Thursday, June 3, 2010

Illinois GOP: With Blago on trial, will Giannoulias cancel his planned Messina fundraiser? (UPDATED x2)

From the Illinois Republican Party:

Illinois Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias recently announced that White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina would be coming to Illinois on June 19 to help him raise money for his Senate bid.

Last night, Politico reported that Democratic Senate candidate Andrew Romanoff publicly confirmed long-standing reports (and provided emails as proof) that Messina attempted to dissuade him from challenging incumbent Senator Michael Bennett in the Colorado Democratic Senate Primary by offering him a paid government position.

Romanoff stated:

Mr. Messina informed me that the White House would support Sen. Bennet. I informed Mr. Messina that I had made my decision to run…Mr. Messina also suggested three positions that might be available to me were I not pursuing the Senate race.

Messina’s actions appear, on their face, to be a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 600

Whoever, directly or indirectly, promises any employment, position, compensation, contract, appointment, or other benefit, provided for or made possible in whole or in part by any Act of Congress, or any special consideration in obtaining any such benefit, to any person as consideration, favor, or reward for any political activity or for the support of or opposition to any candidate or any political party in connection with any general or special election to any political office, or in connection with any primary election or political convention or caucus held to select candidates for any political office, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.

UPDATED: Politico has a detailed article on the Messina issue worth reading.

UPDATED x2: Also see Fox News, with a hysterical picture caption: 'Is this what the White House calls a jobs program?'

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Read the ROLL CALL story this morning, complete with photo, on this Messina incident. Combine this with the ongoing Sestak probe, Rahm being summoned to the Blago trial and perhaps Alexi's team might just want to postpone this event. Chicago-style politics being played out on the Potomac just highlights the way our State and some of our Democrat friends like it's business as usual. TA, I know you can't post the ROLL CALL story, but read it and post about it.

Anonymous said...

Funny. Why do you think this issue is a problem
for Giannoulias? It is irrelevant to him. In contrast to Kirk, Giannoulias has not lied about his record. Whether you like it or not, he appears to have much higher integrity standards than Mark Kirk.

Anonymous said...

Giannoulias doesn't have much of a record to change. Failed bank, failed bright start program. The only thing good is his pick up basketball games with his (former) friend Obama :)

Anonymous said...

Yep, well stated, Anon 11:54 a.m. Mark Kirk's long standing record, his achievements for the 10th District and for the nation can and will stand the test of scrutiny. The unscrupulous, outrageous and simply ignorant attacks by Gill and her team are perfect examples of what and who the other side show themselves to be. Ugly and out of place, but in reality, true to their character. Kirk has done far more right than wrong and that's what matters.

Anonymous said...

The stars came out for seals and martha coakley and creigh deeds and jon corzine, and they all failed. This is standard stuff.

The liberal media has absolutely flipped on obama and this administration after 6 years of licking his you know what.

None of what happened this week diminishes what will play out in the blago trial and what this fall will be about-which is who is best to lead us and whether we continue with what's gone on. The bs out of the white house political shop, combined with the deep interconnectedness of team obama into team blago and that trial diminishes the brand that alexi and dan have been desperate to cloak their thin cases for election in.

FOKLAEAPS

Anonymous said...

Trying to change the subject to Blogo, but the Sun Times and Tribune haven't. It's all about Mark Kirk's foolish military lies. His unit won a private sector award and he claimed it as a prestigious military award. He lied about combat service; lied about taking fire; lied about his service at the Pentagon; lied about being a pilot; lied about the aircraft he flew in as an observer and threw all the lies in everyone's face for a decade and all this was some little mistake to hear him tell it. Kirk makes Blago look sort of honest.

Anonymous said...

Shame on you, Anon. Shame on all of you Kirk haters who have not, will not look at his Navy published RECORD. What you falsely call lies are not at all lies and you know it. For 21 years this man has served our nation. Has it even crossed your mind that there's more to all of this than you are priviledged to know at this time? I'm hoping that the Kirk campaign will send out the Kirk Fitness reports so that all of you who hate this decent man can then apologize for your unwarranted and vicious attacks. To bash the letter from his Commanding Officer, Fearnow, was a disgrace to you, not to him. To say that it's some kind of quid quo pro is obnoxious and speaks more about you, Gill, Nyberg and the other haters. Somewhere between what you think and what's out there for public consumption is the TRUTH. It will come out.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Team America said...

Fair warning folks- gratuitous gay-bashing or references to sexuality that doesn't have some legitmate connection to a political issue (and those circumstances are going to be awfully rare) are going to be deleted. Go be homophobic somewhere else, please.

Anonymous said...

The Catwomen's blog becomes more amazing by the day. There's even a post on there finding fault with Mark because his military members won't disobey DoD 1344.10 regarding prohibitions on military political activity. Since what goes around might just come around, the blog seems to have eliminated the info that Catwoman's brother is running for office in IL-15th.

Anonymous said...

The catwoman's cousin, not her brother, is a perpetual candidate in IL 15. Not sure she has a brother, but this far right ER doctor runs and runs and runs, just like her hero, Dan Seals. She, Nyberg, Wind Bag, the Madame and Joe N are cut from the same cloth of Kirk haters that goes back to the 2000 campaign. Gill is a nothing lawyer who once worked for a Title Company. That didn't last long. Like the other followers of her nasty attitude, they're all just blow hards who should be ignored.