Friday, May 30, 2008

Dan Seals and the Rostenkowski Way: What WAS In That Envelope, Anyway, Dan?

Someone alerted me to this video making a point about 10th Congressional Candidate Dan Seals and his ill-advised decision to accept a 'mystery' envelope from former congressman (and, oh, yeah, convicted felon), Dan Rostenkowski, at the end of Seals' last night class he is teaching at Northwestern University.

We don't specifically know what was in that envelope; we only know that it's kinda the point of this video. When someone hands you an envelope and tells you it's to support your campaign, we can pretty much guess what was in it. Passing a campaign contribution to Seals during a class, on Northwestern University property, is absolutely the height of idiocy. When the IL GOP broke this story, and we had a brief post on it, I read with incredulity the comment of one bloke who said, something like, 'well, what was he supposed to do, give it back?' Well, duh....

Anyway, Dan, with all the negative attention you are getting all over the place for your ill-advised gas give-away, I can't believe you were this stupid. (For just a sampling of the negative NATIONAL attention he's been getting, see here and here and here and here and here and here.) It's gonna be a fun few months until November if you keep this up, Danno.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Green Party is also suing Seals for trading gas-for-votes.

Thank you Dave Kalbfleisch - www.electdave.org.

Anonymous said...

Many of my Democratic friends are dismayed by this stupid Dan Seals gimmick.

Anonymous said...

We're not suing him, but we're hoping to get the Lake County State's Attorney's office involved. 10 ILCS 5/29-1 seems pretty straight forward--you may not give valuable consideration to influence voters. It doesn't matter if they actually go on to vote for you or not.

Anonymous said...

TA:

Does Northwestern University mind that Dan Seals has turned one of their classrooms into a campaign annex? Isn't there some University bylaw that prohibits political fundraising on University grounds? I don't see how the Board of Trustees can allow this to happen.

PossibleFuture said...

Maybe it was Rosty's invoice for being a speaker. Hopefully, the topic was how to stay out of jail, which would be useful for any would-be politician these days (sadly).

Anonymous said...

We will never know what was in that envelope. What we DO know is that Seals is ethically challenged and that's the bottom line. His mentors, Rosty and Bob Creamer, can tell Seals what it's like when you're serving time in a Federal prison. Seals has no original ideas, doesn't present anything of interest or value when he says he wants to represent this district. What we get is the same old, same old and it's not even his words but rather coming straight out of the Democrat playbook. What's also disgusting is that he is a tool and mouthpiece for the 'leaders' of the 10th Dems like Gash and the catwoman, Terry Link and his groupies. Is that truly what we would proudly send to DC? We KNOW that answer.

It won't be long until the campaign out here really heats up and our Congressman will be out and about even more than he is right now. His record, his TRUE voting record, not the trumped up nonsense that we hear from the dark side, is shown to those who might not be savvy enough to have researched it on their own. His Planned Parenthood endorsement, his 100% rating on the environment will be out there together with all the endorsements from groups who appreciate what a leader this guy has been for the past 8 years.

No, TA, we will never really know what was in that envelope. But we ALL know what kind of person Seals happens to be. Thanks, but NO THANKS. Let's hope he finally finds a job somewhere. Hey, maybe Rosty had a job offer in that envelope!!! Could be, time will tell.

Anonymous said...

TA

SOMEONE NEEDS TO ASK THE NORTHWESTERN FOLKS WHY THEY CONTINUE TO ALLOW THIS...DON'T THEY ACCEPT FEDERAL FUNDS WHICH PROHIBIT POLITICAL EVENTS ON CAMPUS? JUST ASKING A CRITICAL QUESTION....

Publia said...

Give it a rest! No one here from Cook County? It's the traditional Cook County election envelope; standard practice, showing publicly that the envelope giver supports the recipient. It most likely contains a check made payable to the campaign (or a number of checks), maybe a card or note with well wishes for the candidate, or possibly cash, to be applied where the candidate sees best.

green in the 10th, I don't know about University bylaws, but political activies by tax-exempt educational institutions, which Northwestern is, have strict limits
on political activities.

Anonymous said...

Publia,

I was writing about the gasoline stunt, but thanks anyways for the reference.

TA,

You're a lawyer, right? Do you know any reason why 10 ILCS 5/29-1 wouldn't apply to subsidizing people at the pump while your volunteers hand out campaign bumper stickers?

Some people have said it isn't any different from throwing candy to kids during a parade, but what Seals did is more like handing out $20 bills at a parade. That would certainly draw an indictment.

PossibleFuture said...

Let's see: if Mark Kirk maintains his 53% of the nearly 700,000 potential voters in the 10th, divided by $3 million he will spend on media, advertising, get out the vote calls and staff = about $8.00 per Kirk voter (a bargain). Except all of that will go to people and companies making money off the voting process, not the voters themselves. Maybe Seals was just trying to cut out the middle man!

Does buying sponsorship of a television program "give valuable consideration to influence voters?" I guess it depends on what show is being sponsored.

Anonymous said...

possiblefuture, your post is like comparing apples to kumquats. Our congressman isn't 'buying' votes when he's on TV, in printed material or in the media for earning it with all that he does as our congressman. TV spots and campaign materials will help educate the voters of this district on his real positions, not those trumped up by others. Why shouldn't he let his constituents know about the endorsements he receives, accurate detailing of his congressional votes and his visions for the future.

Nope, you are wrong. Congressman Kirk isn't buying votes, he never has, never will, and doesn't need to do it. He has more than earned a Fifth term as our Congressman.

Anonymous said...

Seals has a number of problems with his staff coming...

PossibleFuture said...

Anon 2:37
My comment was merely a lame attempt at being clever, sorry you didn't realize that. I was wondering why someone would want to raise $3 million to keep a $163,700 job for two years, and who would actually receive all of that $3 million.
But thanks for straightening me out.

Anonymous said...

...better to point out that Seals has been unemployed for three straight years and wants to be our congressman.

How impressive is that?

Anonymous said...

$163,700- that's more than Dan Seals has made in the past three years!!

Anonymous said...

His part-time teaching gig only pays $4k. Dan has made $4k in three years!

Anonymous said...

Good to see our allies in the green party out and ready for battle.

In the grand scheme of things this is nothing. More disconncerting are the hundreds of thousands of dollars Dan has taken from extremist anti-Israel groups nationally-the NRCC has great files on them-which to voters matters a lot because he would likely represent their interests more than ours in Congres

Better to go on offense now and define Dan then wait until September where we could get blown out in which case it won't matter.

Anonymous said...

This act was just Chicago Democrat business as usual. Nobody should be surprised by this apparently blatant act of malfeasance. Dan Seals looks to be so desperate he will do anything to get attention... even negative attention.