Sunday, January 16, 2011

Daily Herald Jumps on Joe Walsh Bandwagon in IL-8

On the heels of an in-depth gut-check on his performance so far, the Daily Herald came out with a stunning editorial today praising the freshness and interesting ideas and attitude being shown by newly-minted Congressman Joe Walsh of the 8th Congressional District. The DH, to give it credit, began its editorial by noting that it had been among his harshest critics:

We’ve questioned his judgment, his sincerity and his personal self-discipline. We’ve disagreed strongly with the reflexive right-wing ideology he’s espoused, and we’ve worried that his avowed refusal to work with Democrats would make him a legislator whose style promotes a continuation of deadlock and acrimony rather than a new era of solutions.

But it seems that as the weeks after the election have unfolded, the DH has noticed that there just seems to be... something different... about Walsh -- in a good way, that just doesn't seem to click with 'business as usual' in Washington. And with the current state of the country and the mood of the electorate, that really seems to be an attractive quality to many. The DH has now jumped on the Walsh bandwagon, though, like any good editorial board, hedges its bets slightly:

[H]is first few days in office have been surprisingly encouraging.

This isn’t to say that our reservations have vanished or that Walsh’s curious past tribulations should be ignored. Or that the realities of political war won’t set in as time passes.

But his early approach has been refreshing, almost selfless.


Wow, talk about a 180. It seems the DH has noticed what we here at Team America also noticed some weeks before the election, and then afterwards -- and we too (having sat through a number of Walsh stump speeches that made us roll our eyes a bit and look for the hook) were early critics, but came around.

This bodes well for Walsh's ability to connect with his voters and win over even editorial boards with his fresh approach... and we will wait and see how he continues to conduct himself now as a sitting Congressman. We, like the DH, have high hopes, and will continue to be solidly in Walsh's corner, assuming he continues to measure up.

Keep up the good work, Joe.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

These are gimmicky things and I'm not sure where the daily herald is going with them. Leaders are judged on their public service not the government benefit packages they choose for themselves. What matters more to his constituents and the party will be what kind of congressman he is and what kind of service he provides.

I personally am not a fan of congressmen cutting their staffs especially with a republican house and a democrat administration. There are roughly 5,000 House republican staffers responsible for watching over a 2.3 trillion dollar government with 1.3 million federal employees and you could argue half of those staffers are junior aides who wouldn't know eop from epa.

A nice clip, but I'm shocked the daily herald was suckered into such stuff. Then again they endorsed dan seals.

FOKLAES

A. Bees said...

I have to stick with FOKLAES on this one on all of his points.

I will say I am encouraged by what I have seen from Walsh, but there hasn't been any work of merit yet that brings me to consider his bandwagon.

Anonymous said...

his people know that he's going to take votes which are going to anger some people and that he's going to be to the right so they are setting up the argument with this that "you may not agree with him but at least he's principled and sticks to his guns" as opposed to not doing these things and just being called too conservative which is the editorial the daily herald has written for when he votes against health care.

FOKLAES

A. Bees said...

Yes, but if that's the strategy, then they run the significant risk of having popped that editorial too early. Now the DH can state that they have acknowledged those things about him, while they pound him relentlessly over being a partisan, etc.

Anonymous said...

a bees, I think you're doing too much thinking (unlike our friends on the left who dont do any at all).

Curious as to whether team america supports killing health care.

FOKLAES