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The Empire strikes back
Monday, Feb 4, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller * Dan Lipinkski’s campaign has a new mailer which is basically an open letter from community activist and “fellow Southwest Sider” Joe Kulys. Kulys slams the bloggers who have attacked Lipinksi for the past several months as “political punks” and “radical left-wingers,” claiming they’re from places like “San Francisco, Hollywood, New York City and Massachusetts.” Kulys then notes this in the letter…
And just where was Dan Lipinski during all this difficult party building? Why, he was also in his “diapers” and/or away at college. Lipinski wasn’t even living in Illinois when he was tapped to replace his daddy. The only time Dan Lipinski really did anything on his own was when he was zooming towards the womb. He didn’t build anything on the Southwest Side. He barely knows the Southwest Side of today. Ask pretty much any insider in that district and they’ll tell you the “real” reason Dan Lipinski was originally slotted into that seat was because he has a horrific case of diabetes and his mommy wanted to make sure he got lifetime health insurance coverage. He’s an embarrassment on every level. * More congressional stuff, compiled by Kevin…
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- Rob_N - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 10:27 am:
Joe Kulys notes in the full version of the rant (on his blog) that he’s not even a resident of the district… Rep. Lipinski’s campaign flyer conveniently edited out that line.
(h/t Michael in Chicago for noticing that)
- Ghost - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 10:31 am:
Lip service on party building. The true establishment legacy at work, unfortunetly it looks like he may win anyway.
- Carl Nyberg - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 10:32 am:
Is Dan Lipinski for single-payer health care? Universal health care?
Or is it just the children of elites who should get free health care courtesy of the government?
- Anonymous - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 10:35 am:
Whatever the strings Lipinski pulled to get the job, it’s the feckless taxpayers who voted him in, apparently based on name recognition or greed (the connected likely benefited financially) who deserve what they got.
It really is true that for the most part we deserve the mostly fools and knaves who represent
us at all levels of Illinois government, starting
at the top. We just can’t bear to stop pouring money on pols and the crooks who attend to them. And most political jobs, with their fancy health and retirement benefits, “campaign funds,” and
contractor-provided goodies are multimillion dollar gifts to the useless and corrupt.
But we can’t stop pouring the money on them.
- Bill Baar - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 10:45 am:
Or is it just the children of elites who should get free health care courtesy of the government?
Lipinski I would suspect gets his health inurance under Federal Employee Health Program. I’d argue one solution to health insurance in this country is simply offer FEP to all. Much as Laesch argues offering Medicare to all.
But do note neithr FEB or Medicare are free and invovle heafty copays and premiums.
Very different than some of the cadillac union plans where the beneficiary picks up little of the costs each month.
What ever Lipinski is getting, it’s not free, although it may be the model for what the rest of us should be getting.
- Ghost - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 10:49 am:
Government health care works well in Canada and France, unless you need an MRI, medical treatment, or a heart transplant and your over 50. basically governemnt backed insurance works well as long as your not sick.
- anon - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 10:59 am:
I’ve said it here before, I think the Lipinski’s are concerned about tomorrow’s outcome. People of the 3rd district have had enough of this do nothing congressman and will never get over how he was “given” this gig. Lipinski’s chief of staff is calling Bennett supporters and basically threatening them. Jerry Bennett has gotten the endorsment of the Sun-Times, SouthtownStar and Kristen McQuery has given him the nod. His campaign has gotten some real momentum. Let’s just hope it’s enough.
- capitol view - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 11:02 am:
since this is an open thread for congressional races:
did anyone else catch the Schock TV ad, claiming credit for beating back the Governor’s value added tax? It lost unanimously in the House after the Speaker put the Blago proposal up on the board, but Aaron appears to be claiming to have single handedly opposed it and beat it back.
“Chutzpah”, as they say in the 50th ward.
- Pat collins - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 11:08 am:
has diabetes
Was he not tenured down in Knoxville? Don’t Professors have health care, and essentially longer employment possibilities than Congressmen?
Far better ways for a clout heavy congressman to provide for his son than that…
- the Other Anonymous - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 11:37 am:
Some outfit calling themselves “Committee for Honest Elections” is out doing an anti-Bennett robo-call. Don’t know if it’s the Pera campaign or someone else, but the group has not registered with the FEC or state Board of Elections.
Someone’s worried.
- Joe in the Know - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 12:31 pm:
“Committee for Honest Elections”, much like the “Coalition for Better Government” is a joke. It ain’t Pera doing it, I can assure you. Bennett is a Lipinski shill and is taking shilling to a higher plane. Beat up the incumbent, along with Pera and you split the anti-Lipper vote. Lipper walks away with under 50%, but so what, the 23, 13, 11 and 19th wards carry the necessary votes to pull it our handsomely. Pera is the only anti-Lipper choice out there, I don’t care that the Sun-Times endorsed him, nor their sister publication, the Southtown.
- Rob_N - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 12:39 pm:
Sorry that this is OT…
Ghost, do you have any actual, up-to-date info on government-backed health care in Canada failing to provide MRIs, transplants, etc.?
And do you realize the same (actually, worse) is happening here in the States under market-based health care? Ever tried to get so much as a referral for a bad knee? How many “customer service reps” did you have to go through?
Heck, a girl in California died because Cigna Insurance refused to fund her transplant even though it was supposedly covered. Instead, they declared it “experimental”.
That, Ghost, is the status quo you’re defending with your unreferenced claims that are not borne out by facts.
- fedup dem - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 12:44 pm:
If the health coverage is the key factor in Lipinski’s continued stay in Congress, then area Dems will likely dump him in 2010 (assuming he wins tommorrow and runs again in two years). By that point, his pension will be vested (as a three-term House member), along with his insurance coverage. While Mike Madigan is willing to keep his word in this election on Danny Boy’s behalf, there is no way the Speaker will sacrifice any political capital for Lipinski in 2010, not when Lisa is on the ballot.
- Team Sleep - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 12:54 pm:
Capitol, I’ve seen those commercials. I’ve also seen the commercials of Aaron in the cornfields. He looks silly standing on a combine.
Lil’ Lipper is Example A-1 of what’s wrong with Illinois politics. One reason the founding fathers didn’t want a monarchy in America was due to the bloodline takeovers in Europe. This type of situation isn’t really much different.
- RMW Stanford - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 12:57 pm:
Schock has shown that he is not ready for prime time yet, I started the campaign as support, but after some of his gaffs, he lost me. McConoughey is by far the best choice for the 18th district.
- Ghost - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 1:00 pm:
Rob_N yes I do, it takes an average of 30 days to get an MRI in Canada as of the last report provided to me.
As for difficulty getting treatment in the US, I got an MRI the same day my Dr said I needed one; and an appointment with a neurosurgeon the same week.
the CIGNA girl did not die because CIGNA refused to cover the transplant, BTW in canada she would not have been eligible for that transplant and so would never have recieved the transplant at all. But I digress.
Almost every major advancement in medicine and medical technology has come from the US based market system. Much of the tech we use to save lives, MRI’s, open MRI’s all that fancy medicine and new surgical techniques etc come from the profitability in a market based system. How many people fly from Canada to the US every year for Heart surgeries, brain surgery etc? Our hiospitals overflow with people from foreign countries who want the best care coming here.
It would make more sense to decry the money paid to actors and bookwriters for their services, which do little to nothing for our health, then toi complain about Doctors making money.
In the US we are ok paying actors and athelets 40 million dollars, but we think medicine should be limited so that docotors can not do well, in short we want to push our best and brightest to be atheletes or business people by making sure medicine pays so little that no one you would want cutting you open is on the otehr end of that scalpel.
- Centrino - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 2:07 pm:
I had to laugh when CQ described Steve Greenberg as well funded. Bean has $1.3 million on hand to Greenberg’s $62,000. That’s well funded?
Compare that to 2006, when both major party candidates spent $9.4 million in the general.
Greenberg seems like a likable enough guy, much more than McSweeney, but the guy has a GED, a supposed fortune, and a non-existent campaign.
I live in the 8th District and received one mailer from him. Meanwhile, Bean is out working her district hard. Where is this Greenberg.
At least I’ve seen Kirk Morris on TV. The guy may not have any cash left, but he’s used it better than his opponents.
- Anonymous - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 2:27 pm:
whoever wrote that “the Lipinski’s are concerned about the tomorrow’s outcome” apparently didn’t look at their most recent FEC reports, which showed an active balance of $370,000 CASH ON HAND.
if they were worried, they’d be spending that money down.
and as for jerry bennet “having momentum” maybe you don’t live in the district, but if you did you’d realize that no one has ever heard of him and he hasn’t raised any money.
i wouldn’t consider the suntimes endorsement of bennet and another sham column by mcquery as ‘momentum.’
- Rich Miller - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 2:29 pm:
Now, why pray tell, would you consider Kristen’s column a “sham”?
- Radical Moderate - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 2:31 pm:
Joe in the Know,
Can we please stop this “Bennett is a Lipinski shill, only in the race so Pera won’t win” stuff? Just because Daily Kos says it doesn’t mean it is true - it proves the point that many east coast liberals interested in this race have no clue what is going on in the district.
A shill is not someone who has been a respected mayor for decades and has been active in mayoral councils.
Is it possible that Dan Lipinski didn’t put out the flyer, and that one of his opponents did as a dirty trick to fire up the liberal left before the primary tomorrow? It just seems strange to me that Lipinski would run a flyer that seems like a drunken rant of some neighborhood guy. Why further fuel the fire of the liberal masses at this late date?
- Patrick Corcoran, Pera for Congress - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 2:39 pm:
Lipinski links to the piece on his Web site.
The piece that was circulated indicates it was paid for by Dan Lipinski for Congress.
- Six Degrees of Separation - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 2:53 pm:
FWIW, the Ledger/Record newspaper chain in Kendall County offered “no endorsement” for the R’s in the 14th, while endorsing Foster for the D’s.
http://www.ledgersentinel.com/article.asp?a=6963
- Joe in the Know - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 3:17 pm:
Radical Moderate: I have never visited Daily Kos, wouldn’t care if that is what that site stated. What I do know is that Bennett was on Lipinski’s own website praising him! I live in the district and agree with “Anonymous 2:27″ who said that Bennett isn’t known in the district. But neither is Dan Lipinki, who moved from Tennessee to save us from ourselves. Bennett is a shill’s shill, but props to the Lipinski’s for pulling off the same game plan two election cycles in a row. They did the same trick with John Kelly two years ago.
- Snidely Whiplash - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 3:25 pm:
Bennett has not run much of a campaign. Pera has campaigned his butt off, but his negative-only tone and the juvenile nature of his mailings are a real turn off. So, maybe they split the suburban anti-Lipinski vote 50-50, and Lipinski still takes the suburban portion of the district with around 35-40% of the vote.
In the city portions of the district, this will be a no-brainer. Lipinski will carry the 23rd Ward by a huge margin, and have comfy majorities in the remaining wards, where he will be pushed heavily. Lipinski could actually come in dead last in the suburbs and still win with the city vote, although I really don’t see that happening.
I didn’t discern any confidence by McQueary that Bennett would win, only that he would get her vote.
I do think that if Bennett were seriously considering a win, he could and would have done much more in the way of campaigning. So, he is either laying the foundation for a future campaign for higher office, or he is a shill. Or he is just a terrible campaigner and strategist who really thought that because he is somewhat of a dean among southwest suburban mayors, every Dem voter in the district would instantly recognize his name and superior ability and cast their vote for him. The problem with that theory is that half the residents in those suburbs don’t even know who their own mayor is, let alone who the mayor is in a municipality 3 towns over, and Bennett knows this as well as anybody.
- Radical Moderate - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 3:45 pm:
Patrick and Joe in the Know,
If Lipinski is linking to it, then my query has been answered. Just because it says paid for by Lipinski doesn’t necessarily mean it was - remember that this is Illinois.
Joe, Bennett’s quote was from years ago. If Obama ever praised Hillary - I’d bet that at some point on the Senate floor he did - does that mean he is a Hillary shill? Politicians fall all over themselves to praise each other, but they can also change their mind. Remember that in a ‘96 state legislative race Pera received help from the Lipinski camp - his signs were paid for by Lipinski.
As someone from the district, it irks me that Pera and his supporters hold this inherent belief that he is the only true opposition to Lipinski. Says who? There’s no more proof that Bennett is a shill for Lipinski than Pera is a shill for Lipinski. The Trib also noticed an annoyingly arrogant characteristic about Pera in their endorsement of Dan. Just because he has support of the far left wing doesn’t mean he is the only legitimate candidate.
- Joe in the Know - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 4:36 pm:
Radical:
I suppose I can sum it up like this: I think Bennett is a shill. I don’t put anything past the Lipinskis, look at their track record. Bennett has a twenty plus year relationship with Bill Lipinski. It’s my opinion and I am not voting for Lipinski, or his shill Bennett, or his shill Capparelli. That leaves Pera, and I am not all that fired up about him, either.