senator endorsed Obie? To my knowledge NOT ONE. And these are the people who he will need to work with. We already know what its like to have a Governor who doesn’t know how to work with the legislature. - Yellow Dog Democrat - Friday, Mar 17, 06 @ 10:22 am: Brady’s the Guy - Are you nuts? Follow the above links, you’ll see Brady voted for the Illinois FIRST spending, not opposed it. I’m no Brady-basher. In fact, I’ve said time-and-again that I thought he was the best candidate to face Blagojevich. But for Brady to say he opposed Illinois FIRST is completely untrue. I’d also like to point out that Brady seems to have quietly dropped is pledge to run a positive campaign. It should be clear to all that he was never in this race to win it, only to protect Topinka’s right flank. Conservatives are right to be disappointed. Something else makes sense to me now too. I wondered why the Illinois State Rifle Association endorsed Brady over Topinka, who they’ve long supported. It appears now to have been a well-calculated move to protect Topinka’s right flank — siphoning off conservative votes from Oberweis. If the ISRA had endorsed Topinka in the primary, Blagojevich would have attacked her as the “gun lobby candidate” all summer long. Now, they can work against Blagojevich early, endorse Topinka late, and she gets the chance to brand herself as a moderate. Rich, any idea whether the ISRA Political Victory Fund is actually spending money to help Brady? If not, that would confirm my suspicions. - grand old partisan - Friday, Mar 17, 06 @ 10:25 am: Okay, YDD, perhaps you can explain how Blagojevich plans on keeping his promise to not raise taxes despite creating new entitlement programs and proposing new capital construction? - Yellow Dog Democrat - Friday, Mar 17, 06 @ 11:07 am: GOP - It would be nice if you started out by admitting I’ve done my homework and Brady isn’t being truthful when he says he opposed Illinois FIRST. I’m not here to defend Blagojevich’s proposed budget. I think he’s said he wants to pay for some of his new programs by eliminating some tax expenditures — a.k.a. “Closing loopholes” — like the tax-exemption for software purchases. Maybe Rich will open a thread on this topic and we can explore it all later. I’ll defer to Schnorf on this one. I can say that the Governor has said again and again that he opposes raising the income or sales tax, and I believe his current budget pays for these proposals without a sales of income tax increase. Now, Republicans can and will argue that the governor raised taxes through some of these other loophole closings. I don’t think that will be a particularly effective message, especially since Blagojevich will have the money to argue his side much more loudly and the news media will back him up. Picture an add with a real headline quoting the Sun-Times “Governor Blagojevich kept his promise not to raise the sales or income tax”. The GOP nominee is running hard down a dead-end road if they take up the tax issue, especially Topinka, since she’s said she would support a tax increase “if needed.” I’ll also say this is another area where the Governor and I disagree. Illinois is fast becoming a “Couch potato” state, in more ways than one. Yes, while the Governor has made some smart choices, like consolidating state agencies, there’s still plenty of fat or waste to be eliminated in state government. But the problem isn’t that we’ve got too much revenue or “calories”. The problem is that some of those calories aren’t being directed to the state’s muscles — programs that provide the most efficient direct services — but instead are ending up in the pockets of the companies that recruit the best contract lobbyists. I also disagree with the Gov’s political advisors who have pushed him into this “No New Taxes” pledge for political reasons. As Gov. Mark Warner showed, you can lead your state to support public investment and expand your political support. It just takes REAL testicular virility. - NumbersGuy - Friday, Mar 17, 06 @ 11:53 am: YDD, I don’t have a dog in this particular race, but I do have to jump in on one of your points. The Governor’s current budget may be balanced without general tax increases, but it was balanced by cutting pension funding. I’m with you 100% on the rest, including Brady’s shuck and jive on Illinois First. Well said. Pingback IlliniPundit.com » Blog Archive » Roundup (3/17/06) - Friday, Mar 17, 06 @ 11:55 am: […] Oberweis is lying again, this time about Bill Brady. I thought this was a two-person race? […] - LittleEgypt - Friday, Mar 17, 06 @ 12:07 pm: Rich, I was listening to a Peoria station yesterday and could swear I heard an Obie commercial that had the voice of JBT saying something to the effect of “Obie for Governor” or something similar. How does Obie get away with this stuff? I don’t know of one single politician who does not lie to get into office - NOT ONE. However, would we all agree (except Obie’s campaign staff) that he has set the bar to a new low when it comes to out and out lies? How can anyone possibly vote for this idiot and expect anything out of him as a GOP Governor that we are not now getting out of Gov. Hairbrush? Please God, let the election come soon and use your divine power to remove all of Obie’s campaign signs from the State highway right-of-way. I’d do it myself if I didn’t think I’d get arrested for doing the right thing. - anon - Friday, Mar 17, 06 @ 12:56 pm: YDD, To answer your question on why Topinka didn’t get the ISRA endorsement, she is not for concealed carry. - Anonymous - Friday, Mar 17, 06 @ 1:15 pm: Has anyone else heard the Andy Martin radio commercials that mention the stoptopinka website? - anonymous - Friday, Mar 17, 06 @ 2:10 pm: YDD, there’s this publication called “Almanac of Illinois Politics” that shows Brady’s votes against Illinois First. But I wouldn’t want facts to get in the way of your flailing. But be carefull when you put your cool-aid down. Wouldn’t want you to spill it on your Milkman t-shirt. - Bubs - Friday, Mar 17, 06 @ 2:17 pm: If Oberweis leaves the stage after March 21, is there any chance he could take FTN and RYP with him? Maybe they all could move to Iowa, and become an annoying nuiscance for the Iowa Republican Party. - It's 5 O'clock somewhere - Friday, Mar 17, 06 @ 2:42 pm: Brady does not attact the others, stands on his own. He is running on his strength not the others’ weakness. - grand old partisan - Friday, Mar 17, 06 @ 2:42 pm: Okay, in Yellow Dog’s defense, he is hardly an Oberweis supporter. That being said, he is similarly twisting the truth about Brady’s stance on IL FIRST. Brady opposed the program when it was originally created. In subsequent appropriations bills, like HB 4439 and S 630, he (and everyone else in the Senate) had to vote to fund those projects because they were included in omnibus bills that included vital state projects and programs. Should he have voted against funding law enforcement, hospitals, the National Guard, state parks, state colleges, etc. as a protest against IL FIRST? Perhaps it would have been a nice gesture, but it also would have been political suicide. And while mainstream, conservative Republicans in this state are certainly in need of a hero, a martyr is of no use to us. - Sour Milk - Friday, Mar 17, 06 @ 5:40 pm: I don’t care what Brady’s record is. Oberweis has lost what little shred of credibility he ever had by running a negative, mean-spirited, and unlimately dishonest campaign. He doesn’t tell the truth, so it’s impossible to believe anything he says. Why bother checking his facts ? - Right Wing Republican - Saturday, Mar 18, 06 @ 10:25 am: Thaks for the explanation of Brady’s stand against ILLINOIS FIRST Grand Old Partisan, it should be clear that Democrats (Yellow or otherwise)CANNOT hold back from acting like a demagogue. I remember when Dick (The Turbin)Durbin said that his opponent (whoever that was) was in favor of people bringing machine guns into church. This was because his opponent was in favor of a concealed carry bill. Democrats - the truth is never an obstacle. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.