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POPSRepublicans See Storm Clouds Gathering More: "It's no mystery," said Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.). "You have a very unhappy electorate, which is no surprise, with oil at $108 a barrel, stocks down a few thousand points, a war in Iraq with no end in sight and a president who is still very, very unpopular. He's just killed the Republican brand." Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain (Ariz.) helped Oberweis raise money, and the NRCC pumped more than $1.2 million into the district -- using more than 20 percent of its cash on hand -- to no avail. "Even if it was mostly about Jim Oberweis, it's a terrible sign," Rothenberg said. "It adds to Democratic energy and further depresses the Republicans. And you can't dismiss the idea that there is an atmospheric advantage for the Democrats." Barack Obama campaigned on behalf of Bill Foster, who took over Dennis Hastert's vacated seat.
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POPSDennis Hastert's seat goes to Democrat Oddly enough, this development may be a good argument for not putting Obama on the ticket if Clinton comes back to win. If the downstate areas of Illinois are going Democratic, the party really doesn't have to worry about Illinois' electoral votes in the fall.
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POPSFormer Speaker Hastert's Congressional Seat is Lost to a Newbie Democrat! If this is any indication of things to come, and it is, the Republicans have a lot to worry about come November. This seat has been reliably Republican for decades. The Democrats didn't even contest a couple of elections in Hastert's area. Just two weeks ago it appeared the Democrat didn't stand a chance. I really believe the country has finally awakened to the facts that the Bush administration, and their supporters in Congress has taken the country in a terribly wrong and deadly direction.
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POPSFormer House Speaker Hastert:::McCain 'Allied With Democrats' The former House speaker has not had a lot of good to say about McCain in recent years. He contended that on agenda items under the Republican-controlled Congress, “it just seems like everything we did, John was someplace else.” “It was McCain-Kennedy, it was McCain-Lieberman, it was McCain-Feingold on campaign finance reform,” Hastert said, noting Democratic co-sponsors. “He was against us on tax cuts and his form of immigration reform was to open the gates and let everybody in.” “He is a moderate,” the former speaker said. “In almost everything he’s done, he’s done (things) against what mainstream Republicans thought and he’s allied with Democrats. He was always the undependable vote in the Senate.” McCain's campaign thinks they can smooth things over. "We look forward to the Speaker's support in the general election," said Steve Schmidt, a senior adviser to McCain.
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POPSThe Ombudsman...your protector? Bush needs to be impeached...not for Iraq, although tha's a good idea too...for breaking the constitution and not protecting our American workers and their jobs (which is his duty).
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POPSThe Mark Foley saga Mark Foley comes off as very human in this Vanity Fair article, albeit very a flawed and weak-willed one. It also goes into some details on Hastert's efforts to cover-up the fact that the Republican leadership knew about Foley's problem for some time. Via Paul Kiel at TPMMuckraker .
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POPSLeadership Woes. I find these types of posturing for leadership positions interesting. Why isn't Mitch McConnell being mentioned as minority leader?
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POPSEarlier Confrontation The disclosure pushes back the date when a member of Congress has acknowledged learning of Foley's behavior. A timeline issued by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) suggested that the first lawmakers to know, Rep. John M. Shimkus (R-Ill.), chairman of the House Page Board, and Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-La.), became aware of "overly friendly" e-mails last fall.
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POPSFunny: Rep Lahood's defense of Hastert It's funny that Lahood defends Hastert by naming two Republicans Hastert appointed to chair House committees, and then removed after they turned out to be crooks. (not to mention Delay)
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POPSPoll: Foley Sex Scandal Has Hurt GOP Election Prospects Iraq, meanwhile, is continuing to be a problem for the Republicans. Only 38% of respondents in the TIME poll now support President Bush's decision to invade Iraq, down from 42% three months ago. A similar number believe that the new Iraqi government will succeed in forming a stable democracy, while 59% believe this is unlikely. Almost two-thirds (65%) of respondents disapprove of President Bush's handling of the war, while 54% believe he "deliberately misled" Americans in making his case for war — a figure that has increased by 6 points over the past year. President Bush's overall approval rating, according to TIME's poll, now stands at just 36%, down from 38% in August.
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POPSConservative newspaper calls for Hastert's resignation over scandal This morning's Washington Times . House Speaker Dennis Hastert must do the only right thing, and resign his speakership at once. Either he was grossly negligent for not taking the red flags fully into account and ordering a swift investigation, for not even remembering the order of events leading up to last week's revelations -- or he deliberately looked the other way in hopes that a brewing scandal would simply blow away. He gave phony answers Friday to the old and ever-relevant questions of what did he know and when did he know it? Mr. Hastert has forfeited the confidence of the public and his party, and he cannot preside over the necessary coming investigation, an investigation that must examine his own inept performance.
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POPSDennis Hastert and the Republican Lie The Speaker of the House thinks 15% of your income to Social Security, plus sales tax, plus tax on gasoline, plus NE Corridor Amtrak tickets of $1.00 per mile, plus property tax are NOT TAXES
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