Sunday, June 20, 2010

How Not to Be A Fundraiser "Goon" - Remember to Rip Off Your Nametag Before You Get in the Camera Guy's Face

The latest YouTube video to go viral is a tape of an Alexi Giannoulias fundraiser in Washington, D.C., in which the cameraman was accosted by an aggressive event attendee while Alexi looks on in the background. The problem (for Team Alexi, anyway) - as with many political events, the attendees all wore nametags. So when this guy got in the cameraman's face, it wasn't too hard to figure out who this guy is.

Well, Marathon Pundit brings us a great video showing exactly how easy it is to track down such a toad when you embarrass yourself like this on video. And to think this behavior comes from a fellow lawyer... the shock, the horror...



So far, it appears that Team Alexi is ducking comment on this fiasco.

Alexi must be so proud.

h/t Backyard Conservative

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

As discussed on Illinois Review, Kathleen Strand, the spokeswoman who provided the "Silly Season has started" explanation on behalf of Giannoulias' campaign was called "Kirk's Stalker" in December of 2009.

I remembered that article because after she was "asked" to leave the premises, Charles Thomas saw her outside and reported that he thought the "slim blond was some kind of Mark Kirk groupie".

On another note, Kirk's spokewoman was recently written up as "resembling Spock" by the same source that reported on Sarah's "alleged" breast implants.

Good times.

Anonymous ?

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure I'd agree that this is the "silly season". What I would say is that this has all the trappings of the worst kind of disgusting, distorded personal attacks 4 months from an election. Kirk tells the truth about being a teacher in London and Alexi's folks rip into his crediility. They have nothing to talk about that the voters want and need to know before making a choice in a few months. I wouldn't call this silly, I just think it's a bunch of people on the other side who realized that they had nothing of value to beat Kirk with so they come charging at him with total irrelevant nonsense. He DID teach. If he embellished the NAME of an award, big deal. He did serve. He DOES serve. He has a great personal and professional record. Stalkers are just mean spirited, rather oddball nothings in society. I hope this Lawyer at the Alexi event in DC gets a reprimand from the Bar Association. Perhaps it should go beyond that. None of this is silly. It's just politics at it's worst.

Anonymous said...

Hmmmm,

Hasn't Alexi said over and over again that his campaign isn't taking money from DC Lobbyists? On the tape it sure sounds like Mr. Kosmas said he paid for the party at a minimum he bought a ticket to the fundraiser.

Rob_N said...

LOL! CapFax is reporting that it turns out your "goon" leans Republican.

Now gee ... why would a video guy volunteering for Kirk and another guy who bought a ticket to the event but otherwise leans Republican just happen to get caught on camera harrassing each other.

Welcome to Mark Kirk's Magical Land of Make Believe.

Carl Nyberg said...

LOL. Have you sent a thank you to Doug Ibendahl for exposing this guy?

Anonymous said...

Didn't Miller conclude that Kosmas donates and lobbies both sides of the aisle?

And didn't Alexi give us Illinois voters a solemn oath that he would not accept lobbyist funds from Washington, D.C. Is that why he was on the rooftop in Washington, D.C. and is that why the Washington Lobbyists hosting the affair got so rough with that stalker?

"We paid for this space!" snarled the D.C. Lobbyist! And while he is saying that, we can see Alexi standing where that lobbyist was moments earlier, talking to a bunch of other people who we need to take Alexi's word for it, were not D.C. Lobbyists! :-)

Rob_N said...

Anon 12:12,

There are two Michael Kosmas' listed in FEC donor records.

The other Kosmas (Michael N. Kosmas) donates to his Democratic mother.

Larry Falbe here and John Ruberry are talking about Michael S. Kosmas who donates to Republicans. Michael S. Kosmas' law firm Squire Sanders also gave $1000 to Mr. Kirk just last year.

Miller didn't conclude anything at CapFax. He only quoted Ibendahl when it came to Michael Kosmas' donations but Ibendahl made the mistake of thinking both Michael Kosmas' were one person.

I can see why conservatives are so confused by all this. ;)

PS: Where in his bio does it say Michael S. Kosmas is a "lobbyist"? And for what groups does he "lobby"?

His bio says he's a lawyer representing property owners, developers and hotel operations in legal negotations.

By that definition, is Team America a lobbyist too?

Carl Nyberg said...

When you embed the You Tube there are some numbers for the height and width.

If you shrink them by one third it will make the video fit in your column.

Don't say I never did anything for you.

Team America said...

Thanks Carl, I was wondering why that video didn't translate well.

Nice to know there is some honor among fellow bloggers. ;-)

Now back to the trenches...

Anonymous said...

1. old rule of thumb never trust anything a failed mob banker says.

2. dold apparently held fiesta fest at a payday loan house. I hope he isn't using mark's advance staff.

3. Not happy mark went running through a backdoor basement today at this metro policy event. In the era of youtube some weasel tracker could chase him and the video of a congressman running scared isn't pretty. They got him a few years ago running from an iraq event it looked pretty bad. Scenarios like that also open up the chance some staffer will do a moron thing, that's the kind of screw up he doesn't need.

4. The other guy of note in the alexi videotape is a thug named chris kofinis who helped john edwards cover up his love child, he's got some pretty dirty baggage with him. Marathon Pundit might add him to the hit list.

5. weird to say but next week is the 2nd to last major fundraising quarter of the senate race-alexi we hardly knew you. There's one more for the fall and then the last minute ones. We should get a pretty good idea of where the race stands. I expect mark to have a monster quarter -north of 3-4 million as most of the cycle was dominate by alexi's failed bank. Another dreadful showing by alexi I think will kill any momentum he got from mark's resume fuckups.

6. The blago trial is great fun, I can't wait until we get to the fall and the msm hangs it on Alexi.

FOKLAEAPS

Anonymous said...

Foklaeps, you are way off base on the host for the Dold event this past Saturday night. He's a great guy who is not at all what you say he is. It's sad to subject a private citizen who has done much for his community be victimized by callous comments. He is a Marine with a fine service record who does not deal in pay day anything and he does not take advantage of anyone.
As for Kirk's behavior today, let's just say that it smacked of a staff that should be horsewhipped. Kirk needs to talk to the media with some force behind his words. If he doesn't do it soon my bet is that they'll continue to beat up on him because it's not becoming a joke. Kirk has a great record as a Congressman, a sterling record from the Navy. It's high time he just stood up to these reporters and finally set the record straight. Second quarter fundraising numbers are critical on several levels. It will be interesting to see how much help Alexi got from Joe Biden's appearance today. Biden sure got out of town without being seen with either Seals or Alexi. What in the hell does that say to the voters? That was some motorcade getting him out of the Union League Club. Wonder what kind of tales Biden told to the audience. He's a master of the embellished story. Anyone there to report?