On a lark, tonight I checked in with Google to see how John Tree, the newest Dem candidate hopeful for Illinois' Tenth Congressional District was doing. To my amazement, I caught a bizarre developing story being discussed by several news outlets: apparently John Tree found himself being asked by a United Airlines flight attendant to 'step in between' her and an unruly passenger in first class. You can read more details here and here, as well as an account by self-appointed Tree-hugger Lynn Sweet. From the details we can piece together, it doesn't seem like Tree was the only passenger involved in subduing the unruly passenger, however.
While a somewhat differing account is being offered by an Illinois GOP staffer who was also on the plane, the interesting thing to me is that, the Tree campaign team wasted no time in issuing a press release detailing their version of the events.
So - Tree's on his way to DC to do his reserve military service: military creds, check.
He's called upon to help subdue an unruly passenger and pitches in: kudos.
Did he do it for political gain? Even we would not suggest such a thing.
But, after the escapade, Tree campaign manager Pete Giangreco wants to make absolutely sure everyone knows about it: you better believe it.
Team America rating of the Tree campaign's self promotion: Shameless.
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42 comments:
As usual, it's better to be lucky than smart. Way to go, Hero John. Cue nasty personal attacks by Rob_N in 3...2...1...
Phillipe, Thanks for coming to the Wheeling Dems meeting tonight. Glad to see you made it back home safe and sound.
I'll leave the nasty personal attacks to you, Larry and the Teapublican gang.
And if you two know the GOP staffer who decided to make Col. Tree's story even bigger by calling all the Chicago media and whining, please thank them for us.
Channel 7 just finished covering our meeting, too.
The Atlantic seems more amused than awed by this "story."
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2011/11/congressional-candidate-maybe-saved-flight-unruly-passenger/45589/
Louis G. Atsaves
Doldies were all smiles talking about the 10th Dem debate in AH...
So TA, let me get this straight you've attacked John Tree for:
-Being divorced
-Shameless self promotion during a campaign for office
-And being wealthy (ie part of the 1%)
It's awfully early to be running scared.
Anonymous December 2, 2011 12:11 AM --
Don't forget the TA commenter who criticized Col. Tree's military experience because the commenter mistakenly thought the US Air Force Space Command in California had something to do with Israel instead of the Mediterranean AF Command which Col. Tree served in that actually did coordinate with Israel.
And now some cowardly anonymous GOP staffer is trying to denigrate Col. Tree by essentially claiming that United Airlines, local cops in Virginia and Chris Matthews are all lying. Oh, and we're supposed to believe this cowardly GOP staffer has x-ray vision and can see through seats and people.
Philippe, you Three Mouseketeers should be all smiles. You don't have to slouch so low in your chairs and hide your face behind Dem Party membership forms anymore.
Taxpayers pay you a $50,000+ a year salary to do that?
There's one area where the Teapublicans clearly forgot to cut the budget.
Rob N you are amusing so keep on posting. Those of us who visit this Blog continue to smile reading your dribble. Looks like Ilya is picking up some momentum so perhaps that's why some in the 10th Dems are a bit nervous. Now wouldn't that be the matchup in the coming election: Ilya and Bob. This is getting to be fun to watch. Have a good day, Rob N. and keep those fun postings coming.
The Wheeling debate between the 10th Democrats running was not open to the public? Their public notices did not mention that.
Louis G. Atsaves
Good point, Astaves. It kinda makes you wonder what the Wheeling Dems and their candidates say behind closed doors that they don't want everyone else to hear.
Behind closed doors? Ha! We're laughing at Philippe's grade school antics.
The real question is why is Rep. Dold so nervous he sent three staffers to the Dems meeting with both 8th and 10th district candidates? Is Dold worried about Tammy Duckworth and Raja Krishnamoorthi too? He probably should be. Either one of them would crush him next November too.
Nobody said the Democratic monthly meeting wasn't open. It's just hilarious that Republican Dold's people took up so many seats and were so clearly embarrassed at being caught in a Democratic meeting.
At least the tea partier who was there had the guts to stand up and admit who he was. Very nice gentleman. Not embarrassed at all to be there and never felt a need to pull his coat's hood all the way over his head indoors like a pre-schooler playing before class, unlike Dold's $50,000-a-year Congressional staffer Philippe Charles Melin.
By the way, all five Dems in the race would do better than Dold next year given his two-faced voting record. You can't get away with telling the voters one thing but then doing the opposite in Washington.
None of the Dems voted to kill Medicare...
or voted to demolish environmental protections...
or voted to re-define rape so it's more difficult for victims to seek help...
or keeps spinning this wacky notion that the GOP "jobs" plan will help the middle class when independent economists say it could actually eliminate millions of jobs...
or made a flashy speech on the House floor about how he was for women's rights and women's healthcare but then voted to defund women's healthcare anyway...
or is promoting the idea of allowing highly-toxic fracking under Illinois' fertile farmlands...
or voted to protect massive taxpayer giveaways to profitable oil companies while whining that America can't afford much smaller programs that protect the middle class...
And that's just for starters.
Rep. Dold can send 70 staffers next time and crowd out everyone else who was there for legit reasons.
And he can send all the taxpayer-funded franked mail he wants -- even go from #2 to #1 on the list of frosh GOPers wasting tax dollars on such mail.
It still won't change his bizarre voting record because 84% of extreme is still extreme and on the votes that count, the final votes for passage, Rep. Dold has simply voted against the 10th district too often.
Well, you have to give our boy RobN credit, no one can spin up a hate-filled manifesto, without even pausing to think about it, like he can.
hahaha, it is so much fun to mess with Robby.
I was wondering when RobN would reappear. Not only is he an attack dog, his charges are so without merit, so off base and baseless that he's more funny than sad. One thinks he protests too loudly. And what's with this childish, very nasty vendetta aimed at a staffer. RobN, you show yourself to be a mean-spirited, nasty something or other. Keep it up and TA will boot you off this Blog before the real campaign kicks into high gear. You'd think after losing every election in the 10th District since late in the LAST Century that the Dems would find people with class, professionalism and intellect to be out and about. Like I said a few posts ago, keep on posting your truly pathetic rants and rages, RobN, you are the voice and the face of the Dems.
Philippe, don't you have a Congressional office to attend to?
Isn't that what we taxpayers are paying you for?
Rob_N, today is a family day for me - believe it or not, we are allowed to have personal time. So, if you would please cease inaccurately attributing to me postings I have not made. Thank you.
-Philippe
Anonymous/Philippe,
When you (and apparently sooo many others -- perhaps they're all Dold staffers also) consistently choose to post your immature comments as Anonymous only the host, Larry Falbe, would know who's who.
TA, RobN is no longer funny or even tolerable. He's some smart mouth thug with no manners and no class with an inability to handle a polite statement from Mr. Melin. It's Saturday and the Congressional offices are not open. RobN needs to tend to his business and be respectful on the Blog or hopefully he''ll lose his right to be here.
Well, you do have to admit, nothing brings out the commentors like a good Rob_N diatribe.
Let's all have some perspective here, folks, Over the past five or so years, we've had lots of Dem trolls, declared and undeclared. Many lasted a while, but in the end, all succumbed to Republican Truth and ended up wasting away to the shadows.
Eventually, Rob_N will be no different.
In the meantime, I find him amusing to have around.
Also, I was kind of hoping to promote maybe a Phillipe v. Rob cage match for charity or something....
Nice filibuster by Rob N! He has an "explanation" for everything, as usual. Too bad it had nothing to do with the open public meeting Dold staffers "snuck" into.
Another phantom bus moment by Rob N!
Louis G. Atsaves
Philippe/not-Philippe/Anonymous December 3, 2011 7:18 PM,
I was tending to my business. Philippe and friends stuck their noses in it.
Odd how you guys say I'm funny and you laugh at me one hour, then say my charges are without merit (I can bore you with all the roll calls that go into Dold's 84% extremist tally if you like), and then turn around just like Dold and say something completely different three hours later.
If you can't stand up for Dold's string of incredibly bizarre, extremist votes then what good are you to him?
By the by, I understand fully why you don't want to actually defend Dold's right-wing vote record. I also wouldn't want to be stuck having to defend someone who says one thing but then does another.
--
Louis, Just as you continue to claim a 2010 right-wing bus tour was not a bus tour you apparently fail to realize that the Monthly Meeting was a Democratic Monthly Meeting.
What else do you call it when a trio of Republican staffers arrives to a Dem meeting unannounced, holds up papers to hide behind and then pulls on their puffy blue winter coat with the hood all the way over his face... indoors?
That's pretty much the definition of "sneaking around" like a little mouse trying to hide one's self.
Like I said, the tea partier that was there announced himself and was quite gentlemanly. He didn't sneak in quietly and try to hide.
But you go ahead and keep sticking up for Dold's Three Mouseketeers and ignoring Dold's extremist record if that's how you get your kicks.
--
Larry, you set something up and I'll gladly take on tiny sprite Philippe in a charity cage match.
I'll even let him have all the Coronas and champagne he wants and tie my hands behind my back.
I doubt he's up for it though. He clearly prefers sneaking around like a dirty mouse.
Rob N, I'm not here to revisit your false claims of presence of buses at an engagement where none existed. That falsehood of yours is ancient history. It cemented your lack of credibility.
But having a hissy fit because some staffers attended an open meeting of Democrats? Three of them! And they had the audacity to sit in three seats? My goodness! I thought you Democrats LIKED audacity!
If you want to regurgitate 10th Congressional Democrats spin about Dold that's one thing. A decade of failure of false spin about Republican Congressmen from the 10th should have taught you something by now.
But in your case not. Try not to worry about that phantom bus under your bed tonight Rob!
Louis G. Atsaves
LOL Louis. LOL.
From the Grover Norquist Americans for Prosperity "November is Coming" BUS TOUR website...
http://novemberiscoming.com/beta/?portfolio_item=bus-tour-events
Northbrook, IL
Updated Sep 28, 2010
Date/Time: Friday, September 17, 2010, 7-8:30PM
Location: Renaissance Chicago North Shore
Street Address: 933 Skokie boulevard, Illinois, 60062
Everyone but you calls it a bus tour, Louis. Even Grover "drown America in the bath tub" Norquist called it a bus tour.
Please stop Rob. You and I both know there was not a single bus present at the hotel where this "bussed in" event took place.
In spite of this GLARING FACT, you FALSELY insisted all the participants were bused in by "evil" right wing politicos.
You have your "MoveOn" and "Occupy" groups. We have similar groups on our end. Funny how the "MoveOn" folks picketed and protested job fairs sponsored by Republican Congressmen (including Dold). Protesting jobs! Priceless!
But when a blind Democrat operative such as yourself sees buses where none existed, that is a SERIOUS problem. A serious problem YOU have. Your bus fetish is your own.
The Democrat debate/meet and greet WAS however an OPEN meeting, RIGHT? And no Democrat ever scouted Republicans at their open meetings?
LOL! LOL! LOL!
Now go back to hunting for all those phantom buses. Occupy yourself with that task! :-)
Louis G. Atsaves
I attended a Dold Town Hall meeting in Wheeling a while back where 90% of the attendees were from the 10th Dems. Those who spoke made speeches lasting up to 10 minures before they even asked a question. Congressman Dold listened politely, answered and thanked them for attending. Now that's class. Unlike the antics I've seen from the 10th Dems and MoveOn people. Rob, you need to get a life.
B&B's Mom
So let's get this straight Louis...
You're ok with Larry Falbe lying by saying Seals "busses in" people to a parade when, in reality, the Seals parade-goers simply carpooled together to save on parking hassles.
http://teamamerica10th.blogspot.com/2010/06/gop-strong-in-libertyville-days-parade.html
...But you're not ok with someone saying "bussed in" in relation to a right-wing event that was not named a Bus Tour but promoted nationally as a Bus Tour complete with an actual Bus that was part of the Bus Tour.
http://novemberiscoming.com/beta/?portfolio_item=bus-tour-events
Northbrook, IL
Updated Sep 28, 2010
Date/Time: Friday, September 17, 2010, 7-8:30PM
Location: Renaissance Chicago North Shore
Street Address: 933 Skokie boulevard, Illinois, 60062
Only one of us has the problem with reality here Louis, and the facts are clearly on my side.
Let's move on. Everyone has made their point.
Correction to my earlier reply to Louis,
But you're not ok with someone saying "bussed in" in relation to a right-wing event that was not only named a Bus Tour but promoted nationally as a Bus Tour complete with an actual Bus that was part of the Bus Tour.
--
Christine/B&B,
Like you, I have a life. Quite a fulfilling, hard-working and fun life, in fact. Hopefully the same is true for you.
The difference between Rep. Dold's taxpayer-funded town hall for taxpaying-constituents and a political party's privately-funded regular monthly meeting should be obvious to all but the most partisan of partisan conservatives.
No one is saying Wednesday's Monthly Democratic Meeting was closed-door. We didn't turn away anyone, not even Philippe or the other Mouseketeers.
We're just pointing out the obvious fear-induced silliness that goes into Rep. Dold deciding to send 3 of his staffers rather than a more-normal 1.
GOP'er Darlene Ruscitti from the 8th didn't have anyone there... Walsh might have sent 1 person, but we think that tea partier was actually just there on his own out of curiosity.
--
Anonymous December 4, 2011 1:58 PM,
Well said. No need for me to continue unless another Anonymous/Louis/B&B/Philippe/not-Philippe post requires some truth-telling in response.
Cheers.
Spending your Saturday night and into early Sunday morning hate-blogging while munching on a Valuepac of extra-cheezy Dorritos and drinking stale Folgers isn't much of a life, Nevicil. No offence.
Philippe,
Pointing out your boss' extreme, out-of-touch vote record is not hateful, it's honest.
You need to relax. You're all worked up after being caught sneaking in to the Dems' meeting en masse like that.
Have a Corona for me, will ya? Just be sure to led your buddy drive. The people who work for Rep. Dold have a history of problems while driving.
So Rob N is now changing the subject, being unable to support yet again his phantom bus arguments.
The Seals folks were "carpooled" in instead of "bused" in? Thanks for clearing THAT one up! :-)
I really remain amused by the freaked out hysteria wreaked upon hapless Democrats when they discovered some Dold staffers attended one of their open meetings! The Triblocal dropped that "Musketeer" nonsense press release pretty fast when they realized that it sounded like a Rob N rant? :-)
My recommendation to the Dold campaign would be to continue to freak out the Democrats by doing this as often as possible. We can all sign in as "Phillipe!"
Louis G. Atsaves
RobN's childish vendetta like posts against Phillipe is getting very old and very tiring. On a post that I made, RobN attributed that also to coming from Phillipe. No wonder some of us continue to post our way. RobN is showing his immature, very nasty side and it's just not amusing any longer. TA, can you end this stream and move forward please? I think it's the only way to shut down RobN at this time. Wondering how this will pick up when the real battle begins. Geez, if this gets under the skin of the Tenth Dems, just imagine what we can expect in 2012.
Louis,
The subject is still the same.
Dold joined Grover Norquist at the AFP Bus Tour stop in Northbrook.
As for Philippe not being warm and fuzzy enough to make the front page of TribLocal... He'll have to work on his charm a bit more I suppose. LOL. ;)
--
Anonymous December 5, 2011 7:50 AM,
If you aren't Philippe, but Philippe keeps posting with the same login as you (ie, "Anonymous") how would anyone know the difference?
And what "vendetta" are you talking about?
I'm just calling out Dold and his staff for being so scared, so early that they sent not 1, not 2 but 3 staffers to a Dems Meeting in November of 2011.
Let's see...
Louis changing the subject to the 2010 bus tour... Christine changing the subject to tell me about my life... even Philippe himself changing the subject to Doritos and coffee...
The reaction this fact is getting is priceless. If you guys truly didn't think it was a big deal you would've dropped it 30 posts ago.
Did this entire post really degrade into a back and forth banter over the semantics of campaign tactics? Let's be real here, every campaign comes down to one thing - independent voters. Do independent voters care if people are bused into an event? No. Do they care if political operatives are attending a debate during primary season? No. This entire string has been an opportunity for a few people to trade silly political jabs. Yeah, yeah, we all get it, we're excited about our candidates but we have about 5 months before they will really care about attacking one another. So let's worry about getting through primary season and save the 30 + post bickering for June, July and August.
Perpetual motion machine.
Rob N,
A "bus tour" with NO bus? Keep pushing it. And as you know, I keep bringing it up to show your lack of credibility. Even when confronted with phantom buses, you can't bring yourself to admit that you were wrong. Caught red handed in a lie, and you just keep repeating your lie to try to make it truthful. Ain't gonna work.
I think Phillipe should make every single Democratic event, just to raise your blood pressure boil!
Now go out and Occupy Yourself looking for things that don't exist, creating scenarios which do not exist and other things that go bump in the night in your way too fertile imagination. Like those phantom buses of yours!
Louis G. Atsaves
Sure Louis, not one bus on that Americans for Prosperity Bus Tour that mysteriously was called a Bus Tour and has all this photographic evidence showing a bus...
http://ow.ly/7PGuq
No wonder the GOP can't figure out how to cooperate with the President and Dems. You can't even bring yourself to talk about a conservative bus tour rationally.
As for Philippe and the other Dold Mouseketeers... they can try sneaking into all the Dem monthly meetings they want. We don't have any Coronas for them but we'll be sure to let the public know that their boss Rep. Dold is so scared he's sending out his workers en masse 11 months before the election.
Maybe if Dold and his staff were working on actually cooperating with the President the Congressman would have some kind of record he could run on. Sadly, all he has is his 84% extreme vote record and a bunch of broken promises.
Tenacious Rob N STILL can't bring himself to admit his mistake. No bus in Northbrook at that hotel on that fateful date!
You may wish to take that one up with the AFP group instead of us or Robert Dold or Phillipe or anyone else you want to mindlessly rant against.
Showing a photo of a bus that appeared elsewhere is not proof.
This again is why you have ZERO credibility and have been reduced to troll status.
Louis G. Atsaves
Or Louis, perhaps Grover Norquist is dating Wonder Woman.
She has an invisible jet and maybe she lent him an invisible bus for his bus tour with its bus tour stop in Northbrook, IL.
You know, the bus tour stop that Bob Dold was at in order to accept the endorsement of Grover "Drown America in the Tub" Norquist.
So it was Wonder Woman's phantom bus? Who was driving it, Phillipe?
Rob N, keep on typing away like that. The men in the white coats will find you soon enough.
Louis G. Atsaves
love love love the energy of team dold going to dem events. they should have trackers going to every public/quasi public democratic debate ect. They could use a few macaca moments and tree, schneider, and 12 year old commie are stupid and desperate enough to give them those unforced errors.
To the democrats freaking out about 3 dold staffers going to a debate? It's hard to take seriously a party complaining about this when your 2 term governor is 24 hours from getting 15 years in federal prison for corruption.
The grover norquist thing was incredibly stupid move by dold last year. He should have hired one of the grownups who ran team kirk for 10 years who would have told him how badly that would play in the district. If you're going that route why not have a townhall in northbrook with michelle bachman or rand paul? You're not running for congress in dan burton land, bob.
FOKLAES
Looks like a bus from here
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