* The Grundy GOP reined itself in…
* LaSalle Republicans let their freak flag fly…
The LaSalle County Republican Party reports its central committee has voted, with 88% of members agreeing, to censure Cong. Adam Kinzinger. The party disapproves of him for not meeting with the central committee in the last six years and for voting to impeach Pres. Trump. Chairman Larry Smith says the party has received hundreds of messages via text, email, and telephone from LaSalle County and beyond about Kinzinger.
Censure is a strong statement of disapproval. It doesn’t remove Kinzinger from office or boot him out of the party. The message behind it says the party’s most ardent supporters won’t support him. That increases his vulnerability if someone runs against him in a primary or if he wants to use party resources in a campaign.
Full press release…
That county party hasn’t been the most moderate entity over the years. It stood strongly with then-Rep. Jerry Lee Long when he was accused of harassment, and even after the House GOP pulled the plug on the incumbent and walked away.
* Politico…
In a statement to Playbook, Kinzinger spokeswoman Maura Gillespie responded: “While Capitol Police Officer [Brian] Sicknick was being honored in state for his ultimate sacrifice — defending our democracy — the LaSalle County GOP was condemning Congressman Kinzinger for trying to hold the president accountable for the actions that led to his death.”
- Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 9:40 am:
There it is-
“voting to impeach President Trump”
Kinzinger wins a statewide GOP primary right after Mike Madigan does.
- Just Me 2 - Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 9:46 am:
I don’t know what the LaSalle GOP is saying, but what I’m hearing is Republican Congressmen should support other Republican Presidents even if they do something wrong, because party loyalty is more important than honest government and people’s lives.
- Cubs in '16 - Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 9:52 am:
There’s no room for moderates within many factions of the current Republican Party which is why moderates like myself are left searching for a Party to identify with.
- SWIL_Voter - Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 9:53 am:
When your party moves to cancel Kinzinger for voting to hold the President accountable, but gives a standing ovation to the Sandy Hook denying Jewish Space Laser insurrectionist, at some point you have to wonder what you’re actually trying to accomplish
- Jocko - Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 9:54 am:
==acting contrary to the values of LaSalle County RCC.==
What ARE their values? Letting Trump do whatever he wants? Whatever happened to the party of law and order?
- Pundent - Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 9:56 am:
I guess what the LaSalle County Republicans value is insurrections. What Kinzinger has come to acknowledge is that Trumpism is a dead-end. That conclusion is inevitable. A party that is centered around one individual’s needs and grievances isn’t a political party.
- G falkes - Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 9:58 am:
A new map may give both kinzinger and Lahood what they want,
- Norseman - Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 10:04 am:
The real surprise in this post is that Grundy GOP pols haven’t drank the Kool-Aid yet.
- Paddyrollingstone - Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 10:06 am:
I am as Yellow Dog Democrat as anyone but Kinzinger continues to impress me. Not that that matters to the LaSalle County Mensa Society.
- Norseman - Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 10:11 am:
Cubs, that replacement party will take a while. That’s why we need to continue defeating the GOP at all levels until a Phoenix that embraces democracy and ethic arises from the ashes.
In the meantime, it’s refreshing to be an independent.
- SWIL_Voter - Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 10:14 am:
Look you guys can hate the Dem Party for lots of reasons if you want, but they’re a moderate party and have been for decades. They’re currently debating against themselves to means test a COVID relief bill in the vain hope it’ll attract Republicans who value fiscal restraint. It just nominated and elected Joe Biden. If ideology has any meaning at all, they’re moderate
- Quizzical - Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 10:23 am:
What possible benefit could come to the LaSalle County Republicans for censuring Kinzinger? Are there ten people in the County who haven’t voted because the party is is too moderate? Is there a big pot of money waiting to be donated if the Republicans keep memories of the Trump administration at the forefront of next years elections?
I can see the benefit of laying low and disregarding the kookiness of Marge Green, but to actively diminish a Republican member of Congress seems like lunacy to me.
- TheInvisibleMan - Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 10:24 am:
=== That county party hasn’t been the most moderate entity over the years ===
I’ve been following the LaSalle county republican party lawsuit against the election results. The case was eventually moved to Grundy county.
They are severely disconnected from reality. To the point I doubt posting the actual details would make it past many of the filters on this site.
- Nearly Normal - Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 10:35 am:
I would gladly trade Darren LaHood for Adam any day! Sadly, there are no doubt Republicans around here that are upset with Adam’s vote for impeachment. But I will take integrity over appeasement any day.
- Grandson of Man - Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 10:56 am:
“88% of members agreeing, to censure Cong. Adam Kinzinger”
That’s too bad. Greatly commend Rep. Kinzinger for what he is doing. This is for the history books and may be remembered more than other things he does. But what will the GOP base do? It looks like the former president will be acquitted. Kinzinger started an anti-Trump PAC. The former president may be a little peeved.
- The Pet - Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 11:01 am:
It might be time for Adam to consider another political party.
- JS Mill - Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 11:01 am:
I am simply baffled by the willingness of so-called conservatives/republicans to support (to the point of worship) a demagogue.
The flags, the banners, and pictures are simply mind boggling. That doesn’t even begin to address the acceptance of obvious lies (election or otherwise) or the hypocrisy of trumps personal behavior in contrast to espoused conservative and evangelical values.
I do not think itis hyperbole to compare the cult of personality formed around trump to that of mussolini, hitler, chavez, castro, or lenin/stalin. (no connection or comparison of his behavior to any of these other despots, just the cult of personality)
There is some cult like longing for Reagan who was generally successful in uniting the country and certainly wildly successful in his reelection bid but saying it pales in comparison is a gross understatement.
All of this runs counter to the long-held beliefs of our country and the traditions set by our founding fathers as well as our first president: Country first and never one person over country.
You would think a midwestern county party would understand these traditional values versus “my party/individual right or wrong” they seem to believe.
- Travel Guy - Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 11:15 am:
It would seem that republicans have their own cancel culture.
- Anotheretiree - Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 11:29 am:
The GOP has been moving right my whole life. Goldwater would be a RINO now. The end result of moving to the right is Fascism. Paul Krugman recently said its time to start using that F word. We may have had our last free election. GOP legislators are openly toying with voting their own slate of electors. If it comes down to one State next time ??? Censure of Kinzinger is a local reflection.
- Tombrady - Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 11:40 am:
IMHO Trump didn’t commit impeachable offenses either time. Hating the President and disagreement with his policies, and oh, a phone call and a speech asking for a peaceful protest are not impeachable offenses. Kinzinger damaged his support with a large portion of a split conservative/ Republican Party though.
- Dotnonymous - Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 11:51 am:
The Republican Party of 2021 is a radical organization…one that appears increasingly unrecognizable in a democracy.
- Lincoln Lad - Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 11:53 am:
Kinzinger may well be subject of a future resolution by the Naperville Park District - tread lightly Adam! /s
- Paddyrollingstone - Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 11:55 am:
Agree with all the comments regarding the GOP turning into a cult of personality. One needs only to look at Biden and Trump’s respective behavior at the National Prayer Breakfast:
President Joe Biden on Thursday pushed faith as the prescription for the “dark, dark times” he said the nation is suffering through amid an ongoing pandemic and the accompanying economic fallout.
“Now, I have attended many of these prayer breakfasts over the years with a nation at war and struggle and strife, a nation of peace and prosperity, a nation though always in prayer. What we know this time is different,” Biden told the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, listing off events of the past year, including the pandemic death toll, severe weather, high unemployment, and long lines at food banks. “For so many in our nation, this is a dark, dark time. So, where do we turn? Faith.”
Biden, the second Catholic ever to serve as president, emphasized political unity at a time when many are in need. “These are not Democrats or Republicans going hungry in our nation. They are our fellow Americans, fellow human beings. They aren’t Democrats or Republicans going without healthcare in America. They’re our fellow Americans.”
* * *
And former President Donald Trump was known to use the breakfast as a venue for score-settling and axe-grinding, mockingly asking attendees to pray for Arnold Schwarzenegger over the low ratings of “The Apprentice,” the NBC reality show that Trump hosted and Schwarzenegger took over. At a later breakfast, Trump lashed out at “dishonest and corrupt” people after his 2020 impeachment acquittal.
From Politico
- Streator Curmudgeon - Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 11:56 am:
As a LaSalle County resident (but not a Republican), I found Kinzinger’s recent comments about his impeachment vote refreshingly sensible, and the LaSalle County GOP’s response predictably nonsensical.
Kinzinger’s new PAC will get some donations from corporations and GOP mega-donors because tinfoil hats and insurrections are bad for business.
But for years the GOP has relished the likes of FOX News and Limbaugh, who fanned the flames of the current craziness. To mix metaphors, the GOP Frankenstein monster is alive.
- Jocko - Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 12:24 pm:
==a speech asking for a peaceful protest==
Yeah, and the phone call asking Brad Raffensperger “I just want to find 11,780 votes…” was just a thought experiment.
- Candy Dogood - Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 12:25 pm:
Thanks to GameStop, I don’t think I need to explain what reddit is before talking about it anymore. One of my favorite subreddits is devoted to the meme “People who voted for the Leopards Eating Peoples Faces Party are surprised when the leopards ate their face”
The leopards are eating Congressman Kinzinger’s face. For years he has been going to events and fund raisers and courting votes and support for the Leopards, and now they’re eating his face.
I appreciate the stand that he took, and I appreciate that it appears sincere though awfully late in the game, but I suspect he was hoping that the Leopards would go away and they didn’t.
When he is undoubtedly primaried, and when he undoubtedly loses that primary, I hope he continues on to the general election regardless. The struggle for whatever he thinks the GOP is will be at least a cycle or two long, and the people who make up these party central committees are the kinds of people that didn’t stop going to meetings over children locked in cages.
They’re not representative of Illinois, and I hope they’re not representative of the majority of the people who have voted for Representative Kinzinger.
Their vote to censure Representative Kinzinger may also be a violation of their party’s specific rules and bylaws, but I don’t think the other Leopards really care about that either.
- JS Mill - Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 12:26 pm:
=IMHO Trump didn’t commit impeachable offenses either time.=
IMHO Trump committed impeachable offenses both time. Simply listening to his actual words and taking them at their meaning, rather than interpreting them through the lense of wishful thinking, clearly meet the “high crimes and misdemeanors” criterion.
But then, I am not a member of a cult.
- WillRez - Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 12:54 pm:
RE LaSalle R’s:
88% of what? The county has roughly 115 precincts, less than half of which are filled with a live “R” body (at least per the organization’s website).
- Dotnonymous - Thursday, Feb 4, 21 @ 12:56 pm:
“IMHO Trump didn’t commit impeachable offenses either time.”
Your legal opinion is suspect…IMHO.