100,000 Hits

For whatever reason, the 100,000 hit benchmark seems important for blogs, so I figured we'd take note of it. I'm pleased to let everyone know that we passed the 100,000 hit mark around 2:30 p.m. this afternoon, put over the top by all the news that's going on in IL-10 and the U.S. Senate race. Obviously, lots of other blogs get more traffic, but we're fairly narrowly focused here, so I am pleased.

Thanks to all the loyal TA readers that have been with us over the past (almost) two years now!

And for those that visit here even though they don't like what they read, you helped too.

TA

"Tea Party Nation" Group Comes Under Scrutiny; What Does Patrick Hughes Think of That Endorsement Now?

The Tea Party movement, as originally envisioned, was a group of people who were united by their common belief that less government was better government, that individual liberties should not be infringed by the government, and perhaps above all, that government should be accountable to the people, not the other way around. Laudable principles all, as far as they go.

While many people who got involved in this movement were conservative Republicans or libertarians, many were non-partisan, and some were even Democrats; and all of them felt a strong sense of disenfranchisement by the government, which probably had been brought to a boiling point by the radical Obama agenda as manifested over the past year.

As with a lot of populist movements (or just about anything, actually), however, there always seem to be people who are going to try to twist it for their own ends and profit.

Now, we are learning that a for-profit group calling itself the "Tea Party Nation," whose claim to fame seems to be that it's organized a convention featuring conservative hero Sarah Palin, is coming under intense scrutiny for its questionable organizational issues and attempts to appropriate the "Tea Party" moniker to make a buck.

Politico has an exposé on the Tea Party Nation and its man behind the scenes. The lede to the Politico story begins:

The convention is being held at a fancy resort, features $550 ticket prices, a steak and lobster dinner and a guest speaker with a $100,000 speaking fee. It’s sponsored by a for-profit company with a mysterious wealthy benefactor, and its organizers, who have been accused of secrecy and corruption, have threatened lawsuits against dissenters and clamped down on news coverage.

Sounds like just the kind of thing that tea party activists, whose populist outrage is directed at the Washington and Wall Street establishments, would be up in arms over.

Except it’s a tea party convention.

Already, you know there's a problem. The article goes on to explain the problems the group is having with its marquee convention that it planned for this weekend in Nashville, with sponsors pulling out, questions being raised about the $100,000 speaker's fee being charged by Palin, and the possibility that some tea party activists will gather outside the convention to protest the convention that is supposed to be the big come-together meeting for all such groups. Sound fishy?

Of the convention leader, Politico said:

It was the brainchild of Judson Phillips, a Tennessee lawyer who — as first reported by POLITICO — is running the event through a for-profit Tennessee corporation he controls called Tea Party Nation. Most political conventions are conducted by nonprofits. Yet Phillips originally intended to turn a profit from the endeavor, with the cash going to fund a so-called 527 group that would air ads praising conservative candidates or criticizing their opponents.

Moreover, as the story goes on to indicate, several of the convention organizers were eventually revealed to have interests in a private business venture that they sought to pitch to Sarah Palin. Really, you need to read the whole story. More background here.

Even conservative super-blogger Erick Erickson of Redstate.com has raised the alarm, saying:

I think the tea party movement has largely descended into ego and quest for purpose for individuals at the expense of what the tea party movement started out to be.

That’s not to say it is in every case. I have much good to say about groups like Tea Party Patriots, but I think this national tea party convention smells scammy.

Let me be blunt: charging people $500.00 plus the costs of travel and lodging to go to a “National Tea Party Convention” run by a for profit group no one has ever heard of sounds as credible as an email from Nigeria promising me a million bucks if I fork over my bank account number.

Ouch.

So, has anyone noticed by now that this is the primary 'Tea Party' group that is promoting conservative candidate for U.S. Senate Patrick Hughes? Any politician ought to be wary of claiming the endorsement of this group, which Politico stated "is not considered a leading group in the tea party movement." Pat, however, can't afford to be picky, considering he badly trails front-runner Mark Kirk in polling, fundraising and name ID (oh, yeah, and not to mention experience).

Interestingly, Eagle Forum, owned by rabid Pat Hughes supporter and pro-lifer Phyllis Schlafly, is listed as a "strategic partner" of Tea Party Nation, so maybe we should not be surprised that Pat received this group's endorsement. I bet there are more dots there to be connected if anyone cared to look.

But even on this one, Pat might want to consider taking a pass before he goes down with his supporters. Based on the scant chances of the Tea Party Nation convention to actually turn a profit, as reported by Politico, they may not have any money to throw Pat Hughes' way anyway.

Lake County Coroner Richard Keller Mum on State Report Detailing Green Dragonfly Meth Clinic Violations

In the latest development of a story we've been following with great interest, the Tribune reports today that Department of Human Services' Division of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse cited 43 violations during a July 21-23 inspection of the Green Dragonfly Methadone Clinic in Waukegan, while Dr. Richard Keller, the Democratic Lake County Coroner, was the clinic's medical director. The Waukegan News-Sun (which previously called for Keller's resignation in an editorial) previously reported that Keller was paid $70,000/yr as the private clinic's director, which is in addition to the salary of around $100,000/yr he draws as coroner.

Lake County States Attorney Michael Waller, whose office is investigating the actions of Keller, told the Chicago Tribune that if the clinic had not decided to close on its own, its license would have been revoked.

The clinic's operators have shown hints that they are willing to cast the blame on Keller if they have to. Keller resigned as clinic director shortly after the story broke, and he had previously announced he would not run for relection (later admitting this investigation, and not political burnout, led him to that decision).

Keller told the Tribune that he hadn't read the report and declined to comment.

Hmm... don't ya think a state report citing over 40 violations of the medical clinic you supervised would at least pique your interest?

And I know I keep harping on this, but I can't resist continuing to point out that the Lake County Democrats, led by State Senator Terry Link, initially (and loudly) claimed this is all political persecution. Of course, the last time the notoriously thin-skinned Link used that excuse was when his petition scandal broke, and he claimed that the allegations of dead people's signatures appearing on his election petition was all concocted by 'Republican operatives.' We all know how that turned out.

Team America Eclipses Ellen With 150,000 Visitors

I just wanted to note that we've reached another milestone here at Team America with over 150,000 visitors to the site since our inception back in October 2007. Our all-time high daily traffic point was right before the February primary with almost 1,000 visitors on a single day, and almost 13,000 just for January 2010!

It's also interesting that it took us almost two years to reach 100,000 hits, but we increased that by 50% in less than six months. The momentum is with us and the GOP in 2010!

So, thanks for hanging out with us and reading Team America!

For those of you long-time fans who know the backstory of how Team America came to be, we have now handily overtaken our friend Ellen of the Tenth (despite her headstart of over two years) in terms of number of site visitors (this morning she was at around 142,500, according to her sitemeter).

Just in case anyone was counting. ;-)

Thanks again,

TA

Meth Clinic Owner: Lake County Coroner Richard Keller "Dropped The Ball"; Keller Was Paid $70,000/yr As Clinic Director Says News-Sun (UPDATED)

As we anticipated a short while ago, the operators of the now-closed private methadone clinic, the "Green Dragonfly," which is under investigation for its involvement in the death of Lindenhurst resident Steven Vaughn from a drug overdose, has thrown their former medical director, Lake County Coroner Richard Keller, under the bus.

Keller is also under investigation for allegedly not following proper procedures in the events that may have lead to Vaughn's death from a methadone overdose (Vaughn was also taking Xanax when Keller prescribed the methadone), and he recently resigned as the clinic's medical director, though he vowed not to resign as coroner. Just before this story broke, Keller announced that he would not run for coroner again, despite just having won re-election. Keller claimed he was tired of politics and fundraising, but it wasn't hard to suspect something else was behind his decision.

Now, of course, the story of the investigation is out, and Keller admitted the investigation led him not to run again. You may recall that last week, the Chicago Tribune quoted the clinic owners' as follows:

"All along, Green Dragonfly has relied on the medical advice of Dr. Keller, who is also the Lake County coroner," the clinic said in a prepared statement. "As we continue to investigate the tragedy of the death of Mr. Vaughn, we will hold accountable the failure of anyone to follow the law and proper procedures."

Sounded ominous to us. Today, however, the News-Sun has the big story, and it quotes one of the clinic owners, Mary Olloway (not the one who also owns a Wisconsin strip club), who told the newspaper Keller spread himself too thin trying to do both jobs. "I think he dropped the ball, and we're all suffering for it," Olloway said.

Olloway also told the News-Sun that Keller put in around three hours a day (15 hours a week) at the clinic, for which he was paid $70,000 a year (which is the glaring main headline in this morning's print edition). This, of course, is on top of his salary as Lake County Coroner (around $100,000/yr), which is supposed to be a full time job.

Olloway hired Keller, whom she previously knew as a family friend, as medical director of the clinic in October 2008. The position, which paid about $70,000 a year, required him to work around three hours a day, Olloway said. [snip]

Now, as the clinic prepares to shut its doors later this week, Olloway said she's unhappy with the way Keller has handled the situation.

"He goes back to his regular life (as coroner) and we're left standing here," Olloway said, while fighting back tears. "His intentions hopefully were right in the beginning, but where is he now?"

Fabulous. The News-Sun called for Keller's resignation back on August 17, but Keller made no moves to do so.

And, of course, we'd like to keep reminding everyone that the Lake County Democrats, led by State Senator Terry Link, loudly claimed this is all political persecution. Of course, the last time the notoriously thin-skinned Link used that excuse was when his petition scandal broke, and he claimed that the allegations of dead people's signatures appearing on his election petition was all concocted by 'Republican operatives.' We all know how that turned out.

The Dems have been quite silent lately, though.

UPDATED 9:25 p.m.: Here's an odd story related to the Green Dragonfly clinic that popped up on the Daily Herald website late this afternoon:

A Lake Villa Township man denied Wednesday he gave a friend a bottle of methadone dispensed by a besieged Waukegan clinic.

Jeffrey Ranalli, 23, is charged with unlawful delivery of a controlled substance for passing along methadone he was prescribed at The Green Dragonfly clinic. [snip]

Assistant State's Attorney Steven Derue said the case against Ranalli began last month when Round Lake Beach police served a search warrant at a house in that community.

A resident of the house, who is not being identified because he has yet to be charged with any crime, was found to be in possession of three bottles of methadone, Derue said.

Ranalli's name was on each bottle, Derue said, and the man told police he had been given the drug used to treat heroin addiction by Ranalli.

Police interviewed Ranalli, who said he told them he had received three bottles of the drug at The Green Dragonfly every Sunday for the past three to four months. Ranalli told police he routinely took two of the three doses himself, Derue said, and gave the third to friends "whenever they were sick."

I would imagine this kind of stuff unfortunately happens all too often, and it's questionable whether Dr. Keller is at fault somehow here (was the amount given more than any individual would be expected to use personally...? I have no clue...), but it sure don't help his situation.

Dems Badly Lag Congressman Bob Dold In Fundraising for 10th District Race

Campaign finance disclosure reports are filtering in from all around, but it's not good news for the Democrats seeking to take on freshman Congressman Bob Dold in northern Illinois's 10th Congressional District.

Dold himself had a solid fundraising quarter, $376,000, bringing him to a total cash-on-hand figure of almost $1 million. He's expected to need it to fend off the Democratic competition, since the remap of the 10th gave the Dems a further advantage in an already Dem-leaning district.

But, as we like to say in Chicago, you can't beat somebody with nobody. And so far, it seems that Nobody is all they have showing up on the Dem side.

Progressive activist Ilya Sheyman may been good at coordinating door-knocking campaigns, but apparently he must not have worked in the fundraising department at MoveOn.org, as his quarterly fundraising was only around $150,000. That's still a little better, though, than his Democratic primary competition, lawyer Brad Schneider, who raised just under $80,000, once you back out a $100,000 loan to himself (on the last day of the reporting cycle, as WBEZ pointed out). With the loan, Schneider has a bit over $400,000 in the bank, which is nothing to sneeze at, but pales in comparison to Dold, who has no primary opponent (and which total, by the way, also includes the $50,000 the candidate gave himself his first quarter). Also, we don't know how much of Schneider's contributions must be reserved for the general, due to the large number of over-limit contributors he had in his first fundraising quarter. Ya gotta win the nomination first to spend that extra dough in the general, pal.

We've seen this kind of pattern with well-heeled candidates like Schneider before -- a good first quarter fundraising effort when all of the candidate's well-off friends and family max out their contributions right away. Once you get beyond your close-in network, however, the appeal of the candidate to the rest of the district becomes more apparent.

Steve Sadin over at Patch reminds us that there is another candidate on the Dem side, as well, Vivek Bavda, but he's hardly even worth an honorable mention, with under $30,000 in the bank (even including a $25,000 loan to himself).

Technically, it's not too late to get another candidate in the 10th District on the Dem side, but Dold's million-dollar war chest is sure to scare off anyone with any brains. The Dems' failure to recruit a top-tier candidate has got to be very frustrating for them.

Obama Repudiates Wright Statements, But Has He Created His Own Trap? (PLUS REZKO AND OTHER UPDATES)

As we reported below, Barack Obama has been subjected to a firestorm for his association with the minister of his church, Jeremiah Wright, and the incendiary statements made by Wright from the pulpit. See below for the background links. Obama came out quickly and made a pretty strong repudiation of Wright's statements and distanced himself as much as possible from Wright, athough Obama previously has discussed his close relationship with him. See here for Obama's statement.

It was a smart political move for Obama to move quickly on this, as Wright's hate-filled sermons have been getting heavy play on YouTube. But, I wonder if Obama may have fallen into a trap of his own devising. In attempting to distance himself from Wright and his hate speech, Obama stated:

"...Rev. Wright preached the gospel of Jesus, a gospel on which I base my life. In other words, he has never been my political advisor; he’s been my pastor. And the sermons I heard him preach always related to our obligation to love God and one another, to work on behalf of the poor, and to seek justice at every turn. The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation."

Okay, well you know what this means. The various powers-that-be are going to be trying to get their hands on records that somehow show exactly which Wright sermons Obama ever attended and heard in person. Who knows if this kind of information is available (i.e., did the church keep attendance records, contribution records, etc.), but if it is, they will match up dates of attendance with the DVDs that are available of Wright's sermons, or any other records (disseminated text records?) to see just what kind of damning statements Wright may have made in Obama's presence. Obama has bought himself time for now, but may have created a bigger problem for himself than he realizes, depending on what evidence can be uncovered.

I don't know much about Wright, but from the videos I've seen, I find it hard to believe he gave a lot of warm and fuzzy 'come to Jesus' sermons. Was Wright always a different man in Obama's presence? We shall see soon. But even if so, doesn't this also call into question Obama's judge of character, considering he was supposedly so close to Wright? Is Obama essentially claiming he had NO IDEA that Wright held these views?

I don't think we've heard the last of this by any means...

UPDATE: REZKO GATE- >> Well, interestingly enough, Barack Obama chose today (yes, a Friday, of course) but more importantly, the same day the Pastor-gate story is taking the Internet and MSM by storm, to finally 'come clean' about his relationship with indicted political maven Tony Rezko. Anyone see any coincidence here on the timing?

Obama reveals a bunch more details about his relationship with Rezko, including the fact that Rezko raised about $100,000 more for Obama than Obama previously admitted. Also interesting is that Obama thinks he is exonerating himself when he states that it was Rezko's idea, not Obama's, for Rezko to buy the vacant lot next door. Huh? Of course it was "Uncle Tony's" idea. And do ya think Uncle Tony might also have implied that he would refrain from developing that lot for as many years as it took for Obama to save up to afford to buy it (if ever), and offer to let Obama use it as part of his property as much as he wanted in the meantime? Naw, never happened...

Does anyone think that Obama's latest attempt at misdirection will take the heat off the pastor story? I don't. You know why? Because the Rezko connection is not easy to understand, and most importantly, there's NO VIDEO. On the other hand, there's lots of video out there available of the firely pastor Wright spewing his venom all over the Internet. And, it'll be there for an awfully long time, perhaps forever, but quite probably longer than the Rezko story lasts.

One last word on the pastor- does anyone really think that the Obamas belonged to that church for 20 YEARS and never had an idea that their pastor was a white-folk hating, blame America zealot? If so, we can only shake our heads and wonder how the U.S. will survive if we elect a president that is such a poor judge of character.

THOSE LIBERALS CAN BE VICIOUS: Some advice to Dem candidates.... don't claim to be a champion of liberals, prgressives, gays, etc. and then don't deliver-- they will crucify you. Check out this uber-liberal blog post I found while researching what the other blogs were saying on this scandal. It does an EXCELLENT job of deconstructing Obama's 'repudiation' statement. I think they started off mad at Obama because he did not come through on supporting gays rights as they thought he should, and somebody took a LOT of time to tear holes in his statement you could drive a Mack truck through. After reading that post, I am really starting to wonder if this could be it for Obama.

Dick Green Spends Some (Green) in IL-10 Cable Ad Buy

CQ Politics is reporting that 10th Congressional District GOP hopeful Dick Green is going up on cable TV with a campaign ad, the first Republican of the race to do so. CQ reports that Green will spend $100,000 over three weeks on the ad.

As we previously reported, Green lagged other GOP primary candidates in Q3 fundraising but has the personal ability to pump a lot of coin into the race, and while (to TA's knowledge) he has not publicly stated a dollar amount he'd be personally willing to spend, he has stated something to the effect that he would have whatever resources he needed to compete and win.

Congressman Bob Dold Saving His Shekels In IL-10, Waiting for an Opponent to Emerge (UPDATED x2: Hinz Calls Dem Fundraising "Puny"; Now It's 4)

Russell Lissau takes a great comprehensive look today at the fundraising going on in the 10th Congressional District. Congressman Bob Dold is sitting pretty with over a million bucks in the bank that he can save for the general election, since he doesn't have a primary opponent, while the B team over on the Dem side continue to try to out-left each other to please the Dem base.

As Lissau notes, Dold outraised the top two Dem competitors combined:

Ilya Sheyman, a Waukegan resident who at 25 is just old enough to run for Congress, collected $178,904 in campaign donations between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, according to newly filed campaign disclosure reports.

Brad Schneider finished second in the quarterly money race. The Deerfield resident’s campaign committee received an estimated $134,262 in donations.

But incumbent Republican Bob Dold of Kenilworth outraised both of them combined, collecting $355,831 in the quarter, records show.

Lissau also notes:

Schneider ended the quarter with about $451,787 in the bank, which made him the best-funded candidate at the start of 2012. The sum includes a $100,000 loan from Schneider.

We all know how 'self-funders' seem to fare in this District -- usually poorly. I also always like to see if guys like Schneider actually spend their campaign account down to the last penny in the final weeks if it seems clear that he's not going to win -- in other words, will Schneider dip into his "own" loan money and put it at risk, as opposed to gleefully running on OPM (other people's money).

John Tree is a distant third in fundraising (but hopefully he'll have enough to pay his high-priced consulting team) and the other two guys in the race appear to be talking to themselves, or something.

UPDATED: Greg Hinz at Crains's also takes a quick look in on the fundraising efforts of the candidates in the 10th, and labels the collective efforts of the Dems "pretty puny" in comparison to Congressman Bob Dold. Hahahahahahha!

UPDATED x2: The Daily Herald reports that the least known Dem candidate, Aloys Rutagwibira, has been kicked off the ballot for not having sufficient valid petition signatures. So much for Russell Lissau's hard work in determining that Rutagwibira was ineligible on citizenship tenure anyway.

Mark Kirk Champions New Joint VA/Navy Hospital in North Chicago

A bold plan announced several years ago has now become a reality: the groundbreaking in North Chicago of the nation's first joint U.S Navy and Veterans Administration hospital. This dream was made possible by our 10th District Congressman Mark Kirk, himself a Navy vet.

According to a past AP article, "a Veterans Affairs study recommended in 1999 the closing of the inpatient facility at the North Chicago VA Medical Center. The study called for sending all needing inpatient care to the Lakeside VA Hospital, located about 35 miles away in downtown Chicago. But VA hospital proponents contended the Chicago facility would become overcrowded and would not be convenient for veterans needing care."

"We have come a long way with our vision that veteran health care should be offered where veterans live," Kirk said.

The facility, to be known as the Capt. James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center, was named after Capt. Jim Lovell, who is famous for the ill-fated Apollo 13 moon mission that almost resulted in disaster but for the heroic efforts of the crew to save the crippled spacecraft and return home safely. Mark Kirk says that Captain Lovell was a childhood hero of his, and part of his scheme in naming the new hospital after Lovell was that no Washington bureaucrat would ever be able to close it in the future.

The Daily Herald reported on today's ceremony and noted an attendance of about 400 people. See video from ABC-7 news here. The first phase of the $130 million project includes the parking garage, a new hospital entrance and an ambulatory care center, the Herald stated. According to the paper, when completed, the Lovell Center will serve an estimated 100,000 veterans, active-duty recruits or troops and civilian relatives annually. The facility is set to open in 2010.

Mark Kirk Leader in Fundraising (Again) in IL-10

The Chicago Tribune is reporting that incumbent GOP Congressman Mark Kirk outraised his Dem opponent "Professor" Dan Seals by about $100,000 in the first quarter of 2008. Read the story here. Kirk's totals for Q1 were about $715,000, compared to about $613,000 for Dan Seals. A lot of that money was raised and spent in Seals' primary battle against fellow Dem Jay Footlik, however. Meanwhile, Mark Kirk has been hoarding his cash, with about $2.25 million in the bank, compared with only around $715,000 cash on hand for Seals. Kirk has also roughly doubled Seals' total fundraising efforts for this cycle.

We won't know how Kirk did in terms of comparison to candidates nationwide until the official results are reported, but he is usually at the very top.

If this trend continues, Seals will have to rely heavily on DCCC to ride in on a white horse and save him, just to remain competitive. While D-Trip has reportedly pledged its support, there clearly have been no specific dollars committed. Maybe they are Team America readers and they are a little concerned about writing that big check while Seals is still taking media hits on Professor-gate and other issues...

Dan Seals continues to cling to Rangel cash

By my calendar, it's been 62 days since the news first broke of the shady deals of Dan Seals' biggest donor, Congressman Charlie Rangel (D-NY).

First, it was the four rent-controlled apartments that the politically-connected Rangel somehow got when most of his constituents couldn't even get one.

Then it was news that he'd been pressuring companies with business before the Ways and Means Committee, which Rangel chairs, to donate to a school that Rangel humbly named after himself.

Now we learn that the guy who writes our country's tax code (that's what the Ways and Means Committee does) engaged in a 20-year pattern of tax fraud by hiding over $75,000 in income from the IRS.

The incredible thing is: all of this broke within the span of two months. Rangel is a veritable scandal machine. The ethics committee is going to need to hire more staff just to deal with him.

Yesterday the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW, a non-partisan, anti-corruption watchdog group) named Rangel one of the 20 most corrupt members of Congress. He shares that honor with William Jefferson, Tom DeLay, Duke Cunningham and Bob Ney.

Yet despite all of this, Dan Seals continues to have a death grip on the $50,000 that Rangel funneled to him. Even the DNC, which is lagging badly in fundraising, returned $100,000 from Rangel, and that was before his latest scandal broke. What will it take for Dan Seals to do the honorable thing and return the tainted cash?

At this point I'm starting to think that he is never going to return the money. He needs that $50,000 too badly, and he trailing in the polls by too much, to worry about a little thing like ethics.