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* Lynn Sweet tells us that Republican Congressman Joe Walsh is letting Jack Roeser do his talking for now about whether he will switch districts and run in the 8th CD…
“If he gets the assurances of a big welcome in this thing, Joe will run in the 8th,” GOP activist Jack Roeser told me Thursday night. Roeser told me he has been discussing the switch with Walsh and GOP House leaders.
“He’s told me he is going to run (in the 8th) and I have a close association with him,” Roeser told me.
Walsh is not close to GOP House leaders and he would need their help in the November contest, especially if Duckworth is the Democratic nominee. Duckworth, a wounded Iraq war veteran and former VA official, is close to President Barack Obama and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).
A House contest with a Tea Party Republican pitted against an Obama Democrat would be a marquee, expensive race.
All Walsh wants, Roeser said, is a pledge to “treat him like a good acceptable fellow Republican candidate.” […]
Last September, Walsh said he would run from the new 14th district, setting up a battle with Hultgren. “A blood bath is not what we need,” Roeser told me.
I’ve received several “off the record” e-mails from Walsh this week. I can’t go into details, but he’s not happy with his coverage. I gather from talking to others that he basically wants to do the right thing by his party, but is unhappy that he’s being portrayed as some sort of an opportunist.
* Roundup…
* Press Release: Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin Endorses Ilya Sheyman for Congress in Illinois’ 10th District
* Protestors Clash at Rep. Manzullo’s Rockford Office: Protestors from moveon.org marched on Congressman Don Manzullo’s office only to be met by the Rockford Tea Party. Both sides waved signs in support.
* Press Release: Dold Staffers “The Three Mouseketeers” Sneak Into Wheeling Dems Candidates Forum
* Manuzllo Demands USPS Distribution Center Closing Proposal Data
posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 3:34 am
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joe walsh is an idiot. if he wants respect, he should just pay his child support. period.
he can’t change the fact that he was a marginal candidate who had the good fortune to win in a wave election and is undoubtedly going down in the follow-up election (that has nothing to do with redistricting). but he can affect the fact that he owes his children money and looks like a hypocrite whenever he talks about the debts this *country* owes because he clearly does not honor his obligations…
Comment by bored now Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 5:05 am
Walsh isn’t an idiot…he’s an opportunist.
Roeser is the idiot. With his wisdom and experience, he should be able to see that Walsh against Duckworth is a loss for the R’s. But holy cow, let’s look ahead at a Walsh/Duckworth debate. I see Walsh shouting at Duckworth, I see Walsh talking over Duckworth, I see Walsh unable to answer foreign poilicy issues with Duckworth, I see Walsh patronizing Duckworth…
Look, we must admit Walsh served his purpose. He has steadfastly attacked, impugned, implied, lied, and in the process become a darling of the really extreme right. I look forward to seeing his show on Fox in 2013.
Comment by Mongo Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 6:10 am
If he thinks that Santa Claus is going to bring him respect for Christmas, Walsh has another thing coming.
Comment by Aldyth Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 7:01 am
I’m no big Walsh fan, but Mongo and other critics need to wake up. Walsh is a dynamic public speaker who can captivate and motivate an audience to work for him. He is a strong public debater. He is an outstanding and tireless campaigner.
Walsh vs. Duckworth would have have an interesting story. A self-made congressman with tons of baggage who campaigned and beat others his party regulars supported vs. a propped up war veteran candidate who is strongly supported by her party regulars in an area where “independence” is a virtue with candidates running for office.
Walsh can easily seize the title of “independent.” Duckworth who has spent the past few years working government jobs as a political appointee cannot.
Comment by Anonymous Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 7:25 am
Oops, sorry. Anon 7:25 is me.
Comment by Louis G. Atsaves Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 7:26 am
Joe Walsh is great. He turned down the federal pension and healthcare because unlike Obama and IL Democrats he’s a principled leader. He goes against Republican leadership when they are not advocating Conservative policies, and he hosts countless town halls so he can be available to his constituents…….keep working hard Joe!
Comment by kevin Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 7:29 am
Respect isn’t given, it’s earned. If Walsh is disappointed by his coverage, he has no one but himself to blame since most of that coverage has been sound bites out of his own mouth.
Opportunist is the nicest word you can use to describe Walsh. I’m sure most of us could come up with terms that aren’t as nice.
Comment by Wendy C Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 7:40 am
I fully understand that Joe Walsh is ‘not happy with his coverage’. He just needs to understand that it is because many people are not happy with Joe Walsh, what he has said in the past, and how he acts. There is unhappyness on both sides of this fence.
Comment by Left Out Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 7:46 am
Don’t you have to earn respect? Walsh has no one but himself to blame for his plight.
Comment by Lance Stevens Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 8:10 am
Jack Roeser and Joe Walsh asking GOP leaders to treat them with “respect” and to “treat him like a good acceptable fellow Republican candidate.”
LMAO.
Those guys have made a living dumping on Republicans they don’t like. Remember Roeser’s slurs against Kirk?
Now you’re in trouble and you want help? What goes round…
Comment by wordslinger Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 8:20 am
As someone may be hustling for down-ballot Dems in that district, I really, really look forward to the Roeser/Walsh ventriloquist team facing off against Lieutenant Colonel Duckworth.
I can’t imagine a better GOTV program.
– MrJM
Comment by MrJM Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 8:24 am
Wow, things are worse for Walsh than anyone guessed.
He’s down to the support of a clueless 88 yr old man and a few tea party newbies. No question he’ll move to the 8th Dist race. That allows him to avoid getting creamed in the primary and makes it more likely he can keep the schtick going thru November next yr when the Dems take him out.
Comment by just sayin' Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 8:26 am
Despite all the sound and fury, I listen carefully to what Walsh says. He deserves that much as an elected representative who actually has town hall meetings. He should get more in- depth coverage of his policy ideas, but that’s not available for any candidate today.
Walsh just doesn’t understand national economics, he skews American history to match his current opinions, he is completely wrong on the causes of the financial crisis and the solutions for it, he doesn’t realize that markets can only operate as free markets with careful regulation protecting and sustaining them, and while his criticisms are robust his solutions are empty rhetoric. It’s not his personality or personal issues that count — it’s his basic ignorance which turns me against him.
Comment by walkinfool Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 8:28 am
Amazing someone as incompetent as Walsh could have beaten Melissa Bean.
I sure hope a targeted re-districting and endless bad press takes this guy out, because if it doesn’t…….
Comment by Peter Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 8:31 am
The video of Walsh raging at a woman during a recent public appearance is shocking. This guy seeks to represent the public then yells in their faces when he sees them in person?
I think his election was a fluke and that he will be on his way back to oblivion shortly.
Comment by DuPage Dave Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 8:41 am
Walsh has Roeser on his “Hey, I need some respect here!” Team. I remember some advice I heard once given to a candidate after bemoaning the coverage they got;
“Stop acting like a dope, then the press has no reason to affirm you ARE a dope. Think. Stop and Think.”
Walsh needs a filter before he says anything, because it seems anything he says turns dopey and not very well thought out.
Also …
When you have to ASK for respect, when you have a history (Roeser) of not giving respect, at what point do we STOP laughing at the ‘Ask’?
Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 8:43 am
===Amazing someone as incompetent as Walsh could have beaten Melissa Bean.===
Bean’s Hubris beat Bean as much as Walsh beat Bean. Walsh’s major fault/problem/issue is that Walsh believes he beat Bean because HE beat Bean.
If you are in the camp that Walsh beat Bean, end of story, then maybe you didn’t follow that race too closely.
Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 8:46 am
My apologies if I missed something but Hultgren has been impressive here with first beating Hastert jr and now (if this goes through) avoiding a primary challenge. Nice work.
Comment by Shore Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 8:51 am
Oswego Willy - what is this Bean ‘hubris’ of which you speak?
I read Capitol Fax every day, and have been doing so for years.
If there was any Bean ‘hubris’, it would have been noted here, just as the Walsh ‘hubris’ is, on a daily basis.
Comment by Peter Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 8:55 am
Poor Fredo.
Comment by The Captain Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 8:55 am
What exactly is a “a propped up war veteran”?
Comment by BigTwich Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 8:59 am
Well, if you look …
Bean’s refusal to listen to her “constituents” in Town Halls … Her campaign being run by what DC thought was right, her agreeing with the strategy, while it being noted, here and elsewhere, that her strategy is running counter to what the polling and her district’s feedback … Bean getting painted as what she fought against; a Beltway congressman, not too interested in her district … and she gave no indication in her strategy that she SAW that as a negative.
And finally, completely ignoring the grass roots against her, relying, again, on a strategy not on the ground and in the precincts, but a DC strategy of being a policy wonk and the “smartest person in the room” aura when in her district.
Walsh capitalized on the hubris of Bean believing ALL that I stated above, and then factor in the lack of ground game to match Walsh … Walsh wins.
Both go hand-in-hand.
Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 9:01 am
The Captain -
“That’s the way Pop wanted it …”
Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 9:03 am
Walsh beat Bean by 291 votes; the Green Party candidate got 6,500 votes. Almost no Green voters are conservatives.
As far as Roeser’s GOP credentials, I’ll never forget that he backed Jesse White in 1998 over Al Salvi.
Comment by reformer Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 9:19 am
===Walsh beat Bean by 291 votes===
Yep, and the Green Party candidate aspect played a role, but a sitting congressman, knowing that a 3rd party candidate in their race is HURTFUL, and run a race counter to what the district expects AND … lose by less than a vote per precinct … that is where the hubris really shines. You have obstacles against you, and yet you ignore them fundamentally because you believe you know better than the facts, then you have to wear the jacket too.
Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 9:26 am
Reformer & Willy - you are missing the point.
Walsh (who is made out to be incompetent, almost joke-like on a daily basis here) beat Bean, who was a serious incumbent candidate.
This does not compute.
Either Walsh isn’t the joke everyone claims he is here (and it is easy to be a bandwagon hopper when it comes to people we don’t like or have issues with) or Bean was a much weaker representative than met the eye. I don’t know which, because Bean always read very favorably here at Cap Fax.
My point is, something just here doesn’t smell right, and I don’t know if I can conclude that Walsh is the bumbling idiot everyone here says he is.
Comment by Peter Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 9:41 am
Also, if Walsh really “wants to do the right thing by his party” he’ll drop out. Up until now, he’s been screaming he’ll fight members of his own party rather than give up his Tea Party demands. He can’t expect support when he sends mixed messages like this.
He’s done and he knows it, he’s just trying to keep his face in the news for possible media hookup after he’s out of office. Good luck with that; the Tea Party is on its way out.
Comment by Wensicia Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 9:57 am
The Democrats look forward to Roeser doing for Walsh what Roeser did for Rick Perry in Illinois.
It just gets sillier and sillier.
Comment by too obvious Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 9:59 am
Walsh was the beneficiary of the wave election last cycle, as well as the Bean hubris nicly noted by others. He will not have those two factors working for him this time, and the electorate will be more informed about his child support issues. The suprize is that he ever took on Hultgren in the first place. Hultgren is a far better fit for that territory, and has the ground operation to win (Jerry Clarke, etc.). Some headstrong staffers in DC encouraged him to take the leap against a lot of contrary advice — bringing out Walsh’s own version of hubris.
Comment by chad Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 10:27 am
Republicans should promise him anything he wants. It will be a small price to pay to keep Hultgren in the 14th (which he will likely win anyway, but would have to drop a lot of primary money to do so) and have Walsh ultimately go away. And if somehow, someway he wins in the 8th, then that would be one more vote for Speaker and who cares what else he does.
Comment by Jaded Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 10:51 am
LOL. Joe Walsh is getting played by the GOP establishment that wants the race to be safe for Hultgren.
The GOP establishment could care less about Walsh. If he wins, great, but having him gone is a pretty good option too.
Guess what, Joe? You’re just a pawn in their game. You were never one of them and you never will be. Welcome to the 99%.
Comment by Carl Nyberg Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 11:44 am
=== propped up war veteran candidate ===
I suggest that Republicans drop that phrase from their talking points, for a few obvious reasons.
As for Walsh, “respect” must be earned. You want to earn “respect”? Start by paying your child support.
Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 11:45 am
yellow dog, I could very easily see walsh running this kind of ad against duckworth.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJGAWT90Xl4
Comment by Shore Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 11:55 am
@Oswego — the Bean camp certainly made mistakes, but credible sources indicated it wasn’t because they ran a “DC” campaign.
Comment by Just Observing Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 12:12 pm
Just …
The hubris was DC-esque, and not having a ground game, and some of the YouTube “chasing” videos of Bean leaving those Town Halls, out of touch and unaware of what was going on around her, was the hallmark of her hubris to her strategy and that campaign.
Bottom line - Walsh thinks he won all on his own, but in fact, Bean’s missteps fueld that win a great deal more than Walsh and his crew admit.
The only person who thinks it was Walsh, and ONLY Walsh, that won that race is Michael Patrick Flanagan (R-IL).
Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 12:28 pm
Joe Walsh has no one to blame but Joe Walsh for how he’s portrayed. I’m sure he’ll find legions of other people and institutions to blame, but here’s some practical advice:
Own up that you’ve gone a bit over the top at times and move on + stop referring to POTUS and most other people as idiots (at least in public) + stop yelling + pay your child support instead of referring to a significant portion of your fellow Americans as deadbeats = respect
Comment by Left Leaner Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 1:19 pm
ydd, are we allowed to agree????
Comment by bored now Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 1:27 pm
Forrest, stupid is as stupid does.
Joe, respectable is as respectable does.
Comment by 42nd Ward Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 1:28 pm
Oswego — I completely agree with you that it was Bean’s mis-steps rather than Walsh’s positions/charm, coupled with a strong GOP year in a right-leaning district that allowed Walsh to squeak in — but I think a lot of it had to do with certain factions of the Bean camp not taking Walsh as seriously as they should and not wanting to go negative against him earlier.
Comment by Just Observing Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 1:41 pm
Walsh an opportunist….that’s one of the nicer things I have heard him called. Time and again Walsh insults the media, lies to them, makes up excuses and points fingers, but he wants to be respected?
Mean while he shows disrespect to the President time and time again. Even as a staunch Republican I can recognize that any US President deserves respect. But a disrespectful freshman congressman from Illinois? No.
Comment by Lake County Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 1:41 pm
The Captain, I thought about posting that video, then decided I didn’t want to get another angry email.
Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 2:47 pm
When you don’t take a race seriously, isn’t that … Hubris? You think you are all that, believe you are right, regardless of the facts, that is hubris. Walsh will soon be the next Flanagan and not see why heb lost.
Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 3:15 pm
I knew where you were going. I went there so you wouldn’t have to.
Comment by The Captain Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 3:38 pm
Perceptive.
Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 3:43 pm
- then decided I didn’t want to get another angry email. -
And with that comment I can’t wait to see Walsh bragging about intimidating Illinois’ ultimate insider, Rich Miller.
Comment by Small Town Liberal Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 3:48 pm
The Dold story link doesn’t work. Happy weekend.
Comment by shore Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 4:13 pm
Apparently, they took it down.
Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Dec 2, 11 @ 4:17 pm
The Wheeling Dems press release about our new friends from Dold’s staff is available elsewhere online:
Dold Staffers “The Three Mouseketeers” Sneak Into Wheeling Dems Candidates Forum
We wouldn’t have been surprised if 1 Dold staffer showed up.
We were much more intrigued by the fact Bob Dold is so scared of the Dem candidates that he sent 3 staffers nearly a year before the election.
Comment by Wheeling Dems Tuesday, Dec 6, 11 @ 9:11 pm