10th District Congressman Mark Kirk won't be caught sleeping this time around. And, thus, even though Dan Seals gave Kirk a bit of a scare in Nov. 2006 by pulling within 6 points late in the election cycle, Kirk is determined not to let Seals have a shot at getting even that close this November.
As a new poll released by Team Kirk shows, Kirk still leads Seals by about 22 points, less than 60 days to the election. Even more impressive, according to Politico.com, Kirk polls as more popular even than Barack Obama in IL-10, which pretty much torpedoes Seals' master plan of riding into victory by simply clinging onto Obama's coattails.
Probably by no coincidence, the Kirk-Seals poll was released by Team Kirk just as the DCCC finally came to town in the form of a long-anticipated shower of negative mailers to the 10th District, along with a "rubber-stamped" themed TV ad (Team Seals also offers an ad of his own, where Seals directly attacks Kirk with a little speech, which is somewhat unusual... a mark of desperation, perhaps?) . Seals clearly knows he's got to drive down Kirk's favorable ratings to have a chance. But, considering Kirk's fabulous 'favorable' numbers (63%), Kirk has the luxury of being able to give some ground here, while Seals must make up an enormous deficit in name recognition and credibility. Simply put, it appears that in three years of virtually non-stop campaigning, Seals simply can't seem to find a reason for people to vote for him that resonates in the 10th District, a legendarily quirky and "independent" bunch of folks.
In any event, whether the big media buy made by the DCCC starts to move Seals' numbers in any significant way remains to be seen. They might even work against Seals, however, as Kirk has ALREADY hit back with a "Mr. Independent" (so says the Daily Herald) TV ad, a detailed debunking of the "rubber-stamp" ad with an Internet video, and a detailed "Fact Check" section on Kirk's website. If the 10th District gets the impression that Seals is smearing Kirk and distorting his record, Seals is toast. The one thing 10th District voters hate more than being told how to vote by people in Washington is being lied to...
The other nagging question is, if Seals was within striking distance of Kirk in Nov. 2006, and Seals has been campaigning steadily ever since, why in the world has Seals lost all that ground, and essentially seems to be starting from scratch less than 60 days out? Did Seals simply peak in 2006? Or do the voters just know Seals better now and don't see him as a viable alternative to Kirk... that is, if IL-10 voters are even looking for an alternative, which at least 63% of them may not be...
ALSO- TEAM OBAMA SEEKS TO STIFLE POLITICAL DISCOURSE... AGAIN: Our friends at Team Obama ('protectors of free speech for everyone, as long as you agree with us') by organizing another call-in protest of WGN for hosting author Milt Rosenberg. Flying Debris has the scoop.
UPDATED: IS RANGEL FACING DEM PRESSURE TO STEP ASIDE? Looks like Dan Seals' #1 contributor, NY Congressman Charlie Rangel, may be asked to step aside soon from his Chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee by members of his own party as a result of multiple tax scandals. Politico.com has the update.
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7 comments:
You are spot on, TA, in knowing that folks in the 10th District have no use for lies. The new Kirk video which debunks the DCCC attack is outstanding. A friend of mine in Las Vegas told me that she saw a similar attack piece out there against a moderate Republican. I guess the DCCC made a one-size fits all attack smear piece and sent it nation-wide.
The Fact Check section on the Kirk for Congress website is well done, answers the inane and untruthful smears on Mark Kirk's record. I seem to recall that the other blog and it's creator likes to talk about facts being stubborn things. You think! It's always her way or the highway. With the rapid response team in place within the Kirk organization, voters out here no longer have to guess who's right.
We can't let down now, TA. GOTV is critical, making sure that we have everyone out and about helping us win on November 4 is the order of each day.
"The one thing 10th District voters hate more than being told how to vote by people in Washington is being lied to..."
So does this statement qualify as a lie:
"I know for cerain that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction." -Mark Kirk ~2002
If he was really certain, and not just lying, does that not suggest bad judgement since other people got it right?
And before some idiot responds that it's Kirk's job to protect us, realize that there are numerous free, democratic countries on this planet that are at least as wealthy as the USA yet don't go around invading other countries and killing people. That behavior is not a prerequisite for freedom.
I'm not voting for Seals either, so defend Kirk rather than attacking Seals.
Anon 10:37 - it's good that you have to go all the way back to 2002 before you can find a Kirk statement that you raise an issue about as to whether Kirk "lied", as opposed to all of Seals' contemporanous lies, exaggertations and half-truths.
But, to answer your point, many, many people, including the intelligence services of several other countries, all believed that Iraq did have WMD at the time. And before you tell us that Kirk and others should not have been duped, recall that Suddam Hussein NEVER ONCE refuted his claim that he DID have WMD, even when the tanks were on the way. So, at most, Kirk was the victim of bad intelligence, along with just about everyone else, including prominent Dems that supported the war, such as Clinton and Kerry.
Anon 10:37 it's damn hard to defend Seals. Period, end of the discussion. TA is right when he says that Mr. Kirk, like most in the intelligence community at that time, relied on just that: the intelligence reports. What Seals does in his disgraceful behavior is lie about Mark Kirk's record, KNOWING that he's not being honest, he lies when he talks about his own resume, he lies about who he takes money from in this campaign and his last attempt. He's also free and loose with those who advise him. To compare Mark Kirk to Dan Seals. Cut it out. Get reality based.
Wow, does anyone actually process dissenting points of view on this (or any other) blog, or does your emotional reaction shut down your brain whenever someone presents an idea that conflicts with your ideology?
As I already wrote, I am not comparing Kirk and Seals. Seals is just another typical douchebag, and he isn't going to win. Seals isn't offering anything new, and Kirk is the evil we know.
What I'm asking is for people to use their intellect and make a conclusion from facts. Here is a very important sets of facts that was viewable to the entire plant two weeks before the US attacked Iraq:
http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/Statements/2003/ebsp2003n006.shtml
I'll save you some time--just read the bullet points at the end under "Conclusion."
Calling our war-mongering politicians "intelligence victims" is a cop-out. They let Bush tell them what they wanted to hear in order to justify doing what certain special interests wanted them to do. I'm sure some of them really believed it was the right thing to do, but refer to my previous post about free countries that don't conduct invasions. Believing that you're right doesn't actually make you right.
TA: That comment from 2002 is the first thing that jumped into my mind. If I took the time, I'm sure I could discover more current material, but Iraq has proven to be such a dissasterous thing to lie or be wrong about.
Is Kirk really what self-described "conservatives" want--someone who will help dump billions of tax dollars into foreign military actions and expand the federal government in parallel? How is that conservative? How is that even "moderate?"
http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter
/Statements/2003/ebsp2003n006.shtml
I wish the KFC group would send out a mailer with the pup's lies and refuting them with the facts from MSK's website fact section. Unfortunately the D's and I's who think the opponent tells the truth won't bother to check the facts. We can't let up as we know how the other side works.
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