Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Peter Fitzgerald Could Head Up McCain for President Drive Here

mccain
Former U. S. Senator Peter Fitzgerald may very well head up the Illinois McCain for President drive for 2008. He is privately recruiting key staff help for the state campaign.

If so, bagging Fitzgerald is a big coup for McCain. Fitzgerald has achieved rock-star status with conservatives because he stood firm against what John Kass calls “the Combine” when he was in the Senate. He filibustered George Ryan’s attempt to pack the Illinois Lincoln museum with patronage hires…he was denied reelection endorsement by state chairman Judy Baar Topinka…he had to brush aside Speaker Dennis Hastert who wanted to intrude on the U.S. attorney naming process…he had to face some inner-party anger at naming the outsider Patrick Fitzgerald (no relation) to the post…he was ridiculed year-in and year-out in a thousand petty ways by the late Steve Neal of the Sun-Times in columns for refusing to play the old congressional back-scratching, bring-home-the-goodies game: columns which haven’t stood up well given for Neal in light of Fitzgerald’s prescient role vis-à-vis the GOP establishment.

All these things have endeared Fitzgerald to the conservative-movement side of the state GOP and even heightened his appeal to the establishment. But there are some downsides in Fitz’s attempted sale of McCain to Illinois conservatives which make the sale difficult. McCain is the author of the hugely controversial McCain-Feingold campaign “reform” bill which has been accused of snuffing out free speech…Fitzgerald voted for the bill which is now law which is regarded as a disaster by conservatives…In 2000 McCain, who has a blow-torch temper, assailed leaders of the Christian evangelical movement who backed George W. Bush…McCain has been all over the map on ideology, often serving as the ideological left’s poster boy on a variety of issues….He was offered the vice presidential nomination by John Kerry and toyed with the idea for weeks, regarded as akin to betrayal of the GOP…McCain’s pro-life credentials are almost invisible despite his votes because of his warm romance of the left…For those weary of Iraq there is little public evidence that McCain would change the direction: if anything he is tougher on preemption than Bush.

Nor has Fitzgerald’s political insights been as golden as his undefiled character of rock-firm integrity. He touted Steve Rauschenberger for governor, insisting he was an excellent candidate despite Rauschenberger’s steady low polls and failure to raise money.

But—with Peter Fitzgerald pushing McCain, there is no doubt that the McCain campaign would get a gigantic push here and be attractive to a legion of conservatives who like Fitzgerald better than McCain: their hope being that if elected—and McCain is high in the polls—Fitz could well become U. S. Attorney General and spark an even more energetic clean-up of politics than he has heretofore.

9 comments:

  1. If true, McCain is toast in the Illinois primary.

    Pter has no political clout in Illinois, even among conservatives. Look at Steve Rauschenbereger--Peter's endorsement was the kiss of death. Steve immediately dropped to Lieutenant Governor and was trounced by conservative Joe Birkett. Even you, Tom, didn't endorse Steve Rauschenberger, even though Peter had.

    If Peter wasn't effective in gaining your vote, why do you think he'd do better with conservatives this time around?

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  2. McCain is toast either way. It is hard to determine what McCain stands for. He has let the media decide who he is. I, an establishment Republican, think McCain is one of the worst Senators. By the way, McCain was named one of the ten best Senators along with Dick Durbin in Time Magazine. I have met few people who were excited about the prospect of a McCain presidency... and it was easy to convince them that McCain would make a bad president. He is a total tool of the media. And at the media's wish, he will be destroyed for the sake of a liberal democrat. Watch it, laugh, and then cry. Because he would be the ticket to a Hillary Clinton presidency....

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  3. Fitzgerald should focus on local politics. He gets too liberal as he strays away from Illinois. He was right on O'Hare, right on prosecutors, right on Lincoln Library. He's a big open borders zealot. McCain's a certifiable lunatic. Fitzgerald doesn't have good national political instincts.

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  4. Is McCain a Republican? Is McCain a Democrat? Is he a power hungery gook on some ego trip? Would you trust him with the nuclear football? Would it be McCain and Condi? Would he be AGAIN the NEO-CON's pick to run?

    Or is it all Hillary Clinton and the Neo-Con counterpart, the Democratic Leadership Council

    I think the Neo-Con con artists have the fix in for Hillary. The Republicans have such a bad name thanks to Neo-Con policies and the Iraq War that the stupid public will swing to the Democrats and the Neo-Con DLC candidate HILLARY CLINTON! OH you did not know that the Democrats had a Neo-Con counterpart! They do... its called the Democratic Leadership Council.

    Don't ya just love it!

    And cudos to NEO-CON Tony Snow on his new job...... and so it goes.

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  5. Why do you conclude it was Peter's endorsement that led to Birkett's victory?

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  6. Judging from the comments posted on this blog conservative extremists live in a fantasy world. McCain has one of the most conservative voting records in the U.S. He is leading Hillary in the polls and depending on the poll does better than any other Republican. The only one who sometimes does better than him is Giuliani who is very liberal on most social issues. What fantasy candidate do want for your fantasy election?

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  7. Bad political instinct here, McCain is anethema to conservatives in many ways. He only recently started getting behind the administration to boost his conservative creds. More recently he is responsibly for the incredibly offensive McCain-Kennedy bill which grants amnesty to illegal aliens.

    McCain is no conservative and Peter Fitzgerald can't make him one with a simple endorsement.

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  8. The "fantasy candidate" for conservatives in the '08 election is Mike Huckabee. Duh. To quote the stupid caveman commercial, "Maybe next time you should do a little research."

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  9. I sure hope Matt is joking. Conservative voting record? McCain couldn't even bring himself to vote for Bush's dinky little tax cut, which plenty of Democrats voted for. You may like the man but he is certainly no conservative. Only in the Bizarro world. You think we have a president with a trigger happy finger now. You'll love the McCainiac.

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