This post over at the Daily Herald had a humorous opening:
“While the northwest suburbs are turning more Democratic every election, Republicans in Cook County turned to Karl Rove for answers tonight at a Schaumburg fundraiser.”
Republicans are losing ground so they invite a guy to speak to them who had an unprecedented opportunity to gain ground but didn’t. I’m not sure what the Schaumburg, Barrington, Hanover, Elk Grove, Palatine and Wheeling township Republicans expected to learn from old Karl. Didn’t we all just live through the Bush-Hastert years?
Karl won two big elections, and that’s nothing to sneeze at, but winning elections is supposed to be just the first step. Karl is a celebrity, so I guess he sells tickets. At some point, however, Illinois grassroots Republicans have to seek out new sources if they truly want to learn.
As detailed on this website, Karl’s friend Bob Kjellander, and Karl’s encouraging of the Judy Baar Topinka candidacy in 2006, have as much to do with suburban Chicago losing ground to Democrats as anything. (To learn more, type in “Kjellander” or “Topinka” into the search bar above.)
Also in attendance at the event were Joe Birkett, Andy McKenna, and Jim Oberweis. Those are three more last names to search in our archives. If the NW Cook Republicans want to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, they might want to read up on the stellar record of those three guys as well.
Another post in the Daily Herald only confirms that Karl should stick to Fox News and leave local politics to others.
“Karl Rove, the political brain trust of former President George W. Bush, told Northwest suburban Republicans they can win back the state if they don’t rip the party apart in the primaries early next year.
‘The people are looking closely at the quality of candidates you put forward,’ Rove said. ‘You better not claw yourselves up and bloody yourselves up and cut yourselves up in a primary.'”
Ah yes, Republican primary voters aren’t to be trusted, right Karl? Better to let the smart people like Andy McKenna pick our next nominee, right Karl?
“‘It strikes me that you have a pretty easy message,’ Rove told the several hundred attendees at the Schaumburg Marriott. ‘If you want change from the way things are then you ought to elect yourself a Republican governor.'”
Brilliant. Karl, our most recent Republican governor is in jail. Our last nominee was indistinguishable from that governor and the highlight of the campaign was a commercial showing her dancing with him. She couldn’t get 40 percent of the vote in the general election.
Just to make the evening a complete success, Party Chairman Andy McKenna squeaked:
“Everything I’ve heard Karl speak on is about building a party that reaches out.”
The national Republican Party was weaker after Karl Rove left the White House in 2007, and McKenna’s four year tenure here as been equally destructive. Neither man knows anything about party building.
McKenna spoke of the Rove philosophy of reaching out. On that topic, I note that the ever-entertaining Time magazine is describing Republican Mark Kirk’s views on the social issues as “moderate.”
“Kirk, in fact, is widely viewed as the kind of Republican social-moderate that [RNC Chairman Michael] Steele believes can succeed in Democratic-leaning states like Illinois. However, Kirk’s moderate stances on issues like abortion and stem-cell research could prove problematic with social conservatives, particularly in the southern part of the state.”
The issue left out of that paragraph is Kirk’s enthusiasm for preventing people from making moral judgments about human behavior, otherwise known as “homosexual rights.”
Of course Kirk is to the far left of many Democrats – even Congressional Democrats – on the social issues.
If Republicans nominate Mark Kirk for that senate seat, expect him to be the new Topinka. We already know that Republicans running state wide with left wing views don’t sell very well in Illinois.
