Get a Job, Dan.
For those of you who didn't get to see the House Race Hotline yesterday, here's a reprint:
'06 nominee Dan Seals' (D) camp responded 7/21 to "recent suggestions" by Rep. Mark Kirk (R) that he should "get a job and stop living off his donors."
Kirk, in a campaign memo last week: "After losing his bid for Congress, Seals did no return to GE Finance and was unemployed. Near the end of the 2006 campaign, Seals paid himself $25,000 out of his campaign donor funds - an act that is legal but strongly discouraging to donor...in May, Seals filed his 2008 financial disclosure to the U.S. House showing only $3,300 in earned income through the first quarter of the year."
The Seals campaign claimed that Kirk was resorting "to demeaning and untruthful smears" "reminiscent" of "slash-and-burn" ex-WH guru Karl Rove.
The Seals camp, in a memo: "Mark Kirk entirely overlooks the fact that Dan Seals has worked as a business consultant and lecturer at Northwestern since 2006 and that Seals' wife serves in a senior level corporate position. So the question is, what does Mark Kirk find so objectionable that the Seals family, like many families in the 10th district have two two working parents?" (Murray, Roll Call, 7/22).
Just so we're all on the same page, the House Race Hotline is the most-watched daily political reporting on House races used by the national parties and political pundits. After hearing arguments from both sides, House Race Hotline's title, "Get a Job," suggests the Kirk camp is winning the argument in the eyes of America's top political analysts.
Why? Because, as they say, you are entitled to your own opinions but not your own facts.
If Dan has been a business consultant since 2006, why did he pay himself $25,000 from his campaign fund? Why can't he ever seem to name any of his clients? If he's so successful at business consulting, how come he only reported making $3,300 in 2008? These questions end with easy answers – Dan Seals lied to Roll Call and TA has the evidence to prove it.
In his response to accusations of chronic unemployment, the Pup told Roll Call that he's been a lecturer at Northwestern since 2006. But as loyal TA readers will remember, we debunked that myth six months ago. You may recall it became a big issue for him in the Democratic primary.
And has Seals really been a business consultant since 2006? Perhaps, if it's a codeword for unemployed (like "writer," "artist" or "traveler"), as he must have started in November after he lost the 2006 election to Congressman Kirk and did not return to his former job at GE. The funny thing is, we have no record of a single client who has ever used Seals' consulting services. In fact, his primary opponent asked him what he did for a living during their joint appearance before the Chicago Tribune in December – and he could not name a single client.
More interesting is that Dan seems to have left out of his memo to Roll Call any mention of his brief stint at ThePoint.com. As we reported last October, Seals left unemployment briefly in the middle of his primary campaign to hide his inability to find employment. More coverage on ThePoint can be found here and here. Suddenly, Seals was no longer with ThePoint, as we also reported in December (another report here).
Did the Pup think he could just send out a memo filled with bull***t and no one would notice?
Seals' thin resume is becoming an issue for him, as it becomes more and more apparent that his only qualification for running for Congress is, well... he's run for Congress! I recall a LTE in support of Seals I read recently that touted his experience in teaching English (high school level) overseas. Lordy, if that's the best credential Seals supporters can cite to, Seals may well wish to de-emphasize his resume on the campaign trail as much as possible. Even better, this same letter contended that Seals had "deep, meaningful relationships and experience from his time in the business community." What a load of malarkey. Here's another codeword translation: "Deep meaningful relationships" = he's got no specific accomplishments to talk about.
Well, Dan, when this ridiculousness is over for you in November, maybe there's a job waiting for you at ThePoint.
THURSDAY UPDATE: Well, the Blue Blogs are out in force this morning, all going nuts over the Seals "job" issue. Of course, none of them acnowledge the fact that Seals lied to Roll Call, and that he's not been a professor at NU "since 2006". But, hey, what are facts to the Dems?
Sadly, in typical Dem fashion, they have already brought out the "race" charge against Kirk over at the anti-Semitic DailyKos, apparently due to Kirk's arrogance in pointing out these issues. As we've said here before, the Dems' knee-jerk play of the 'race card' in response to any criticism of a Dem candidate who happens to be a minority simply serves to dilute the claim when REAL racism occurs. Ever hear of the "boy who cried wolf"? Apparently, at DailyKos, they have not.
ALSO- the so-called "independent" candidate, Alan Stevo (a Ron Paul supporter) is off the ballot in the 10th. That sure didn't take long. He got only 7,000 signatures, when the required number is 10,285. Can't this guy count?
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36 comments:
Dear Mr. Seals,
I was recently in Wilmette looking for a job. I saw that Cheese to Please Pizza on Central Avenue is now hiring delivery drivers.
Does "carpetbagger" count as a job?
Why in the world would the Tenth District -- one of the most educated and accomplished congressional districts in America -- elect an unemployed outsider to be its congressman?
Thanks TA for finally setting the record straight. Facts are out there, it's just too bad that nobody has paid attention until now. It's not illegal to take money from donors. It IS, however, dishonest to say that you've been working at Northwestern since 06 when that's easily disproven with facts. It's easy to say that you're a private business consultant. Who are his clients? Or is he donating his services? HOTLINE, ROLL CALL, all the DC press don't play around with facts, they just report them. When the Seals folks got angry with the Kirk memo they started whining and complaining. Perhaps they should have remained silent. Now this IS a real story with a lot of facts out there for voters to read and digest.
Dan, it's long past time to GET A JOB. Running for Congress is not appropriate for someone who can't get and/or hold onto a job. Can't wait to hear the responses from the other side.
Maybe he's just planning to be a stay at home dad.
Dan start reciting this line: "Would you like fries with that?"
I talk to a lot of people in this district as a doctor and my sense is that the Seals brand has faded as he remained unemployed.
Kirk got a wake up call and is everywhere. While the DC Democrats may spend more money here, Kirk will win by 2-3 points more than 2006, costing Ds a lot of money in losing to Kirk, again.
Seals came into our office to register to vote after buying and moving into his house. We filled out the form, including his residency in the 9th Congressional District.
Seals told us that we filled out the voter registration wrong, obviously intending to run against Kirk.
We apologized and said no, you are in the 9th.
Realizing his huge mistake, closing on his house and already moving in, Seals realized he had not done his own homework. The lines for the district had been finalized by Springfield a year before.
"What have I done?" he said.
I felt sorry for him then and even voted for him. Knowing more about him, I don't anymore.
Seals is not a rocket scientist and Kirk turned out to be a real moderate like me.
AWWinnetka- that sounds like a sad story, and you sound like a nice person, but it's too bad you got suckered in to voting for Seals, at least that once.
The fact is, though, that it was not an irreversible mistake on Seals' part. He's had three years to move in to the District, and the only excuse he has made is that he's not a 'millionaire'. Sad, sad, sad.
TA, indeed it is sad. The man inflates his title of "intern" to "fellow" as if anyone cares. That's pathological. He promotes himelf from "lecturer" to "professor" -- again, why?
Do these little lies really make people think Seals has had a career worthy of a congressman?
I love the fact that Seal's only reason for not moving into the tenth is that "he's not a millionaire." The fact of the matter is there are plenty of affordable housing options in the tenth (sorry Dan the tenth is not comprised solely of Kenilworth, Winnetka, and Lake Forest.) Moreover, even if Seals wanted to stay in Wilmette I'm sure he could have found a home that is at a similar price point to wherever he lives in the 9th a few precincts down. Ignorance is Dan Seal's only "excuse" for not living in tenth; as he can't seem to even figure out the boundaries of the congressional district he wants to run in. Lastly, the fact that Seal's can't find anything to do on a full-time basis with an MBA from U of C and and an MPP from Johns Hopkins is plain pathetic. I think that delivery boy position at Cheese to Please is starting to look like a serious option at this point; I also suggest he watch Hulk Hogan's superb performance in "Mr. Mom."
TA,
Huge news breaking on American Thinker. Could this be the end of Dan Seals in the Jewish community? I mean -- Jimmy Carter???
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/07/from_the_creators_of_jimmy_car.html
Guy is really in over his head, I think Mark left the Gilman outfit to run and Lauren hit him pretty hard on that so it's hard to see why this is not a major issue.
Over at catwoman's shack the other day I made a bet that Dan's DCCC tv advertising would tie Mark to Bush, money from energy lobbyists, and gas prices and that Dan would come out with an ad entailing his endorsement from Obama in addition to some hits on Mark with bush.
If this is the best he's going to do, I don't honestly see how it's anything to be afraid of given that the district has already been saturated with stories about gop's failure for 4 years now.
Thoughts?
Anon 12:03, Mr. Kirk did leave the staff of then Rep. Ben Gilman to run for the seat held by his former boss, John E. Porter. Mr. Kirk had always worked, either on the Hill, for the World Bank or for a major Law Firm. He never was without a paid position. Seals is quite the opposite. What's telling is that he has done almost NOTHING in the past 3 years. So GE didn't take him back. Why didn't he or couldn't he connect with another position given his MBA degree from the U of C.
If one looks at Mr. Kirk's FEC reports which are public records, there is nothing to raise a red flag about. Show me any Member of the House of Senate not taking PAC money. What's also of interest that our Congressman has not pandered to any of the PACs who have supported his campaigns. It's one thing to attack someone and quite another to prove that they used the support in an inappropriate manner. No, Anon, the DCCC will have to come up with something else to attack our Congressman on with that $1.4 million media hit but it is coming, we can bet on it.
As for tying Kirk to Bush, I hope you received the Congressional Update in today's mail. That 10 point piece clearly shows how many times Mark Kirk voted to override the Bush Veto, that Kirk leads on Stem Cell Research, that he has an F rating from the NRA, that he convinced Durbin and Obama to work with him to get that IMPACT AID Bill passed for schools in HP, Glenview and North Chicago. Mr. Kirk IS that Thoughtful Independent leader who has proven it by his actual votes in Congress and not by some local blogger saying that he votes with the wrong folks 90% of the time. It just isn't true. The next 100 days are going to be mighty rough, so hang onto your hats, folks. But with all of our help and our votes Mark Kirk will be re-elected on November 4 for a much deserved and very well earned 5th term.
You can't run a HIRC hearing on Plan Colombia from winnetka, I don't think Pastrana does libertyville parades. Big difference between that and what dan's done, though.
DCCC Playbook= poll to see what the district is pissed off about
+ Kirk vote in the last 8 years concurrent with the president on said issue and a donation from big oil, (thank you dccc intern from state school u)
+press and send.
If not that than the economy or Iraq, one of the 3, and I think that's not really a hard hit. I'd have pressers ready on all 3 issues charging dan with more dirty disingenuous smears. It's most likely an ad they are running against shays and reichert that a weenie liberal arts major who got his butt kicked working for Dean in 2004 wrote.
Also for the record, the piece was good, but the last thing you want to do is go on a blog and make it look like you are using franking to compliment campaign efforts particularly with that blago hit at the end. There's a rule like 90 days out, no?
If anyone opposes Dan or Barack, they are racist.
Hey Seals...get your cake up!!
Once again you are right on target, TA with the 'race' charges. It's about FACTS and has nothing to do with one's race. The Daily Kos bloggers are vile and true anti-Semites for the most part. In the end, Dan Seals will have to answer the voters in THIS DISTRICT about his employment or lack of it. Nobody is saying or printing anything that isn't able to stand the test of bright sunshine. All Dan and his followers need to do is be honest, open and above board and voters can make their choice on Nov. 4.
Seals is all hat and no cattle!!! Lets be real here...taco bell has great management positions open with flexible hours!! He should really think about it!!
If you vote against Dan, you are all racists.
Okay, it appears here that everyone is after "the facts", here's a few that some of you may find enlightening:
-2 of Mark Kirk's 5 largest corporate donors are medical supply companies that either produce or do business with those that produce pharmaceuticals. Stemming off of this, Mark Kirk was "absent" the day that Congress voted on legislation that would have allowed the federal government to negotiate directly with drug companies to bring down the cost of prescription drugs for those on Medicare/Medicaid
-Mark Kirk has recieved over $172,000 in contributions from wealthy investment bankers who need customers and want to shelter their own money and another $16k from a large capital investment company. As a result, Kirk voted for the Bush Tax Cuts and their permanent extension. I never knew "moderates" enjoyed cutting taxes for the top 10% at the expense of the rest of our nation.
-Fact: Dan Seals was actually offered his position back at GE, but chose to focus on 2008--an election cycle which essentially began 8 months after the Nov. 06 elections.
-Fact: Dan Seals taught classes at Northwestern University for the Spring Semester (Jan-May 2008).
-Fact: The "moderate" Mark Kirk has voted with the Republican party 95% of the time, including authorizing the Iraq War, subsidies for Big Oil (even as Exxon Mobil reports the highest prices in the history of business!), and against subsidies for Farmers, when those subsidies are the only way that the American farmer can still turn a profit.
-Mark Kirk, just 2 months ago, voted AGAINST tax incentives for developing and using alternative energy. He has voted AGAINST every Time-table plan to withdraw in Iraq, even when the world community and Iraqi PM Al-Maliki have called for one.
-Contrary to his mailer, Mark Kirk originally (8/1/2007) voted AGAINST extending S-CHIP, only after Bush threatened the veto did he change his vote to yes so that he could appear to be a "moderate"
Let's call it what it is for once, the man who identifies himself as a fiscal conservative and "moderate" has sat on the appropriations committee during the largest spending sprees in our nation's history (2001-present), with the majority coming under the Bush/Republican Congresses of 2001-2006, where Kirk and his fellow GOPers took a budget surplus and turned it into a consistent deficit of $80+ Billion per year, yet HE WANTS TO CUT TAXES?! Where does the money come from then?!
Dan Seals left his job to campaign in this district because he wants out of Iraq, he wants to stop funding big oil, and instead of having a Republican Congressmen who poses as a "moderate", we finally have the chance to elect someone who is actually going to vote for the things this district wants and the American people need. For every "moderate" vote (the ones TA and others like), Kirk has 10 party line votes--Iraq, Iran, Bush Tax Cut to name a few. It's time for us to stop accepting a Congressmen who pretends to staddle the fence when he's actually on the other side.
If your vote can be bought by the "fact" that Seals hasn't gotten paid a lot of money to sit at a desk and look important for the last 6 months, then we have bigger problems.
In the end, the only thing that matters in Congress is voting "aye" or "nay" on legislation and it doesn't require anything but a strong belief in what is right and wrong for the people of our nation and our district to do that. If you want to accept 10 votes you dislike for every 1 that you agree with, then by all means vote for Kirk. But if you want someone who will vote for the interests of all Americans (not just the wealthiest 10%) and will do so 100% of the time instead of almost never, vote for Dan Seals.
Until Next Time,
A Concerned Colonial
Kirk's Voting Record: http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=33502
Kirk's PAC/Donors: http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cycle=2008&cid=N00012539
OMG- anon 7:22- do you think anyone has the time to read all that? What a rant. Who are you- the cat woman?
Seriously, can you call Mark Kirk a winger with a straight face? He's pro-choice, pro-enviroment and pro-gay and he's been that way for years, not just for this election cycle.
Dear Concerned Colonial/Anon 7:22,
WOW! Did that take you a few hours to type or did you just copy and paste most of it from somewhere?
-Fact: Why would Dan Seals take his position back at GE when he could just take more money out of his campaign fund? Or borrow it from his wife?
-Fact: Your boy Dan Seals taught for one long hour, one day a week at Northwestern. I know, I went there.
-Fact: I had to stop reading this because I’m really getting tired of all the negative thoughts. Seriously, I just don’t understand how you can possibly think that everything Mark Kirk touches goes to shit and Dan Seals is perfect, never making a mistake or wrong move. Whatever helps you sleep at night buddy.
Those "medical supply companies?" Are they called Baxter and Abbott, two of the largest employers of the 10th Congressional District?
Is Mark supposed to work actively to destroy them or something? Aren't they positive neighbors?
Perhaps the author lives in the 9th along with his candidate and just didn't know any better. Or perhaps he is a Waukegan Democrat who is hell bent on getting rid of manufacturing in Waukegan near the harbor?
After all, Democrats are anti-jobs! Perhaps that explains Seals' spotty employment record and resume padding the past few years
Louis G. Atsaves
dan seals is a joke. Just wait till the dccc removes their ad buy after they run another poll that shows kirk destroying him.
the funny thing about seals is he is such a space case that he is starting to beleive his own BS. Dan, you are a bum!
Anon 7:46--Every assertion that I have made about Mr. Kirk come straight from looking at his voting record. I even posted the location that I found it so that you may check it yourself--it may surprise you.
Anon 8:44--It took me nearly no time at all to find his record, donors, and look at the facts logically. It would be ignorant of me to call Seals perfect, he is far from it, but I--like many others--are tired of the charade that Mr. Kirk has been pulling on this district. You can choose not to believe me, but every single assertion I made is grounded in fact. Kirk DID vote for the war, the subsidies to oil companies, and for the rediculous tax cuts. He DID originally vote against SCHIP. I'm not manufacturing "facts" (my name isn't Ellen or Bill O'Reilly), I'm simply looking at the facts and then synthesizing them for you.
Louis--The two I was refering to were Medline Industries and Baxter. I have nothing against either of them as I have relatives that work at Baxter, I'm simply pointing out that everyone who thinks that Mark "the moderate" Kirk is above the politics of money is wrong--he is just as influenced by donation as every other congressmen. By the way, calling Democrats "anti-jobs" not only demonstrates that you have no idea what you are talking about (see economic growth 1992-2000 against growth in 2001-2006), but just proves that you are ignorant.
I have no problem engaging in an intelligent debate about our 2 candidates, in fact, I welcome it. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but when that opinion is simply wrong or ignorant, I have no problem pointing that out.
Until Next Time,
A Concerned Colonial
Team, you have officially drawn out Dan's paid team because joe shmo voters don't have that kind of research expertise, inside baseball knowledge of his employment or fact/myth presser capability.
At a time when democrats are rolling republicans in strongholds like the deep south where everyone's nice and pro-life,pro-gun,pro-america and pro-family, Dan's team in obama's backyard can't hunt (eric) elk to feed their need to deep six mark.
All, we are not to fear these cats. In presidential years all the party big guns go to the presidential teams in hopes of becoming the next commerce spokesman or white house regional political director a la the famous Kevin Madden so that they can make 250k having lunches at the palm one day. To work on a failed campaign like Dan's you have to be far down the totem pole, particularly in a year locally where all the top guys have b.o (bama).
Operative, I salute you, but your messaging, organizing, and fundraising is not quite up to snuff. You actually have to raise money in the district-nutroots don't count, come up with a compelling theme other than drunken drivel from liberal blogs, and get
people in the congressional district not old europe,not the northside liberal drinkup, not a beltway funder, to want to support you. That ad with obama endorsing dan the last week can't make up a 20 point difference either.
Whether the poster is a paid Seals person on not, he is giving bad information on Mark Kirk's voting record. This person is clueless when it comes to distinguishing between procedural votes and those on issues. The person might know it but thinks others won't. We do. And why did Mr. Kirk oppose the first SCHIP Bill? Easy. Because it took important services away from Seniors and had NOTHING to do with kid's health. If that poster wants to deal in fact, that's fact. Kirk is very open about it, helped prevail on the Democrats to remove those provisions so it could pass. It then did. It's so easy to twist and turn what that poster wants 10th Districts voters to read. It's easy to understand that the person isn't from the district. We know better.
As for who supports Congressman Kirk. That's not a secret. By going to the FEC website you can see the hundreds upon hundreds of people who want to acknowlege what Mr. Kirk means to this district, the country and the world. They aren't 'buying' anything. They ARE showing in a tangible way that they want him to return to the US CONGRESS. As for Medline, Baxter, Abbott or any of the companies here in the district, of course they want to help keep Mr. Kirk in Congress. The poster is, again, clueless when it comes to why individuals and companies want to show their support. I wonder if the poster has bothered to check who supports our junior AND our senior Senators, other members of the House. This person is jealous of the respect that is shown by the record breaking quarter just ended for Mr. Kirk.
Mark Kirk has lived in this district most of his life, he knows every inch of the 10th, he has come up with thoughtful ideas to make this an even better place for all of us. And as for 9th District Dan? Well, I think the answer to that one is clear.
Dan Seals was let go by GE Capital. You will here directly about this later in the campaign. He was a business disaster and was NOT offered a position to return.
Colonial- better have a direct talk with Danno about this.
Just to save the Seals campaign and others a few headaches: I am in no way associated with them, in fact, I actually knew a few people working on the Jay Footlik campaign and have met and spoken with Mark Kirk on multiple occasions. Personally, I have no issue with him, but politically is a different story. I was told about this blog from a government teacher who I still keep in touch with. It's shame because it would be great to actually get paid for something like this, taking the rediculous comments of some of the people on here and refuting them. As for me, I can concede this, having won a national championship in debate makes it a lot easier to see faulty arguments, but it also drove me to keep educated on the issues, which I still do. I have never lived outside of the 10th district, but its a shame that the only way to distract readers from my arguments was to (falsely) assert that I was a "hired gun" from DC who has never been to Moraine or Vernon Township or seen the fireworks from the hill next to The Rotary and the Buffalo Grove Post Office during BG Days. I'm no different then anyone else on here, except Anon 10:50, who is doing damage control for the Kirk campaign. I've been here my whole life and, like so many that I know, am tired of the charades and am ready for a change.
Until Next Time,
A Concerned Colonial
And to Anon 10:08, I appreciate the compliment on "research expertise". It's nice to see that someone appreciates it when one can support their arguments with facts.
Until Next Time,
A Concerned Colonial
Colonial, if you don't know that Northwestern operates on quarters and not semesters, you have zero credibility here.
Seals' memo claimed he lectred since 2006. Now you claim he lectured since the "spring semester" starting in January of 2008.
Unfortunately, Northwestern's spring QUARTER doesn't start in January. Don't believe me? Check out the NU calendar: http://aquavite.northwestern.edu/cal/pp/acadcal.cgi?y=Spring_2008&g=111
So we've gone from 2006, to January 2008 to March 31st. Oh and by the way he didn't get hired back as a night school teacher because he brought a convicted felon to class and accepted campaign contributions on school property.
Sell crazy some place else, Colonial. We're all stocked up here.
Opposing Mark Kirk is Unamerican.
If a Concerned Colonial is a Seals staffer then he claims that because Congressman Kirk received contributions from Medline and Baxter his not voting on Medicare negotiating with pharmaceutical companies to lower drug costs is some sort of corrupt payback.
But Baxter and Medline don't make pharmaceuticals, they make medical equipment. And Medicare has negotiated on medical equipment costs for quite some time now.
So his "point" is moot.
Not only is Colonial's arguments moot but his debating victories fail to show increasing unemployment in Illinois which accelerated after those State Democratic tax, fee and utility increases. Adding to the jobs misery in this State were the monstrous utility bill increases approved by the Democratic dominated Illinois Commerce Commission and State legislature. But to bring these facts to the forefront will only bring another response from the debating champ that I am "ignorant." Did you win all those debates with name calling or with facts?
The anti-jobs, anti-business Democrats in this State can protest all they want, but the results of their actions are clear. Criticizing Kirk for accepting local contributions from local businesses is admitting that he has strong local support.
Sorry buster, I'm sticking with Mark Kirk.
Louis G. Atsaves
I loved paying nearly $5 for gas! I loved hearing about my best friend losing his son in Iraq! I don't know what I would do without Mark Kirk.
Sorry about your best friends son 2:00 am. However, "I love" the fact that you directly blame Mark Kirk for $5 gas prices and the loss of your best friends son. It seems to me that you've been brainwashed by Seal's propaganda machine, or are just plain ignorant. Mark is for a phased withdrawal from Iraq and has a better record on environmental issues than most dems on Capitol Hill (i.e. he's for alternative energy sources.) "I love" the fact that you have no idea what you're talking about, but still comment; WOW.
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