* GOP US Senate candidate Steve Sauerberg threw out some red meat to his base yesterday.

In the Republican underdog role against two-term veteran Durbin, Sauerberg, a physician from Willowbrook, repeatedly has sought to label his opponent as too liberal. On one of his campaign’s Web sites, Sauerberg noted Durbin’s opposition to a Constitutional amendment to ban flag-burning and said the nation’s founders never included one “because they never had to deal with ultra-liberal Americans who hate their own country.”

Asked whether he was referring to Durbin, Sauerberg said Thursday, “I think he’s an ultra liberal. Whether he hates his own country, I cannot determine for the gentleman.” Sauerberg said voters “wonder a lot” about Durbin’s patriotism.

Because, you know, the second ranking member of the US Senate is probably just a Manchurian Candidate waiting to be activated by his terrorist managers.

* Sauerberg then showed again why he’s not quite ready for prime time…

Labeling the nation’s energy problems a top voter concern, Sauerberg restated his call for a federal gas-tax holiday as the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, has proposed. Sauerberg said money lost to the federal highway construction fund could be replaced by finding “another wasteful program that government runs.”

Asked to name a specific wasteful government program to cut, Sauerberg said, “I can’t answer that” and apologized, before proposing a freeze on federal hiring or a 2 percent cut in federal agency spending.

* Meanwhile, Progress Illinois has put together a nifty summation of 2nd Quarter congressional fundraising…

* Speaking of money…

While all that anti-lobbyist hoopla from Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has caused something of a minor identity crisis on K Street, it turns out that the prospect of an Obama presidency has one firm seeing dollar signs.

Chicago-based Dan Shomon Inc., the shop of former Obama political director and campaign manager Dan Shomon, has been busy pitching potential inside-the-Beltway clients.

“Should ‘CHANGE’ occur in November as polls indicate, we should see a lot of people from Illinois moving to Washington D.C. and taking key spots in an Obama administration,” said an e-mail from Shomon’s colleague, Gerald Galloway, to potential clients.

“Now is the time to anticipate these changes. … We will be in Washington DC August 4, 5, and 6th and were interested in scheduling a meeting with your government affairs team to discuss the changing political landscapes and our services and capabilities,” the e-mail continued.

* Related…

* Greenberg trails Bean in fundraising race

* Foster heads to the border for fact-finding mission

* Ozinga Camp Claims Health Care Quote Taken “Out Of Context”

* Durbin: Speculators Running Up Oil Prices

* Barack Obama’s accidental surrogate