Silver Lining for Conservatives?

The Prince of Darkness Robert Novak looks on the bright side of Demcorats winning control of the House.

Right gains

The House will be less Republican and perhaps Democratic-controlled because of the Nov. 7 elections, but it may be more conservative. The Republican Study Committee, the conservative caucus, will gain a higher percentage of House Republicans.

Three committee members are leaving the House to run for higher office, while eight more are seriously threatened for re-election, though some may survive. Against that, seven new Republican candidates who are heavily favored to win and five with a good chance are conservatives who probably will join the committee. In addition, several non-committee moderate Republicans may lose, possibly including all three GOP members from Connecticut.

IL-8: Open Thread

Tribune/WGN-TV poll:

In the northwest suburban 8th Congressional District, the survey found strong re-election support for freshman Democrat Melissa Bean, suggesting that her 2004 upset of 35-year Republican U.S. Rep. Phil Crane was no fluke. [..]

Crane's undoing two years ago was largely his own. Voters turned to Bean because they were fed up with being represented by a veteran lawmaker who increasingly seemed out of touch with the district and suffered a well-publicized alcohol problem.

Now Bean is enjoying the advantage of incumbency, which helps raise her profile and ability to raise campaign money. That, in part, can account for the survey finding Bean holding a commanding 19-point lead over McSweeney.

Illinois 8th Congressional District was one of the Republicans best hopes of knocking of a Democratic House member, now rubber stamp Bush Republican is down by 19-points to a Democrat in a seat that Republicans were winning by large margins in pass elections if this poll is to be believed.

It is going to be an ugly night on Nov. 7th for the GOP.

Da Bears: 24-23

Cardinals coach Dennis Green,

"They are what we thought they were," Green said. "We played them in preseason. Who the hell picks a third game in preseason like it's [meaningless]? We played them in the third [exhibition] game. Everybody played three quarters. The Bears are who we thought they were. That's why we took the damn field. If you want to crown them, just crown their ass. We let them off the hook."

With that, Green stormed out of the room.

It was a game the Bears should have lost 30+ to 3, but the Bears pull off Monday night miracle. I'm still shocked, what a game. Go Bears.

The Wire

HBO 'The Wire' is one of the best shows on television. It continues to be a hard hitting show even without Avon Barksdale (locked up) and Stringer Bell (Killed). In the 4th season Marlo battles Omar, the police and anybody else in this way and Carcetti faces off against Royce to become the Mayor. One of the great thing about the show is goes in detail about the uglier side of local politics in a big city and how it affects police department. The main focus of this season deals with 'corner kids ' in and out of school, which is different from past seasons. Unlike the Sopranos, The Wire has not miss a beat in it's story telling. Any predictions on how the show is going to end this season?

The Wire: Stringer Bell Gets Blasted

Monday Night Football: Da Bears!

The 5-0 Chicago Bears vs. 1-4 Arizona Cardinals. Check out Chicago Bears highlights thru week five.

IL-14: Tony Snow & $175-a-plate fund-raiser

Hastert and Snow steer away from controversy

ST. CHARLES -- At Denny Hastert's 19th annual "Mega Event" -- the $175-a-plate fund-raiser at the Q Center Saturday night -- Republicans talked about pulling together during this time of adversity.

"Every time we've faced a crisis like this, we've whomped 'em," said guest speaker Tony Snow, the White House press secretary and former Fox News anchor.

But Snow and Hastert weren't talking about the congressional page scandal about which the speaker has answered endless questions for two weeks.

Both Hastert and Snow skirted the sensational questions about Hastert's knowledge of the scandal and focused on GOP election issues: the economy, the war on terror and, of course, Sept. 11.

Tony Snow continues..

Snow talked about Bush's attitudes on North Korea ("We made offers they couldn't refuse ,and somehow they did. They behaved like brats"); the oil crisis ("The president believes in innovating his way out of it"); and his hopes for building a democracy in Iraq ("It's tough. Everybody knows it's tough. But the benefits are unbelievable").

Snow said that contrary to popular opinion, Bush is a big, brash thinker, who always is the smartest guy in the room.

"He's not a guy who sits around thinking: What's going to be my legacy?" Snow said. "People call him a poker player, but it's more like a chess player."

Who is he kidding?

A President Bush has made a career on not being the smartest guy in the room. A permanent Republican majority was Karl Rove main goal of the Bush Presidency, it was suppose to be their legacy. Tony Snow is laying it on pretty thick for this boss. The President Bush and this Republican party legacy might come done to one word, failure.

Fear, lies and rhetoric is all they have left.

John Laesch (D) for Congress!

Voter Disillusionment in Illinois

Voters face unhappy choice

Illinois voters are unhappy with Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich, but they like Republican challenger Judy Baar Topinka even less, giving the incumbent the advantage less than a month before the election, a new Tribune/WGN-TV poll shows.

The poll reveals widespread voter disillusionment even before the latest allegations of corruption, setting the stage for a lackluster turnout in the Nov. 7 election. And as the election moves closer, voters are becoming increasingly unsure about where to turn. [...]

The survey showed Blagojevich with the support of 43 percent of the voters polled, while Topinka had 29 percent and Green Party candidate Rich Whitney had 9 percent. Another 17 percent were undecided, and 2 percent offered choices for governor not among the names appearing on the Nov. 7 ballot.

The poll, conducted Oct. 8 to Wednesday among 600 likely voters, has an error margin of 4 percentage points.

Blagojevich's 14 percentage point advantage over Topinka represents an incremental increase from the 12 percentage point lead he held in a Tribune poll conducted almost a month ago.

Add me to the list of unhappy Illinois voters. Blagojevich has been a big disappointment. He will win again, but it might it a costly victory for Illinois Democrats if Blagojevich does not overcome this ethics troubles.