A new name has emerged in the U.S. Senate race between Mark Kirk and Alexi Giannoulias.
It’s Saddam Hussein, the former dictator of Iraq.
Kirk’s campaign first leveled the accusation in a press blast after Alexi Giannoulias released a new campaign ad Monday morning, and Kirk reiterated Alexi’s supposed tie to the “Butcher of Baghdad” during a campaign question and answer session at the Sofitel Hotel Monday while he addressed the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
If you want to read the Kirk campaign’s full explanation of this, click here. It’s a bit of a stretch, but they seem to think it’s a worthwhile charge.
On a day that Democrat Alexi Giannoulias released a new commercial slamming him as a liar, Republican Mark Kirk tried to shift the focus back onto Giannoulias’ family bank, saying the bank gave a loan to Nadhmi Auchi, who Kirk said sold arms to Saddam Hussein.
“According to the New York Times, he was a banker to Saddam Hussein,” Kirk said of Auchi. “And According to the Observer of London, he was a middleman in the billion-dollar naval arms deal between Hussein and the Italian Navy.”
Voters should care, Kirk said: “This is not political Kryptonite — this is Hemlock,” Kirk said.
Kirk delivered his remarks after giving a 40-minute speech on foreign policy — Iran, Afghanistan, etc. — to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. It was the first of a series of speeches Kirk planned to “elevate” the debate above mud-slinging in the senate race, Kirk said. Then he went back to trying to link his opponent to Saddam Hussein.
“This was a huge loan,” Kirk said of the $22.75 million loan the Sun-Times disclosed last week from Broadway Bank to Nadhmi Auchi and Tony Rezko to develop a 66-acre South Loop site. “The owners of the bank and its officers would have known that they were lending money to a convicted felon with a record of facilitating arms deals to Saddam Hussein and I’m not even talking about Tony Rezko.”
Giannoulias’ campaign said he left five months before the loan was approved and had nothing to do with it. But Kirk said today he had his doubts and he noted Giannoulias was at least still a part-owner of the bank.
“When you look at Treasurer Giannoulias’ statements, I can’t tell when he left the bank,” Kirk said. “The other day, he said he was at the at bank in March of 2006, which would have been a month after this loan was approved. They were running a federally insured institution and so you would think that dealing with a person barred from the United States, convicted of a felony, that a simple Google search would have revealed his business dealings.”
Actually, Giannouolias said in March of 2006 that he was still running things. Now he says he was on a paid leave by that time. But, whatever, you get the drift.
* Meanwhile, Kirk says he will likely vote for a bill that will pump hundreds of millions of federal dollars into Illinois coffers…
Republican Senate candidate Mark Kirk says he’s inclined to vote for a $26 billion jobs bill that Democrats are pushing. […]
On Monday, Kirk called the measure deficit neutral and said it would keep teachers in the classroom.
He says he still needs to read the fine print but expects to support the bill.
* Giannoulias was on MSNBC’s Morning Joe today. You can watch the full thing here, or you can choose to view the short clip that the Kirk campaign wants you to see…
From a Kirk press release…
Scarborough: Did you guys give loans to organized crime?
Giannoulias: No.
Scarborough: Is that a no?
Giannoulias: Yes that’s correct.
Giannoulias Lies about Loans to Mobsters: This morning, in a flat-out lie, Alexi Giannoulias told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that Broadway Bank never made loans to organized crime figures.
Actually, he was not asked if he made loans to organized crime “figures.” He was asked if he made loans to organized crime. Parsing, yes, but if you’re gonna accuse somebody of lying, at least get the quote right.
* And the Adam Kinzinger campaign is touting a new poll by Public Opinion Strategies that has him leading Democratic US Rep. Debbie Halvorson by 11 points, 51-40. From the pollster…
* Among high interest voters (those who rank interest at 8-10 on a scale of 1-10), Kinzinger’s lead expands to 57-35, with seven percent undecided
* Twenty-six percent of respondents believe the country is headed in the right direction, while 68 percent believe it is on the wrong track
* Thirty-one percent of respondents support re-electing Halvorson, while 55 percent think it is time for new representation
Public Opinion Strategies is working with 50 House and Senate campaigns this year, so it’s a biggie. But the firm had real problems with this district two years ago, claiming in late September that Marty Ozinga was only trailing by two points. Ozinga got clobbered, scoring just 34.5 percent of the vote. The firm also rated almost at the bottom of 538’s June rankings - just below the now widely discredited R2K.
Also, I seriously doubt that Kinzinger has a name ID of 60 percent, as the pollster claims. It doesn’t make sense, especially since only 27 percent rated him favorably and 4 rated him unfavorably.
Even so, the Halvorson campaign isn’t releasing its own numbers, so you gotta figure that Kinzinger isn’t doing too badly.
…Adding… I’m not saying it, but if I was saying, this looks a whole lot like a high tech brick through your own campaign window. Just saying…
An independent candidate for governor believes someone is trying to sabotage his effort to get people employed.
Scott Lee Cohen calls it a despicable act. His office has received well over 100 phone calls from people seeking more information about a job fair he plans on holding Aug. 19 in Chicago . The problem: those people had been given the wrong date, and not by Cohen’s campaign or from fliers that he has disbursed to local churches and other outlets. He believes someone is intentionally mass texting people the wrong information.
“I don’t know who’s doing it. However, if it’s an attack on me, to try and hurt me, what they’re really doing is hurting the people of Illinois. I think it’s a despicable act…a cowardly act,” Cohen said.
Cohen believes it’s deliberate, although he isn’t pointing fingers because he doesn’t know who’s doing it. “I believe it is deliberate. … If this is a political ploy, then whoever is doing it is really a sick individual.”
…Adding More… A friend of mine just forwarded me the text message that he received…
From: 7736551309
Received: Aug 4, 2010 4:01 PM
Subject: Fwd: Fwd: “Job Fair” August 19th,
Fwd: Fwd: “Job Fair” August 19th, 2010 @ 566 W. Lake - Lower Level - Call Andrew @ (312) 441-0300 for more info.
I called the 773 number and it went straight to voicemail, which was full.
The ad, entitled “Unfit,” includes snippets of news and talk show hosts talking about incorrect statements Kirk has made.
“One lie after another after another,” one says. A headline labels Kirk ” not fit for public office.”
The ad, which the Gianoulias campaign said would start airing statewide on Monday, also accuses Kirk of lying about Giannoulias’ record. That appears to be a reference to Kirk stretching the facts to link the Democrat to the unpopular BP oil company.
It also criticizes Kirk’s record in Congress by saying he voted for Bush administration policies that “wrecked the economy.”
* Meanwhile, the IL Republican Party has a new Internet promo video attacking Gov. Pat Quinn that basically rehashes campaign ads…
* Here’s a radio ad for that Right Nation 2010 event that I’ve already told you about. The ad features Glenn Beck…
Democrats throughout the country and right here in Illinois are pushing a two-pronged negative strategy to retain their hold on power in these uncertain times.
The first tactic is to do as much opposition research as possible on their Republican opponents to keep races “localized” with nasty revelations about individual candidates. The second is to try to tie the Republicans as closely as they can to the more radical elements within the GOP, including the Tea Party leaders.
This could be summed up as the “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail” strategy. Make voters loathe the Republicans with nasty revelations about their voting records, personal backgrounds, etc. Then make them fear the Republicans by tying them to some unsympathetic characters with radical ideas who are regularly seen screaming at TV cameras.
It’s not a new strategy, but it’s pretty much the only thing the Democrats have going for them. The economy stinks, so everyone is fearful about the future. And a large number of Americans have, for various reasons, grown to loathe the president, his policies and his Democratic allies.
Fear and loathing is what’s killing the Democrats right now, so they’re trying to reflect that back on the opposition and use it to gin up their own disappointed and even embarrassed political base as much as possible.
Last week, the Democratic National Committee launched a push to pressure congressional Republicans to say whether or not they will join the new Tea Party Caucus in the House of Representatives. The point was to either tie them to the Tea Party movement or force the Republicans to alienate the Tea Party crowd when they distance themselves.
The very same day, Illinois Senate Democrats blasted out a fundraising e-mail to supporters warning of “Illinois’ Radical Right.”
“The Senate GOP is showing its true colors,” the message began. “They are welcoming notorious right-wing extremists Glenn Beck and Andrew Breitbart to our state to help raise money and generate support for their candidates. We can’t let the far right hijack our values or our government. These are the people that want to repeal the minimum wage, get rid of Social Security and abolish the Department of Education.”
The e-mail was sent after I reported that Illinois Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno, of Lemont, and House GOP Leader Tom Cross, among other top Republicans, are listed as “hosts” of an event featuring Beck and Breitbart.
Beck is a Fox News host who is perhaps best known for his rants about how this or that liberal policy is directly traceable to Adolf Hitler’s Nazi ideology. Breitbart is an amazingly successful online entrepreneur who made the news recently with his attacks against the NAACP’s alleged “racism.”
The Republicans say they really have no choice but to participate in events like next month’s Right Nation 2010. Organizers say they expect to draw 10,000 participants, many of them Illinois Republicans. Ignoring the gathering would be more dangerous for Illinois Republicans than co-hosting the event, they explained. And Radogno, the Senate Republicans pointed out, won’t even be at the Right Nation event.
But the Democrats also pointed out that several Republican Senate candidates this year have tied themselves to so-called radical elements.
For instance, downstate Sen. Deanna Demuzio’s Republican opponent, Sam McCann, “proudly supports Beck’s 9/12 movement,” according to the Democrats. Asked for supporting information, the Democrats forwarded a link to a downstate Beck-related group to which McCann spoke at least twice.
Sen. Dave Syverson (R-Rockford) was hit for wanting to “start a Tea Party Caucus like ultra-conservative ‘hero’ Michelle Bachman.” Syverson posted a comment on Facebook (later deleted) saying he liked the idea of a state Senate Tea Party Caucus and would “look at starting that when I return.”
So, will any of this work? Some of those ties to the Tea Party were pretty tenuous, but it certainly made the Democrats’ job easier when Radogno agreed to co-host that Beck/Breitbart event. Whether the Democrats in both chambers can translate this as a dangerous move to the right by the GOP is yet to be seen.
* Doug Dobmeyer: I’m With Whitney: Some of you may ask, well, is Doug just going to help elect Bill Brady as governor by taking votes away from Quinn? No, that is not the case. In the 85 days left to the November 2nd election I will work hard to elect Rich Whitney governor. And only hard work will make the change Illinois needs.
