Monday, April 26, 2010

Alexi Giannoulias Not Going Away Quietly... Thank Goodness (UPDATED)

The race for the U.S. Senate seat that is soon to be vacated by outgoing Blagojevich appointee Roland Burris is proving to be a hot battle between 5-term GOP Congressman Mark Kirk and State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias. Recently, Kirk has been hitting Giannoulias hard, right between the eyes on the revelations that Giannoulias' family-owned Broadway bank was on the danger list for being taken over by the FDIC without a huge injection of capital... not to mention the fact that we then began to learn of all the shady characters that banked or received loans from Broadway Bank. A recent Politico article detailed how Giannoulias' campaign chairman, Dick Durbin, had apparently gone to the White House to plead for support for the beleaguered Alexi, but had been rebuffed.

Then, last Friday, the expected news hit that Broadway Bank was no more, seized by the Feds and the assets sold off to M.B. Financial. Cameramen and reporters swarmed the scene, showing the doors closing and the BB signs being taken down or covered over.

Some thought it was curtains for Alexi. And some thought that it would be a good thing for Mark Kirk. However, the better-informed readers of this Blog know that we'd much rather have a badly-damaged Alexi survive as the Dem candidate, and live to face Kirk in November. Some even mistakenly think that the heavy political hits that have been coming from Kirk's camp have been designed to give Alexi the knock-out punch... and many Alexi supporters put in overtime trying to combat rumors that the Dem powers-that-be had targeted Alexi for political termination.

But we all understand that while Kirk's team has been deftly keeping Alexi back on his heels with jabs to the left and the right, the KO punch is not going to come, by design, because Kirk wants Alexi to be the candidate. It's no secret, but it's rather amusing to me the number of people who seem to think that Kirk intends on running Alexi out of the race. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Of course, Alexi has to do his part. When the news was about to break on Friday, there was no doubt some sweat on the brow of some Kirk staffers concerned that they'd done TOO good a job working Alexi over.

But never fear, the smart money was that Alexi's ego wasn't going to take this lying down, and would roll with the punches, only to jab back. Lucky for Kirk, Alexi is now trying to counter, with a new campaign commercial trying to lash back at Kirk while at the same time engender common-man sympathy for the take-over of his family business. Alexi is also renewing his call for Kirk to return Goldman Sachs contributions (all the while ignoring the gobs of money Obama and other Dems have taken from GS), which, although is already starting to get a little stale, may have some populist appeal.

My Dem friends on the inside maintain that while this is going to be close, it's still winnable for Alexi. And that's great, because that's exactly what we want them to think. But they are not giddy over Alexi anymore, by any means. I will be very interested to see how all this affects Alexi's enthusiasm among his base, and his fundraising, though, especially after he got trounced by Kirk in Q1, even before the BB takeover. Even the Anti-Kirk, Ellen of the Tenth, is not impressed with Alexi so far, which ought to scare anyone who figures the base is automatically in the tank for Alexi (is that the ghost of David Hoffman lurking out of the corner of your eye, perhaps?)

Well, watch the video from Alexi and remember what we've learned about politics, in terms of defining your opponent before he or she defines you: Blago did it to JBT and she never recovered. Kirk has successfully implanted the FAILED BANKER label squarely on Alexi's forehead, and Alexi is going to spend the rest of the campaign having to answer that issue even before he can go on the attack against Kirk. Nicely played, Congressman.

Here's Alexi:



UPDATED 10:40 a.m.: Eric Zorn at the Tribune calls Alexi "toxic" and wonders 1) why Alexi doesn't get the message from the cold shoulder given to him by the White House, and 2) why the Dem powers-that-be weren't smart enough to avoid this mess by nominating someone electable. Good questions, all.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

TA, all of your boxing metaphors have raised passions in me which were long dead in my search for a loving husband. Do you dismiss that Alexi could pull off a "Rocky" type of comeback as the summer months pass. Will Kirk feel cocky and drop his guard in the later rounds? Surely, the Dems have some kind of tidbit hidden away for a last round haymaker on Kirk.

Bitter Woman

Anonymous said...

Wow, TA, didn't know you were in the business of "matchmaking", too. lol

Anonymous ?

Anonymous said...

===
Surely, the Dems have some kind of tidbit hidden away for a last round haymaker on Kirk.
==

And, BTW, Bitter Woman. Are you simply wondering "out loud" or is them fightin' word, too?

Blue Wind said...

TA,
Here is a reality check for you with some polls. Alexi has lost some support in the polls (temporarily in my opinion), but Kirk has FAILED to gain any support. His numbers are NOT getting better. Take a look at the graph.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/4/26/860933/-IL-Sen:-Giannoulias-jujutsu

That summarizes the case. Kirk is unelectable in IL. Giannoulias will recover from this and he will end up winning in November. He will be a great senator.

Anonymous said...

Blue wind,

You probably got your education the same place as blago and peoples republic of the 9th district resident israel hating dan seals, which is to say the chicago public school system. I know from reading about it in the tribune, they don't teach math, and reading comprehension there. So let me use my 10th district public education to explain to you that a candidate for us senate who is 34 whose sole credential for running for office is a failed bank where he gave 10s of millions of dollars of loans to convicted felons is wait for it...

unelectable.

You might also ask someone from the 10th who didn't go to public schools in the city (how are those teachers unions working out for you? and those school lunches sound pretty awful) to read to you what todd stroger-one of your fellow cook county democrats did last week-he put a ton of his hacks on the county payroll and then wait for it... bought a ton of new fancy furniture for his office while his office cried uncle and decided that winnetka should pay higher taxes while they fire teachers and kill more jobs.

You guys are through. Team America, Baxters mom, and king louis astaves the alexi ellen and pup slayer are t-7 months away from a drunken night of chicanery and mayhem at the monocle, although we might have to stop into some liberal bars like local 16 just to rub it in that the president lost his home seat.

Also haven't seen comrade jan that much lately since her israel hating tax and spend springfield protege hamos got thrashed. perhaps she's helping her latest loser to kirk, alexi g who she endorsed over hoffman and blago flack jackson (I thought women stuck together. Gue$$ not when other thing$ are involved).

fan of king louis astaves the alexi ellen and pup slayer.

Blue Wind said...

Anon. 8:42 PM

Are you drunk? Seriously...

Team America said...

Hey Blue- Cook just moved the race to "lean Republican". New post going up any minute. But for now, read this:

The bank’s financial problems and its business relationships with people associated with corruption and organized crime have dogged Giannoulias’ campaign since early February when he became the nominee. Broadway’s failure will have an enormous impact on Giannoulias’ campaign, and it is entirely possible that the fallout could force him from the race. As such, the race is moving from the Toss Up to the Lean Republican column.

Anonymous said...

I haven't had this much fun since Hector was a pup. Blue Wind deserves some kind of medal for posting and saying such idiotic things. Give the poor guy a break. If you happen to troll over to the witch's blog, aka Catwoman, that poor thing went over the edge with Carl months ago. By the way, who IS Carl?
Back to Blue. Let's help him understand this entire charade played out by the Democrats locally and nationally. Takers?
Come on, Blue, cheer up, at least on TA's Blog you CAN post and you CAN say whatever the hell comes into your thoughts. Go for it.

Blue Wind said...

Anon,
I totally agree about TA. Although I totally disagree with him on politics, he deserves a lot of credit for letting completely opposing opinions here. He is clearly open minded and he means well, even when he is wrong (as he usually is).

Anonymous said...

Take this to the bank - I'll be helping our next Senator (Kirk) get elected... with everything I can muster between now and November --- for the pure pleasure of watching Blue (passing) Wind eat crow on election night.