As reported in Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper, among Kirk's good ideas are:
- Cutting off Iran’s gasoline supplies to supplement other economic sanctions and weaken President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s hold on power.
- Persuading the Bush administration to block $870 million in World Bank loans to Iran, including one for a water-treatment facility near the Islamic republic’s nuclear facility at Natanz.
- Creation of a multi-national fund to develop alternative sources of energy for China in order to weaken Chinese diplomatic support for Iran.
- Advocating inclusion of Israel and Bahrain in the U.S. national anti-missile defense system against Iran.
Read the entire story here. It's worth it. Especially to see what the Washington crowd is thinking and writing about our own congressman. As noted in the article,
A leader of the moderate Republican Tuesday Group, Kirk has a reputation for developing creative “third way” ideas, including the GOP “suburban agenda” designed to appeal to Democratic-leaning districts like his own, located north of Chicago. He formed the Iran Working Group with Rep. Robert Andrews (D-N.J.) and the China Working Group with Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) to give Congressional backbenchers a role in developing policy. The two panels now have 35 and 75 members, respectively. Kirk has a formal foreign policy swatch as a member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs. *** For several months, Kirk has been urging Bush to adopt the kind of stiff sanctions against the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps that the administration announced last week — a move denounced by Clinton’s Democratic rivals as a step toward war.
For even longer, Kirk has been advocating a “quarantine” to cut off Iran’s gasoline supplies. Even though Iran is a major oil producer, it imports 40 percent of its gasoline, and this summer Ahmadinejad imposed gasoline rationing, causing riots in Tehran. If sanctions were imposed on Iran’s gasoline suppliers — the Dutch energy broker Vitol, ship insurer Lloyds of London and refineries in India and the United Arab Emirates — shipments likely would stop without naval action, he said, though it would be a backup. “Ahmadinejad’s nuclear program is very popular,” Kirk said, “but his domestic program is not. The moment the average guy starts to have problems running his business or getting to work, Ahmadinejad is going to have real political problems.”
Hmm.... doesn't sound like a lot of bravado or pointless saber-rattling here. No, what Kirk shows is actual leadership, unlike so many of the current crowd in Washington, and also unlike those that would seek to take his place from here in the 10th.
I remember what one of Mark Kirk's fellow congressmen once said about Kirk as he introduced Kirk before a speech in the 10th District some years ago: "You sent us one of your best."
Yes, we certainly did. Keep it up Mark!!!
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15 comments:
Thanks, TA for sharing this with us. I have heard Congressman Kirk talk about his rationing of gas idea at a couple of Town Hall meetings over the past year. He does have some "out of the box" ideas that need to be looked at very seriously. He has never advocated bombing that country. He and Congressman Rob Andrews, a NJ Democrat, have been talking about their joint proposals in DC and elsewhere and I'm pleased that Roll Call has finally given these ideas the coverage it deserves. Getting this story into the local press should be a goal. Let's do it.
I like his idea of keeping us out of a war without letting the Iranians have the bomb.
Lou
From Congressional Quarterly: CQ Politics’ Top 10: Best-Funded House Challengers By Greg Giroux, CQ Staff:
"The “incumbents’ advantage” in fundraising is a source of common complaints from those who believe the escalating amount of money needed to run a serious congressional campaign inhibits competition. In the vast majority of House contests in each election cycle, the incumbents use their established campaign organizations to outraise their opponents, often by overwhelming margins. But not always.
"A CQ Politics survey of campaign finance reports for activity through Sept. 30, filed with the Federal Election Commission in mid-October by House candidates for 2008 races, found a number of challengers who entered the final quarter of 2007 with sizable campaign treasuries — including a few who even raised more money than the incumbents for the year so far. The following, the latest in a series of CQ Politics “Top 10” lists, shows the leading fundraisers among House challengers through the first three-quarters of this year, with the candidate’s name, party, district and total receipts in round numbers, along with the challenged incumbent’s name and party in parentheses.
"An analysis of each of the races follows the list; for some candidates, cash-on-hand figures exceed funds raised this year because of leftover money carried over from last year by their campaign committees.
"Best-funded House challengers for 2008 1) Jim Ryun, R, Kansas’ 2nd, $880,000 (Nancy Boyda, D) 2) Sandy Treadwell, R, New York’s 20th, $822,000 (Kirsten Gillibrand, D) 3) Francisco “Quico” Canseco, R, Texas’ 23rd, $819,000 (Ciro D. Rodriguez, D) 4) Andrew Saul, R, New York’s 19th, $782,000 (John Hall, D) 5) Deborah Honeycutt, R, Georgia’s 13th, $708,000 (David Scott, D) 6) Kay Barnes, D, Missouri’s 6th, $656,000 (Sam Graves, R) 7) Jim Hines, D, Connecticut’s 4th, $618,000 (Christopher Shays, R) 8) Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, R, Texas’ 22nd, $607,000 (Nick Lampson, D) 9) Christine Jennings, D, Florida’s 13th, $592,000 (Vern Buchanan, R) 10) Dan Seals, D, Illinois’ 10th, $567,000 (Mark Steven Kirk, D)"
Here's a further analysis:
"10) Illinois’ 10th District (North and northwest Chicago suburbs — Waukegan) Challenger: Dan Seals, Democrat ($567,000 raised, $499,000 cash on hand) Incumbent: Republican Rep. Mark Steven Kirk ($1.8 million raised, $1.5 million cash on hand)
"Seals, a marketing executive, made a strong candidate debut as the 2006 Democratic challenger to Kirk, whose 53 percent vote share in the anti-Republican political environment was far less than he received in his two other re-election campaigns in the politically competitive, mainly suburban 10th District north of Chicago. The Feb. 5 Democratic primary will attract more attention than did the 2006 Democratic primary, a low-profile race that Seals easily won. Seals this time faces a strong primary opponent in Jay Footlik, who as a former aide to President Bill Clinton was chief liaison to the American Jewish constituency. Footlik reported raising $480,000 and had $414,000 left to spend as October began. Kirk, one of just eight current House Republicans from districts President Bush did not win in 2004, has raised more campaign money than any other House Republican this year."
Nothing new here, just worth remembering.
Definitely good to consider, but money can't buy press like Kirk got in Roll Call. You have to earn that!
Seals and Footlik better get going.
I worry that Congressional leaders will ignore a potentially real threat in Iran, because they feel they were duped into the war in Iraq. A kind of fool me once syndrome that has many in Congress blindly disregarding any threat Iran may pose simply because the administration is involved, and we won't be fooled again.
Kirk's approach to Iran is a welcome relief to the parylizing politics of today's foreign policy debate.
Does anyone here think that sanctioning Iran will make the people change leadership, or do you think the Iranian people will unite behind their leaders against the perceived external threat? When have sanctions ever ousted a leader or changed a regime?
I'm actually asking questions, not making a rhetorical statement. (although I suspect sanctions only make the common people miserable and do nothing to those in power)
Libya comes immediately to mind as a place where sanctions contributed to success.
I think Kirk's multi-faceted sanction/diplomacy approach is better than either alternative - sabre-rattling or ignoring the threat.
Anon 1:04- regime change is not absolutely necessary for sanctions to be deemed a success-- what we really want is for Iran to abandon its military nuclear program and stop sending arms and funds to Iraq (if not also militants), so the idea is for sanctions to bring pressure internally on Iran's leaders to get them to cooperate.
As BOH noted, even Qadaffi finally got the message.
The alternative to sanctions is to warm up the bombers.
Ellen would have us believe that everything Kirk and Bush do is simply a prelude to war, so I wonder how she will try to spin this.
What all you all worry? Our very own Senator Barack has made it very clear that he will sit down, eyeball to eyeball, with the leaders of Iran. Talk directly, sort of like John Wayne would, man to man.and all that. What problems? Just wait, they will be all solved as soon as he is elected and can get Air Force 1 to touch down.
That is what is known as his Secret Plan to Win the War on Terror.
Publia, thanks for the thoughtful comments and wonderful contribution to the conversation.
Personally, I think we should be paying more attention to Pakistan, which already has nuclear weapons, is run by a military dictator fighting with Islamic fundamentalists, contributes to the world Opium collection and seems to be harboring Al Qaeda terrorists.
So, Publia, do you suggest that we're better off not talking with people we don't agree with. Kind of like "diplomacy"?
Is Iran more of a threat to the U.S. than the Soviets were during the Cold War? We had no problems talking with them, even though we had much more to fear (you may be too young to remember the "under the desk drills" in elementary school, as if that would protect us from nuclear harm).
I just got the Footlik mailer. You guy better worry. Jay's campaign is organized and mailing my neighbors!
Susan
Susan- I've seen the mailing and will Blog on that over the weekend, with some other Seals/Footlik tidbits.
The guy who needs to worry right now is Seals, not Kirk. Footlik beat Seals to the mailbox, which says a lot. As of now, Seals is on defense.
Well anonymous @ 5:12 PM, today I did just happen to blog on Pakistan, so you could hop over to my blog at wilmette.blogspot.com to see my post if you are looking for something more serious. In fact, I've been blogging about Pakistan long since before it became a hot topic, dating back to the original blog blocking in that country and the beginning of the "Don't Block the Blog" campaign. In fact, I was one of the few US bloggers who provided a link to eyewitness reports of the Lal Mosque standoff, and I am pretty sure I was the first.
What you say about Pakistan is true (except I can't say about the Opium, because I am not informed on that), but that is only one piece of the equation. If you search for the word "Pakistan" on my blog, and follow the many hyperlinks I have provided over time and digest the information, I am pretty sure you are going to be much more well informed than most any candidate. There is no shortage of information on Pakistan online, both in the English language press on on their blogs. They also have a fine magazine about the Internet, available at http://www.spider.tm/nov2007/main.html?pgsrc=aboutusn&submenu=none&dirtarget=none, and I would recommend it.
If doing that is just too much trouble just go to http://pcrproject.com/blog1/2007/08/01/new-pcr-report-a-perilous-course-us-strategy-and-assistance-to-pakistan/ and download the pdf to get up to speed on Pakistan.
Anon at 5:16, I would characterize the situation of Iran as something more serious as "someone we don't agree with," but if you had been reading my blog you would have been one of the first to be tipped exactly where to find that elusive blog of President Ahmadinejad, available in English. While it hasn't been updated in a very long time, it is still accessible at http://www.ahmadinejad.ir/ (click on the English link at top right). If you had been able to tell Barack Obama about that, he could have left an online comment directly in blogger Ahmadinejad's inbox long ago, as can you right now. No need to become President to communicate directly with Iran's leader who is freely accessible to all.
All that being said, mostly I like to blog about the animals, but I might suggest that despite high spirits, Mark Kirk's supporters are no dummies.
Publia. Sorry, but I seem to have missed your blog, in favor of a root canal.
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