If you haven't noticed already, Mark Kirk is getting national attention as the prototype for the kind of moderate Republican that can revitalize and rejuvenate the GOP on both the national and even the state scenes.Here's just one of the articles that are coming out now that have identified Kirk as one of the new potential leaders of the national GOP, as well as possibly take a leadership role in the state party.
The lesson for the GOP is that we can't win unless we capture the center and middle America. We have a great opportunity to rebound from the Obama wave, and Kirk may be the guy to lead us.
Also, if you missed the party last night, here's a link to Kirk's victory speech.
UPDATED: There's lots of buzz about Mark S. Kirk over at Capitol Fax Blog, all speculating about Kirk's future.
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24 comments:
Congrats to Kirk and a great team. We must never forget to have faith in the voters, particularly here in the 10th District. WAY TO GO!
Anyone notice that EBG won't let anyone comment on her blog anymore?
I'm sure she's sulking and can't handle anyone who might try to stick it to her and LBG.
Saw Lou Atsaves last night at the Kirk party and I'm sure Ellen is living in fear of Lou's post-victory comment. I guess it will have to be seen here only.
Where are ya, Lou?
Hard to think of 3 bigger losers than comrade catwoman, loser beth gash, and the pupster.
Comrade catwoman has spilled bile for 5 years now about our President and to now no avail. Her darling young man has proven himself not up to national politics and her organization has shown itself unable to do anything more than gather 30 people to eat lox and sing koombyah-true story it's on her blog.
Of the many paul simon proteges who have gone on to great things to destroy our country-axelrod, emanuel, ect, loser beth gash has fortuneately not joined that crowd. Her ability to rile up soccer moms is about as far as she can go, and it now looks like she'll spend the rest of her life being the one who blew it.
Pupster might get a low-level job in an obama administration-these guys tend to get deputy assistant secretary of something or other followed by a slot at a k street firm helping sell bananas in panama,see footlik, jay. He's finished, and we wish him well in his employment search.
His staff as well will now be blacklisted as all failed campaigns generally are and will be some of the few democrats in the country without winning campaign credentials.
As for this blog, the sky remains the limit and surviving the worst of times should embolden it to reach great heights. If the losers above couldn't stand the GOP here when we were down, well, just WAIT TILL WE GET UP!
Spirited race guys. I clearly don't agree with all your spin and fibs but that's water under the bridge at this point.
Hopefully Cong. Kirk will continue moderating his stands and continue drifting toward progressive policies.
Is a run for the semi-open Senate seat in 2010 in Mark Kirk's future? His speaking schedule over the next year will be read like tea leaves....
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it appears Ellen's comments have been shut off. It appears she can dish out the B.S., but can't handle defeat. Sad, very sad.
She should be happy that Obamesiah won, but I guarantee she would of gladly sold him out for Dan. Politics is personal and local.
At least Mark remains in Washington to call out President-elect Obama when he sells out Israel. Has Samantha Powers been named UN Ambassador yet?
You are a typical republican group. Spinning all that hate. Yuk!
Samantha Powers embodies the catwoman pro-plo anti-Israel leftism that was rampant in dan seals, daniel biss and obama's campaigns.
Steve Greenberg is not a bad guy but the fact that he kept melissa bean under 60 percent in an obama year without much of a challenge signals that she is highly vulnerable. The 8th is a very conservative district and deserves better leadership.
Finally catwoman and her comrades should have the dignity to come on this blog and pay homage to a great fight. I would love to know if pup himself called msk to concede last night???
Anon 3:45, no, it was Congressman Kirk who had to call the pup. It figures. I think Mark is still waiting for Ms. Gash to make that call way back in 2000. She never had the class to do it. Ditto for old Dan. Guess he was sitting there with Gash, the catwoman, that Hawkeye guy, the few other comrades in arms waiting for the sky to fall. It did, but on them. Let's hope that Ellen Beth Shrill will fold her tent and get out of the way. Her vicious and untruthful rantings and ravings didn't help the pup. Then again, nothing really could help the pup.
I just received the following "thank you" e-mail from Dan Seals:
Dear TA,
Eight years ago, George W. Bush was selected to be our president. Under his administration, our country entered an unnecessary war, our economy fell into the greatest crisis since the Great Depression, and skyrocketing deficits increased the debt burden on our children. When Bush was re-elected for a second term, many of us wondered how our country had gotten so off track.
This is what first brought me into politics. Like many Americans, I felt that enough was enough, and with your support we ran a strong campaign.
I want to thank you for everything you have done. You gave us more than I could have ever asked for, and all you expected in return was a better country.
I want to thank all of my volunteers and my campaign team for their work, their passion, and their persistence. None of this would have been possible without their efforts.
And while we may have lost this battle, we won the war. Last night, our nation rejected the policies of the past eight years and elected Barack Obama to be our next President. I have never been more excited about the future our country, and I hope you are too.
So let's finish this campaign the way that we started: with hope for a better future and the willingness to fight for the change we need.
Sincerely, Dan
So, I guess we didn't really need him, anyway. Nice knowing you, Dan. See ya around the 9th District. Or maybe Milwaukee.
WOW TA, the pup just keeps showing how absolutely low class he is. Doesn't call the Congressman to concede but writes to you (that's if it was him) to continue his tirade against Bush. Thank God the voters in the 10th realized what a great Congressman they have in MSK.
I've never been into blogs but this has been the best experience for me and kept me checking it 2 to 3 times a day. Got me through some moments when I was feeling down about our campaign. Thanks for everything. I will continue to check regularly. Now onto getting rid of the state scumbags.
40 years ago this area was blood red. 29 year old kids ran for congress, became defense secretaries and watched their junior aides rise to national prominence. One even became a guy named Dick Cheney.
To get that red again up here we must begin by getting true believers running our state party who have ideas, energy and don't see corrupt incompetent mayors of chicago as their masters.
McKenna is a good guy and his staff means well, one former member was part of a losing congressional effort yesterday in jon porter's seat. BUT over the last 2 cycles they haven't even pierced the local democratic machine.
We need someone that will bury this b.s. with the social conservatives and go full out to put Blago, and queen lisa, and madigan and the rest of their cabal out on their butts.
Right now is the time for a wholesale house cleaning so we can start planning a path back to power in 2010!
Sorry TA,
Took a day off from politics so I could refocus a bit. If you are waiting for a rational dissertation from the catwoman and/or the 10th Congressional Democrat group as to why their candidate lost to the man she despises, one of the best congressmen in the nation, you will be waiting for the rest of eternity. I saw one of your commentators remark that the catwoman turned off all comments from her site.
Reality must really bite for her.
While Kirk focused on economic issues and how they affect families and current issues facing his constituents that they were most concerned about, Seals clung to the war issue like a drowning man.
The better man won.
And sorry Anon,
Right now, Republican social conservatives need to unite with moderate social conservatives who need to unite with fiscal conservatives to end the stranglehold of the tax and spend nanny government bunch who bicker constantly while the ship of Illinois sinks. To think that model is now being exported to the federal government is not exactly a happy thought at the moment.
It's time everyone in our party unite and put past differences aside for the good of the county, the good of the state and for the good of the nation.
We need to add more people to our party, not throw more people out. "Clean house" sounds nice, just like "change" did for the Obama campaign. Empty rhetoric just will not work right now.
We need to be proactive on issues affecting lives in this country, this state and this county, and stop being reactive. As one person put it to me during my door-to-door campaigning, "the Republican party has reduced itself to a bunch of people who stand around and just bitch about everything."
Hard to argue against that perception. But that is the perception we need to change.
Kirk's "Suburban Agenda" is frequently ignored by everyone. We should take that agenda and start rebuilding from there.
Louis G. Atsaves
TA if we had lost, I have no doubt you would have shown the dignity to tell her, well done and battle well fought. Says enough for that outfit.
Louis, we need to move forward, not backwards and build up rather than continue to get beat down. Team McKenna has had 4 years to show us the way out of the forest and has simply not gotten us anywhere. Under the reign of team McKenna the state has become a democratic stronghold, the only one between the coasts and we need a fighter like peter not patrick fitzgerald to bring us back.
Well, I went over to Ellen's to see what her new take on life would be after Seals lost the election, and not only is she not taking comments, there's not even an "atta boy" post from Ellen to her fallen hero.
Wow, that lady is cold. If you don't produce, you're out.
Wonder if Mr. Two-time loser will get the message, although the thought occured to be that maybe he could run for Jan Schakowsky's seat if she gets appointed to the Senate by Blago. Wouldn't that be a hoot.
Nearly threw up reading the HP News love fest for Karen May. She really embodies the inept ineffective and not aging well series of democratic leaders we have up here and I really hope we build on this year to take all of these folks out.
Anon,
We need to remember that Karen May was once a reporter for the Pioneer Press newspaper chain before getting into politics.
Louis G. Atsaves
Sad that the pioneer press, a local paper is infected with liberal bias.
We'll have to watch that.
For the early posts that are not fond of my idea to clean house of our state party leadership, I ask you, where have they gotten us?
-3 straight cycles of losing u.s. house seats including the SPEAKERS seat.
-3 straight cycles of losing state house seats.
-5 straight cycles of not being competitive for president.
-Responsible for us losing the u.s. house-dennis hastert, mcgovern et al.
-Responsible for running off our u.s. senator peter fitzgerald.
These are incompetent staffers and leaders and they need to give way to hungry people who want to win elections and want to fight with new ideas.
Also noteworthy that matt leffingwell and from lost seats in gop areas in nevada and kendall county, formerly gop strongholds.
On the North Shore we are too smart and well educated to continue to accept this b.s. spin that things are getting better when they keep getting worse.
Let's get a team that will get us winning!
Ellen just called herself a thug and a goon.
If it wasn't so sad it could almost be humorous. I'm referring to that other Blog. I can picture her sitting in her apartment with that cat just rocking back and forth in that rocker bemoaning the fact that Seals just didn't cut it - again. She hasn't mentioned his name once since Tuesday night. Her guy lost - again. She and her fellow travelers thought that Mark Kirk was history, that they owned the world. Oh well. That nobody, not even her couple of buddies, can commiserate is laughable. Wonder how long this charade will continue. Then again, why don't we just forget her and move forward without ever looking back.
If it wasn't so sad it could almost be humorous. I'm referring to that other Blog. I can picture her sitting in her apartment with that cat just rocking back and forth in that rocker bemoaning the fact that Seals just didn't cut it - again. She hasn't mentioned his name once since Tuesday night. Her guy lost - again. She and her fellow travelers thought that Mark Kirk was history, that they owned the world. Oh well. That nobody, not even her couple of buddies, can commiserate is laughable. Wonder how long this charade will continue. Then again, why don't we just forget her and move forward without ever looking back.
OK, as a conceived in the womb Republican I started out as a very conservative R. But I saw the light of day in the last 10-15 years. Most of the citizens of this country are in the middle with crazies on the right as well as the left.
Being part of Team Kirk as a volunteer over the past 9 years I have learned much from this exceptional man. Do I agree with all his positions - No, of course not. But I don't think anyone agrees with anyone else 100% of the time.
The state party needs to take a page from Congressman Kirk's playbook and build a moderate, middle of the road party. We have some party leaders at the local level who have one issue - pro-life which thankfully was not a part of this election cycle but that mindset is out there and unless people who call themselves Republican start being more progressive (after all this is 2008) we will never make headway again in this state. There is nothing wrong with a moderate approach to politics. Remember how Clinton and even the annointed by the media President elect started moving to the moddle. I know many moderate Republicans who voted for him and that says a lot to me.
Bi-partisan ship is essential to get things done as is a more progressive approach to life in this century. I listen to conservative talk radio all the time but some of the more popular hosts have taken it to an extreme and have hurt the Republican party.
We must move to the middle if we hope to regain our presence on the local, state and national scene.
This is just my opinion but the ultra right wing way isn't working any more.
Baxter's Mom
Every time the Rockefeller wing of the GOP gets control, the GOP loses elections. That should come as no surprise, since voters cannot discern substantive differences between so-called moderate Republican policies and Democrat policies. Many will opt for the real thing rather than Dem-lite.
I agree withyou that moderate Republicans are less agressive then the french army when it comes to politics which is why there are 3 left and they all post on thisblog.
Because there are 3 left it's hard for the far right to blame themfor thelast 8 years. Hastert, mark's godfather, let tom delay and gary bauer run congress and that's why we are where we are. The administration I can tell you first hand was run by people that worked for conservatives like helms, and delay, and archer, and armey et al, and folks like jeanette windon who used to work for mark were sidelined working for undersecretaries who got sent to do garbage work in antartica and had zero pull at the white house.
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