GOP Rep. Mark Kirk is seriously considering a run for Barack Obama’s seat if a special election occurs:
In an interview Wednesday morning, Kirk said he was looking at running but thought state legislators’ first priority should be getting Blagojevich out of office.
“I will look at it,” Kirk said. “As far as the people of Illinois, the first job is not to decide how we pick a Senator. The first job is getting rid of the governor.”
But Kirk doesn’t stop there. Displaying his characteristic style of douchebaggery, the faux moderate rips into five of the six Senate candidates mentioned in the federal complaint against Blago:
Kirk did not hold back his disdain for “Senate Candidates one through five” mentioned the federal complaint, at least one of whom the governor said offered money upfront in return for the Senate appointment.
“I think if they were heavily involved with Rod Blagojevich, they will not be viable for a special election – if they can hold public office at all,” Kirk said.
The Illinois Republican said Senate candidates one through five “need to sign criminal attorneys and try to protect themselves against coming indictments.”
This is pretty vile, considering that it’s not clear that any candidates alluded to in the indictment (aside from possibly numbers four and five) engaged in anything shady, especially Senate Candidate #1, who most assume is Valerie Jarrett — someone who withdrew her name from consideration after earning the ire of Blago for not offering him anything other than “appreciation” for an appointment.
and he was the one who was most expected. But who is Valerie Jarrett.
Plus, come on james, its realky not douchbaggery, he didn’t say all Democrats considering running for the special election were involved, just some and that those who were shouldn’t hold office and would’nt be viable, I agree with that. There’s nothing I find offensive in his statements. Kirk would be a good candidate, but if the special election is 2010 he wouldn’t be able to run for his congressional seat, which would give us a nice pick up, though he was likely to be gerrymandered out in 2012 anyway.
He’s extremely viable statewide.
The thing about a special election BEFORE 2010 is that members of Congress could probably run without resigning their house seats, which is a pretty nice insurance policy.
The downside of that is Kirk.
The upside is: Run, Shakowsky, Run! I think Jan Shakowsky would be a fantastic senator. She is serious & progressive.
(But would we be better off with Lisa Madigan, who has won statewide already? I have to admit I know almost nothing about Madigan’s politics.)
He’d win DuPage and Lake counties and crush downstate — especially in this atmosphere. I’d be very interested in seeing some SUSA polls on potential match-ups. I think we should go with someone already known statewide.
Realistically, the seat is his if he wants it.
Only chance is a tainted appointment, but Kirk would win the seat in 2010.
That’s not coming across in the media.
And if there was one Dem that could fairly be linked to Blagojevich it was Debbie Halvorson, who over-performed compared to the other Dem Congressional candidates.
Blagojevich’s greatest enemy is Michael Madigan, the chair of the Illinois Dem Party.
Blagojevich is an entity unto himself. I’m not concerned about him dragging any other Dem down by guilt by association absent additional evidence of misconduct.
mark kirk’s statements were silly and nakedly political. candidates 1-5, with the possible exception of jj jr, are guilty of absolutely nothing other than blago putting their names on a list. also, i suspect, candidates 1-4 could all kick mark kirk’s scrawny ass unless he can get the public to believe they are guilty of something because blago considered appointing them.
also, an emmissary, if such a person exists (it’s blago saying this, no one else), could be an aide, but would more likely be a high-powered wealthy supporter who could write a big check him/herself or could put together events so as to get the money.
kirk’s a typical hack, but is maybe a little over-eager. traditionally when someone of the other party is on fire you let them burn, you don’t run up with a can of gasoline.