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* Journalism.org: With each election cycle come more websites and more political predictions. With a Democratic surge apparent, and more competitive contests this year, the race for prognostications was even more intense than usual. Who fared best in the 2006 midterm elections?

* Rasmussen: When it comes to the issues of taxes and abortion, Democrats hold a very modest advantage over Republicans. However, on health care, Social Security, and education, voters trust Democrats more than Republicans by a double-digit margin. But, despite the difference of degree, Democrats have the edge on all five issues.

* Who Is Middle Class? - Democrats Take Up The Cause, But Group Is Undefined

* Democratic gains in suburbs spell trouble for GOP

* Bouman: The re-election of Gov. Rod Blagojevich in Illinois showed the country that fighting for expanded health care is not only good policy, it’s good politics.

* Editorial: Duckworth a fine choice for vets post

* Editorial: Stripping a racketeer’s pension

* AP: The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday let stand a ruling that dismissed a $10.1 billion verdict against Philip Morris USA, ending a case that became a windfall for the county where it originated but helped feed its reputation as a “judicial hellhole.”

* Malpractice caps face big challenge

* Tribune: An attorney for Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Thomas said today his client offered to accept a reduced settlement after a $7 million victory in a defamation case against a Kane County newspaper but opposing attorneys didn’t respond.

* Murnane: More to Thomas verdict than victory for chief justice?

* Lawmaker miffed that mayor said ‘no’ to state flood aid; mayor didn’t want to jeopardize federal aid

* “Official Use of the name ‘Republican’â€

* Bill Brady: The GOP of Lincoln and Reagan can rebuild

* McNamee: How our Dirty Dozen would lock up Olympics

* Employee fired by Cook commissioner last year says she did political and personal work on county time, but he says she is retaliating

* American Spectator “analyst” claims that in Illinois, “Republicans are closer to the majority in the state senate”

* Zorn: Pension windfall for Steele is no accident of law

* Media Week: The battle for audience supremacy in the online news category continues to be a fiercely competitive three-horse race, despite efforts by some of the biggest traditional news players to strengthen their digital output.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Nov 28, 06 @ 6:06 am

Comments

Surprise, Surprise - the governor flouts the law, AGAIN!

As to who fared best in this debacle of an election - I think it was the television stations who reaped the monetary reward for all those hate-filled commercials that insulted our intelligence day after day.

Comment by Martha Mitchell Tuesday, Nov 28, 06 @ 6:18 am
Expanding health care may be “good politics” and “good policy”, but I would think paying your bills on time would make for a much better politics and far better policy. Guess all the providers not being paid, the St Louis Childrens Hospital stoping services for lack of payment, and now the video attorney bill are just trivial bumps in the road to be ignored. How Boumann sees 1.6M votes for Rod as a sweeping endorsement when the AG gets 2.4M and 3 other statewide Demos each get at least 100,000 more than Rod is hard to understand. Can I stop my mortgage payment for 6-8 months and just say I have other priorities?

Comment by zatoichi Tuesday, Nov 28, 06 @ 8:32 am
Zatoichi,
Rod had a more credible opponent than the rest of the ticket although that is not saying much. In addition , he had almost all of the media on his back the entire time screaming about their imaginary corruption.He also had the Commie Green siphoning off votes. Even so, he got more votes this time than he did last time. It wasn’t close. Look at the numbers and try not to be such a poor LOSER. The people overwhelmingly chose the Governor.

Comment by Bill Tuesday, Nov 28, 06 @ 9:11 am
Whoa, did McKenna just throw out half the party? Am I reading this right?

If I’m reading this right, in order to call yourself “Republican” as deemed by the Illinois Republican Party you have to support only Republican candidates and you have to support all Republican committeemen.

So when Tom Cross and the House Republicans, Jim Oberweis, Bill Brady, etc. all call for the removal of Kjellander they are no longer allowed to be called Republicans? Who’s going to tell the HRO that they can’t be the HRO anymore.

It’s a good thing this came out after the election or they would have had to throw Topinka off the ticket because she has been supportive of Lipinski.

And that’s just the elected officials. These regulations apparently also apply to voters. So if you are part of the 70% of Illinois voters who voted for Barack Obama, or if you voted for Jesse White, Dan Hynes or Lisa Madigan, or if you voted for Glenn Poshard because you thought Ryan was too liberal even though you think of yourself as a Republican - I’m sorry to have to tell you this but you’re not a Republican anymore.

Awesome

Comment by Snark Tuesday, Nov 28, 06 @ 11:05 am
Absolutely right Snark. And now the Thought Police are going to be after you too because you used the word “Republican” without express authority.

Dammit! Now I’m in trouble too! I shouldn’t have written “Republican.” Dammit!

What a joke!

Comment by whatever Tuesday, Nov 28, 06 @ 11:15 am
I think we’re allowed to use the word so long as we’re not referring to ourselves as one. However just to be safe I think we’ll need to come up with an appropriate moniker to prevent any frivilous lawsuits from the ILGOP.

Comment by Snark Tuesday, Nov 28, 06 @ 11:20 am
I’m thinking “Used to be GOP Appellation Yanked” or “Used to be GAY” for short. So the upcoming senate race could look like this:

Dick Durbin (D - IL)
Chris Lauzen (R - IL)
Jim Oberweis (Used to be GAY - IL)

I wonder if he can still get FTN and IFI to bankroll him after that.

Comment by Snark Tuesday, Nov 28, 06 @ 11:38 am
Bill, they must be using your New Math in the OMB.
Overwhelmingly chose the governor? PLEASE!

Comment by Gregor Tuesday, Nov 28, 06 @ 2:04 pm
Joseph Mario Moreno has some serious credibility issues.

In terms of jobs (trying to get), and doing politics on government time is typical and they all do it.

Comment by Alex M Tuesday, Nov 28, 06 @ 9:40 pm