Special election is Saturday
To those of you living in the Kane portion of Elgin, please be reminded that the special election to fill the vacancy of 14th district congressman Dennis Hastert is this Saturday.
The newspapers printed their endorsements last week. Jim Oberweis picked up the endorsements that will probably be most influential in the Elgin area, that of the Courier News and the Daily Herald.
The Courier endorsement:
Oberweis believes, as do the majority of people in the Fox Valley, that the national government must forcefully address the issue of illegal immigration. He believes the first step is to secure the borders to stop the relentless flood of illegal aliens in to this country and to aggressively pursue an enforcement policy. Foster’s tactic centers on punishing businesses who hire illegals, but does not mention any effort to stop them coming here illegally or to address what we do with the 12 million or so already here…
Oberweis also believes taxes are too high and that the federal tax code, at 8,000 pages, is ridiculously complex. We agree with his second point and would advocate a much simpler method of extracting revenue from our citizens — perhaps a flat tax and a national sales tax. Allowing businesses to compete internationally, offer jobs, expand and innovate as a result of accommodating tax laws is how the nation has prospered. (Source: Courier News 3/2/08)
I recall that at a GOP event in Dundee, Chris Lauzen and Jim Oberweis both said they would vote for the “Fair Tax” most famously championed by that indefatigable Little Engine That Almost Could, Mike Huckabee. I have to admit that though I supported Mike Huckabee in the presidential primary, the Fair Tax, which is based on a national sales tax, never struck me as a great idea.
Most people object to it on the basis that it would create a black market as people seek to evade the sales tax, but I don’t think that’s going to the primary problem, because vendors will not risk their solvency tangling with the feds and the IRS just to help a customer avoid a sales tax. No, I think the much bigger problem is that it would devastate our tourism industry (circa 50M visitors a year). You could say, exempt tourists from the sales tax, but there’s no practical way to do this.
Moving on…
The Herald endorsement:
Our nod goes to Oberweis because he could explain and support his views far better than did Foster, and because his views seem more aligned with this longtime Republican district…
In the end, our choice of Oberweis is based on the fact that he better represents a moderate to conservative district, and has grown into a more responsive and less confrontational candidate. And he did a far better job of explaining and supporting his positions than did Foster, who projected less certainty, less clarity and less confidence than he did before the primary. (Source: Daily Herald 3/1/08)
Bill Foster, for his part, picked up the endorsement of the Chicago Tribune, the Kane County Chronicle, and the Aurora Beacon.
The Tribune endorsement:
Bill Foster tells us that he will be a Blue Dog Democrat — that is, part of the moderate caucus in the House that puts a high priority on controlling federal spending and returning to a balanced budget. He would almost certainly have to take a moderate Democratic line to hold this seat from a district that gave President Bush 55 percent of the vote in 2004 and 54 percent in 2000, and elected Hastert to 11 terms in the House.
He surely will be more willing than Oberweis is to listen to people with whom he disagrees. So we’ll trust Foster when he says he would emphasize transparency, responsibility and bipartisanship in government. He is endorsed. (Source: Chicago Tribune 3/4/08)
The Tribune faults Mr. Oberweis for being combative, and one of the things they seem to be holding against him is his Senate campaign ad from 2004:
In 2004, he ran an ad in which he hovered over Soldier Field in a helicopter and said 10,000 illegal aliens come to the U.S. each day, “enough to fill Soldier Field every single week.” The number was grossly inflated and the ad smacked of fear-mongering. (Source: Chicago Tribune 3/4/08)
Mr. Oberweis probably got his figures from this website, which suggests a figure of 12,000 illegal aliens entering the United States per day. It’s not an easy number to estimate, apparently, but the accepted range seems to be somewhere between 500,000 to 1,500,000 per year (U.S. Border Patrol intercepts about a million would-be illegal aliens each year).
Good luck to both candidates. My endorsement, for what it’s worth, goes to…
The Emperor of Ice Cream
Call the roller of big cigars,
The muscular one, and bid him whip
In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.
Let the wenches dawdle in such dress
As they are used to wear, and let the boys
Bring flowers in last month’s newspapers.
Let be be finale of seem.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.
Take from the dresser of deal,
Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheet
On which she embroidered fantails once
And spread it so as to cover her face.
If her horny feet protrude, they come
To show how cold she is, and dumb.
Let the lamp affix its beam.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.
~ Wallace Stevens
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Given Sam Zell’s Chicago business interests that depend on the good will of the racist and criminal Chicago political Machine, it’s not suprising that it would endorse Foster and the extension of Machine interests into the 14th district. Undoubtedly, electing a member of the party of Stroger, Rezko and Blago would represent real “change” in this area. Moreover, the Tribune has never been shy about launching the most hateful attacks on anyone challenging the illegal alien racket. Once again, the Trib is showing why for mainstream Americans it is no longer on their side.