When you run for President, you (and more than ever, your family) make a huge sacrifice in your time, health, privacy, sanity (perhaps) and other personal things. In fact, most of your personal life goes right out the window. No one makes anyone run for President, however, so up till now my sympathy for President-elect Obama has been limited. But, now, I can feel his pain.
He may have to give up the "crackberry".
The reason for this, of course, is that such records could be subject to subpoena in litigation, which essentially ends any expectation of privacy for such communications.
We all have different work habits, but much of my work consists of e-mailing to clients with status updates, otherwise moving the ball forward on a case, or generating and then PDF-ing a document, and I probably do about half of it on my Blackberry while I'm traveling, on the train, or (shame) in the car. In fact, only yesterday, the trackball on my BB broke, and you can't scroll "up" anymore. It threw me off the entire day. Since I worked from home yesterday, I have already alerted the IT team at the office that they need to be ready with a new unit for me when I walk in, stat.
There may be some other occasions in the next four years where I may have something in common with the new President, but for now, since guns and religion are clearly not on his list, if I ever meet Obama in person in a receiving line somewhere, I'll plan to chat about gadgets, since it's unlikely we'll agree on anything else.
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15 comments:
Did you suddenly reverse positions on the Kirk/Seals/Obama stand on common sense weapons oversight?
Your 2A fans from a few weeks ago will be right over to pat you on the back and take you to the local gun range.
Hi Rob- I assume you're referring to my reference to guns and religion. No, I still support Mark's stance on the assault weapons legislation, at the risk of further earning the wrath of the gun guys. As I've said before, as a gun owner, I don't see reasonable gun legislation as inconsistent with the 2A. I'll just have to reload my weapon more often.
Following up on Rob's comment, where is you're disagreement with Obama on religion? He's pledged to keep Bush's office of faith based initiatives open and is a committed Christian. I'm Jewish, so I probably have more religious disagreements with the president-elect than you do. Also, to ease your troubled empathetic mind in regards to Obama's blackberry, he has said he will be the first president to keep a laptop on the resolute desk. A consolation prize, as it were. Also, I'm sure you and Obama would have plenty to agree upon, if your issue positions are in line with Congressman Kirk's, but the most important things to talk about are the things you disagree on.
Tik, this is a Mark Kirk blog. None of the regulars have any desire to do any real analysis of Kirk. In the past, if you wrote something negative about him, they just assumed you were a Dan Seals supporter (I'm not) and attacked Seals. They are a bunch of lawyers of the Johnny Cochran variety.
I have inquired multiple times how exactly one can vote to squander upwards of a trillion dollars on a military occupation and use this conflict of choice to undermine the Bill of Rights (in violation of the congressional oath of office) yet be considered "moderate" or even "conservative."
I've yet even to get a response to this question. People are so partisan when they discuss politics. Most people want to turn everything into a relative discussion when we, the country, really need to start dealing in absolutes.
The good news is that Dans Seals lost, but the bad news is that Mark Kirk won. Kirk is part of the same problem.
The problem isn't Kirk's work as a legislator, it's the lack of cojones he and his ilk show in fixing our party. His district was once solid red turf and a breeding ground for national gop leaders like Rumsfeld, Cheney, Porter ,MaCgruder, Percy and on and on. Thanks to a lack of initiative and horrendous political staff work it is home to a local branch of the Schakowsy and Stroger Stasi.
He has the potential to be a national leader and to fix the state party and yet sits idly by while his former finance director, Andy McKenna lets the democrats run all over us. The Republican faithful have dialed up a desire for fresh leadership, Kirk continues to answer the call. That is our beef with Kirk, not the daily kos inspired filth.
Tik, MK has been a big advocate for the Jewish community in the 10th. That is one of the reasons that I continue to support him, even though he differs from me greatly on some conservative stances. Right now, I fear for the future of Israel with Obama at the helm. Especially for my in-laws who live across the border from the mindless shooting of unguided rockets that celebrated the Obama victory. I pray for their safety every day and home that Obama's noted ties in the past won't taint his judgment when it comes to the holy land.
Lone Wolf, keep on praying for the future safety and security of the State of Israel. Our Congressman has moved up to the #2 slot on Foreign Operations. That's the great news. The bad news is the total lack of leadership within Israel and the Obama administration and his willingness to surround himself with those who feel that going back to pre-67 borders will guaratee peace. Some of us know better.
As to Mark Kirk taking leadership of and control of the party in IL., stop dreaming. He's got his hands full in DC. Yes, he can and should take a more active interest and roll in some State party issues, but I can assure you that many aren't buying what Mark Kirk is "selling" in terms of his moderate positions. It has been 2 weeks since his amazing win over the Pup. Can we agree that we all need to take a deep breath, get our bearings again before we jump into the madness that is IL politics, actually politics in general. And if you have some solid suggestions for our Congressman, please see that he gets your message. Don't rely on others or even TA's Blog. Send him a note. You can reach him on his congressional website with ease. Let's all just take a step back for a couple more weeks before charging at Mark or anyone else.
It's not an amazing win to beat a scrub like Dan Seals with the entire state party apparatus at your back and being in your 4th term. An amazing win would have been knocking off Durbin, which given his high douchebag quotient would have been doable.
We are not going to stop charging at the State Party and Mark's lack of willingness to engage and represent us politically. This party is a mess and it's because our leaders have no sense of urgency and are completely complacent with the status quo. They are accomplices and guility of politcal surrender.
It's bull shit, and if you want a key idea, google a guy named Chris Van Hollen, he took out a moderate republican from a wealthy suburban district, has mark's age, degrees, and work history and yet, magically enough finds time to run the dccc, and make his own state more hospitable to his party.
In 2010 we will have the chance to take back the Governors Mansion, a U.S. Senate Seat that Mark's finance chair gave away because his belly wasn't being rubbed by Peter Fitzgerald, 3 seats in congress that Mark's mentor, Hastert and his "operatives" blew for us. TA's blog is much more forward thinking and helpful than anything they have ever done.
People have already started raising money and declaring themselves for primaries which are 15 months away.
It's time to start driving Ellen major league batshit. Can you imagine how much fun it would be to hear her lose her mind if we ran credible candidates up and down the ballot?
OK, Anon 6:35, I can agree with some of what you're saying. But not all. And for the record, the sicko catwoman has tuned out as you know. I think she's still trying to figure out how in the world her guy lost!
Chris Van Hollen did his job well in part because the country was ready for massive changes. He tried to get rid of Mark, big time. I'm upset that guys like Jon Porter(Nev) and Chris Shays are gone because they were good moderates. Others couldn't hold on due to the outrageous financial strength of the DCCC and the DNC. I agree that we have to get our 'house' in order so that by 2010 we can recapture some seats in both Houses. Yes, we need to start soon. Who would you like to see head the State Party? Who do you see backing up Mark Kirk should he decide that he'd like to move up to run for the Senate seat?
Just remember, we can't defeat something with nothing. I'd like to see some strong organizational meetings right after the first of the year. It's easy to bitch and complain. How about those of us who want to see some real solid plans for the future get together and develop some strategies. Let's talk about some real possibilities for leadership. A guy like Matt Murphy comes to mind. And how about Tim Stratton. Let's cast a net and start fishing rather than just complaining.
Anon 726, you don't understand, there's no f-ing urgency from the State Party or Mark Kirks organization.
The Democrats took over the country this year with bush at 26 percent approval rating. Governor Blago has a 13% approval rating and we LOST SEATS all over the place, and yet this is only a cause of concern for disgruntled people and conservatives cast as loonies.
What pissed me off about Mark is that he has a base, he has the financial firepower, he has the ambition, he sometimes has ideas, and yet he has no desire to do anything other than pass the same legislation he worked on as a staffer.
My shopping list for our party is this.
1. People with new ideas-I'm sick of hearing the 80's agenda and people don't vote for that anymore.
2. A new party chairman and hungry fresh young operatives that know how to message- there are plenty of skilled unemployed Bush Cheney veterans now.
3. Permanent banishment of people like hastert, lahood and others that look in their wallets and see all that the party stands for.
4. An end to congressional campaigns where candidates don't mention their gop party affiliation or use the democratic party's nominee-peter roskam comes to mind.
5. More TA's blogging up here and holding schakowsky's stasi to the fire.
Here's a crazy idea:
Maybe the Democratic Party, which stands for absolutely nothing coherent, just threw out the Republican Party because voters really don't want to live under a fear-mongering neo-fascist regime.
Instead of whining about the state party, maybe some of you should take a serious look at the Republican Party's POLICIES. They are completely out to lunch.
If getting killed in the last two election cycles doesn't open your eyes, I don't know what will.
Hey if this is a Mark Kirk Blog, shouldn't it be re-named to Kirk's 10 District Blog? Using the term "team" invites the "we" of the 10th.
I don't think this is Mark Kirk's Blog. He has his own on his website. I hope that TA continues his Blog that allows everyone to voice opinions, share ideas, argue, discuss, digest, etc. While our congressman may be the federally office holder out here, we have lots of elected officials that we chat about. This has never been a Kirk only blog.
The problem with our party is not that we are as weak in the war on terror as terrorist first democrats and democats, but rather that we don't have leaders who will fight the democrats as hard as our soliders fight the enemy.
No, the problem is that a majority of voters don't want an endless military conflict that's bankrupting our country, and that's what the Republican Party is selling.
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