Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Kirk Meets Alexi for Beer Summit

My friend Jeff Berman, having dealt handily with his fellow trustee Lisa Stone in Buffalo Grove yesterday in its recall vote, showed up to the Billy Goat Tavern tonight to see if his services were needed to deal with defeated U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias, but it appears that Alexi and Senator-elect Mark Kirk were getting along swimmingly.

We need to get Jeff a better cell phone camera, but here are his photos from the field:







Are we witnessing a whole new chapter in Illinois politics, or were they just both thirsty?

10 comments:

Blue Wind said...

That's kind of cool. I think both of them are very nice at the personal level. Unfortunately, only one of them has the right ideas and positions, and lost. Although I am totally disappointed that Alexi lost and Kirk got elected, I wish Kirk good luck in his new job. He will be better than many of his fellow senators in the republican party who are totally out of their mind. At least Kirk is socially moderate. Many of his republican fellow senators are simply insane.

Anonymous said...

Can't you for once say SOMETHING positive, Blue. That's a statement. There are others with an R after their name who represent the values most Americans cherish. There are D's in the Senate who clearly need some time to think about their positions as we move forward. Mark Kirk will make a wonderful contribution to our nation and our world and bring honor to our State.

A. Bees said...

Blue is a hard line partisan. For him the letter next to the candidate's name defines them, rather than the candidate defining themselves. Moral of the story is that there are many people wired that way, some are vocal, some are not, but perspectives like Blue's are part of what make our system work. I may not like it, but I can respect it. ...And that's as close as I will come to defending Blue.

Anonymous said...

TA,

A little late, but I wanted to offer some novice assessment of Congressman-elect Bob Dold's win and point out some brilliant moves on his & Kelley F's part.

First, Dan Seals had 4 of the 5 major newspaper endorsements, better name recognition, more money (incl. the last influx of outside cash), and although a previously defeated candidate...had garned some campaign lessons learned. And lost.

Maybe Dan Seals truly doesn't look at himself this way, but he simply is not committed enough on a daily basis (I don't want to say lazy). Bob worked seven days a week for 16 months to win this seat. Each moment of his day was filled with meeting trains, making calls, writing letters, shaking hands, motivating staff.

Bob Dold worked his butt off for this seat. I know he will do the same in Washington for the 10th.

Brilliant moves...his social media use & outreach...the bus. Listen, he won by 4K votes out of 200K cast. Make no mistake about it...his unrelenting drive, the bus, and his social media carried the day. Others will surely take lessons from his campaign.

What concerns me is redistricting. The Dems will have complete control (way to go Brady...). With four Illinois freshmen Republicans, I worry the 10th will be split between Walsh & Schakowsky. Bob would be living in the new Schakowsky district...the alternative...go against Walsh?

Maybe we'll get lucky and the lines won't affect the 10th much.

Bottom line...Dold is more than qualified and deserving...he'll do wonderfully in DC.

FOB
(Friend of Bob)

Publia said...

FOB--
And another thing, the closer you got to Dold's house, the thicker the forest of Dold signs on the lawns of his supporters. If you went over by the Seals' address, you would have thought that those rumors that he had moved to Wisconsin were 100% true.

Early in the campaign Bob was putting in 12 hour days. Tough campaigning is how Mark Kirk won the seat in the first place; tough campaigning is how he got to the Senate.

And TA, keep those pictures handy. Next election that goes really negative, you can dust them off and give more ammunition to the voters to tell the candidates to stop it!

And how the heck did Daniel Biss win anyway?

Anonymous said...

It was a very class move by both guys after how tough the campaign was. I think alexi figured out at the end of the last debate he was not going to win and was prepared for this and I give him credit.

This was a very very very tough thing for him to do after the campaign the congressman waged about him and his famuly given the loss they suffered with the bank.

He's 34, so he'll have other opportunities and given this I will now stop bashing him. He's had a tough year personally and running against team america is no easy job!

I also want to point out that I said starting in the primary that he got crushed in the the 10th district 62-29 and that didn't bode well for him. He lost lake county by 20 points in the general. Apparently a lot of the 10th dems supported KIRK. Would love to know from the 10th dems which of them came here to bash kirk but secretly voted for him because A TON of them did.

FOKLAEAPS

Anonymous said...

I know a few of them, Foklaeps, but will not reveal their names for obvious reasons. Mark Kirk will make a brilliant Senator, period. What hurt most with the posts from Blue Wind, CC and the rants and raves from the 10th Dems were the total, complete distortions of who Mark Kirk was and is as a person, as a Congressman. Partisanship, for sure, but some of these people are truly over the line.
I hope we are finished with Dan Seals forever. I hope that Ellen Beth Gill finds something else to do other than rip into anyone with an R after their name.
I hope that Blue will come to appreciate the fact that we are one nation that desperately must come together for the benefit of all who proudly call themselves Americans.
Never in 70 years has the House taken such a beating. Some very fine people are now gone. That should not have happened. I've been around a long time and I'm ready to throw in the towel after this disgusting cycle.
I'm sorry we didn't meet in person, Foklaeps, since I heard you were coming to our Kirk event on Tuesday. Something tells me I'd know you. You've mentioned my name over the years so I think I might just know who you are if I saw you in person.
The light of a new day, a new beginning for our district, for our newest Senator, is dawning. I hope that all the bashers on this blog give Bob Dold an even break, that they give Mark Kirk some much needed respect so that our country can begin to heal and move forward.
TA is to be congratulated for never silencing discussion that was in order. I'm' sure he'll come up with a new name that includes our Senator Kirk as well!
Let's take a few days to refresh and restore our minds and bodies before the next cycle begins.

Anonymous said...

TA--

I'm glad to see Kirk and Alexi meeting so swiftly after an election. Giannoulias is all class and he will likely wind up somewhere in the Obama admin before then coming back to run for office again.

On an unrelated note, your pal Jeff Berman seems to find himself in the center of some controversy over in Buffalo Grove. I predicted (correctly) the recall of BG Trustee Lisa Stone and I'm curious to see what Berman is going to do now that he has excoriated both Stone and Hartstein in letters to the editor. I know your friendship with him obviously constrains this conversation, but I was curious on your thoughts, being a local elected official and all.

Until Next Time,
A Concerned Colonial

Anonymous said...

Foklaeps, I'm sorry you didn't identify yourself to us even though it impossible to find people in the HUGE crowd in the Westin in my town of Wheeling -- all there to cheer our very own Mark Kirk on his way to the Senate. What a night, what a victory, what a great Senator he will be. I've put so much time into the Kirk organization for the last 11 years that my friends are wondering what I'll do with myself but I won't worry about that now. Just enjoy the victory, clean out the KFS office, go to DC for his swearing in and continue to volunteer when called. Being part of the Kirk team has meant so much to me and I've met so many wonderful people and made so many friends along the way. Many will remain friends forever.

I do hope that someday we will find you and you will give us a high five and we can thank you for all you've done.

Godspeed, Baxter and Beau's Mom

Anonymous said...

baxters mom, you are a great patriot. I think when it's said and done mark will probably go down as the greatest senator Illinois had in the first half of the 21st century (not best known-that would be the other teams guy) and given his willingness to work across the aisle, I think we'll see his name on monumental legislation that our children and grandchildren will read about in history books. These are awful times, but they are also moments of great opportunity for leaders like him to solve the problems our nation faces and given the closeness of the senate I think his vote (and our voice) will be heard more than it was in the house.

The thing I've thought about in terms of him going to the senate is that in the house his voice was often lost in the screaming. In the senate where moderates matter more, he'll be heard from louder and as I've said for years- I can't wait to see him as a regular on shows like meet the press talking about afghanistan.

Fielding and I will agree on one thing. The recriminations on catlady's blog right now are in a word, awesome. Democrats are notoriously brutal to their losers (we let people like romney, topinka, mccain that lose run again) and she is destroying the pup and potential dold 2012 and kirk 2016 opponent david hoffman. Given how bad springfield is and how every other democrat in Illinois seems to go to jail these days, my guess is we'll either see someone like elaine nekritz or some obama appointee from dc parachute in the way footlik did 6 years ago.

FOKLAEAPS