Sen. Collins says Kirk wants to join centrist 'mod squad' (that's because Mark Kirk is a DIABLO)

The Hill, Washington, DC ^ | 2010-11-10 | Jordan Fabian

[rabscuttle385]

Centrist Senate Republicans are likely to get a new ally in Sen.-elect Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), according to Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).

[arkady_renko]

Mark Kirk would never read Free Republic, but what the hell:

Dear Mr. Kirk,

Many of us in Illinois voted for you while almost gagging. You voted for Cap and Trade as a Representative and explained it away by saying the constituents from your district wanted you to vote that for Cap and Trade.

Now you represent the whole State of Illinois, not just your little liberal suburbs. Downstate, we aren't going to put up with your bullshit. The Dems in Illinois are not going to certify you in time so that they don't have to seat you for much of the lame duck session. Get your ass to the Senate and DEMAND to be seated! Burris did it, the little Democratic worm, now you do it! You represent me now. Grow a spine and fight for me!

Signed,

Wasted Breath

[fieldmarshaldj]

Kiss your mama with that mouth, pig ?

[bigbob]

Exactly right. For those of us in Illinois, the choice was:

a) the Democrat that would vote with the Democrats 45% of the time

b) the Democrat that would vote with the Democrats 100% of the time

Think about how Obamacare was passed before prattling to us about RINOs and all. Of the two lousy choices, someone had to win and I’m glad it was Kirk.

[Perdogg]

2012 may be a bad year for Senate Dems. I see at least 9 seats in play. 1 GOPer seat in play (Scot Brown). If any one disagrees, please say so.

Rats

Tom Carper of Delaware - safe
Daniel Akaka of Hawaii - safe
Ben Cardin of Maryland - safe
Bob Menendez of New Jersey - safe (unless Christie runs)
Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico - safe
Kirsten Gillibrand of New York - safe
Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island - safe
Maria Cantwell of Washington - safe

Herb Kohl of Wisconsin - semisafe
Bob Casey, Jr. - semisafe
Dianne Feinstein of California - semisafe
Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota - semisafe

Bill Nelson of Florida - In trouble
Claire McCaskill of Missouri - In trouble
Jon Tester of Montana - In trouble (won in 2006 due to false pretenses)

Kent Conrad of North Dakota - In trouble
Sherrod Brown of Ohio - In trouble
Jim Webb of Virginia - In trouble
Joe Manchin of West Virginia - In trouble
Debbie Stabenow of Michigan - In deep trouble

Ben Nelson of Nebraska - goner

GOP

Jon Kyl of Arizona - safe GOP
Richard Lugar of Indiana - safe GOP
Roger Wicker of Mississippi - Safe GOP
Bob Corker of Tennessee - Safe GOP
Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas - Safe Gop
Orrin Hatch of Utah - safe GOP
John Barrasso of Wyoming - safe GOP

Olympia Snowe of Maine - Safe
John Ensign of Nevada - safe

Scott Brown of Massachusetts - In trouble

[ZULU]

I think Kirk needs a good solid FREEPING to let him KNOW that Collins and Snowe are NOT the way to go if he wants to keep that seat.

Its better to torpedo a RINO even if it means a Democrat gets that seat, because it gives a better chance next time.

RINOs get Republican, Independent and, all too often Conservative support.

[Jim Robinson]

Centrist, my ass. Collins, Snowe, Kirk, et al, are leftists.

Vote the corrupt bastards and RINOS OUT!!

Rebellion is brewing!!

[VRWC For Truth]

RINO season is closed till the 2012 Primaries. The looters have come out of hiding. The RINO beacon is up.

[zebrahead]

Mark Kirk did what only one other Republican (Peter Fitzgerald) has done in the past 30 years, he actually won a U.S. Senate race in Illinois. He won despite a coordinated hit job by the media and the Democrats for allegedly lying about his military service. Exit polls by CNN showed that he outperformed the Republican nominee for governor, Bill Brady, by 3 points among Independents and 2 points among women. That ended being the difference in Kirk’s two point victory and Brady’s narrow loss. The biggest difference was evident in the Chicago suburbs, where Kirk’s margins were much higher than Brady’s.

[Undocumented_capitalist]

Stark reality:

Sharron Angle
Ken Buck
Christine Angle
Carly Fiorina

All are pro-life and lost. Now have zero power to change anything. Zip zero nada!

Opponents were all for abortion without restriction. They all won. Now have power over our lives. Sad but true.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45069.html

[neocon1984]

Tovarich!

Kirk changed his vote on cap and tax after hearing from his constituents (I was one of them). Yes, he’s a RINO, but let’s be honest and not get into a circle jerk, as the trolls want us to do.

[Onelifetogive]

Sen. Collins says Kirk wants to join centrist 'mod squad'

He represents Chicago, this is likely the best we can do. I don't worry too much about centrists in leftie states (Scott Brown for example). Centrists (or lefties) in conservative states bother me (McCain and Graham are good examples.)

Let's clean out the lefties from conservative states and then add a handful of centrists in leftie states. That could give us 60-70 GOP Senators. Then the Conservative Senators need to manage the centrists better ("We welcome you to our party. We'll work together on stuff we agree on and debate anongst ourselves the things we disagree on. When you join with the other party to defeat our party's initiatives, expect to lose seniority and clout.") Getting over 50 Conservatives is what can make this more effective. Over 60 and it is a slam dunk.

[Onelifetogive]

Cue the “it’s the best we can do in Illinois!” garbage.

That would be me...

Graham and McCain bug me much more than Kirk and Brown.

[BlackElk]

Here’s to you, Mr. Robinson! God bless you and yours.

[AdvisorB]

Mark Kirk wants to be the next Chuck Percy. Percy, a liberal republican, and I believe that Percy served in the US Senate from Illinois for 4 terms. Percy was a persistant pain to every Republican administration, including the Great One, Ronald Wilson Reagan.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

centrist ‘mod squad’ = “Murder/bort” squad

[BillyBoy]

>>> Mark Kirk did what only one other Republican (Peter Fitzgerald) has done in the past 30 years <<<

Shhhh! Don't mention Fitzgerald!! It goes against the Kirk kool-aid drinkers premise that you "have to" be an abortion-loving socialist to "win" in Illinois. Better to just pretend that "Obama's seat" has been RAT forever and now we're sooooo lucky to have the RINO turd in there.

>> He won despite a coordinated hit job push by the media and the Democrats for allegedly despite the fact he was caught lying about his military service. <<

Fixed it. The Chicago media was in the tank for Kirk. He is undoubtedly their favorite "Republican" in Illinois. Many of the Obama's top allies in the liberal media were rooting for Kirk this election not cycle, NOT Alexi. The Chicago Tribune's nonstop fawning coverage of Obama/Kirk being the biggest example. In fact, they refused to report on the news that Kirk was a pathelogical liar until the national media got wind of it and they were forced too. By the way, only 17% of GOP voters believed Kirk's military embellishments were just simple "mistakes" on his part. Are you one of the 17% who can't accept the fact Kirk flat out lied and got caught?

>> Exit polls by CNN showed that he outperformed the Republican nominee for governor, Bill Brady, by 3 points among Independents and 2 points among women. That ended being the difference in Kirk’s two point victory and Brady’s narrow loss. <<

The numbers on election day didn't match the data that had been out there for months (going all the way from the Feb. 2 primary to late October), showing Brady running 6-9 points AHEAD of Quinn, while Kirk was neck-and-neck with the most corrupt RAT on the ballot. Brady was polling ahead of "moderate" Mark Kirk with every demographic the GOP needed, including women and minorities. Brady also finished 50,000 votes AHEAD of Kirk on election day. There is no doubt in my mind that thousands of fradulent Quinn votes were manufactured in Crook County. Saying "the polls were wrong" doesn't excuse it. Sometimes there's been upsets where a candidate 2 points behind ends up winning on election day, but never by a margin this high. Quinn "won" areas where Brady had lawn signs all over and Quinn had virtually none.

>> The biggest difference was evident in the Chicago suburbs, where Kirk’s margins were much higher than Brady’s. <<

Again, this data didn't gel with the situation on the ground. The post-election spin is that Brady didn't do enough to win over the Crook County suburbs. Yet 2 weeks before the election, Brady was all over the Crook County burbs to the point where his downstate base was complaining that he had "forgotten" about them and the were being neglected. Kirk was AWOL in the suburbs. I've seen three Kirkbots here claim that Mark Kirk worked hard to win over suburban Crook County, but when they're confronted with the facts they admit they're from Kirk's OWN congressional district and the places they saw Kirk were towns in his district. 90% of suburban Crook County is outside the 10th District, and the demographics within Kirk's district are very different from the "average" suburbanite in Chicagoland (Kirk's district is heavily WASP, Jewish, upper-class, ivy-league, and military). Brady made an effort to shake hands with thousands of suburban voters face-to-face, while Kirk was invisible to Chicagoland voters unless they lived in areas he felt "comfortable" campaigning like Northbrook or Wilmette.

The "Brady scared away moderate suburban moms by being too darned socially conservative" line doesn't gel with the facts, either. Again, if you look outside the little bubble of the 10th district, you'll see plenty of unbashedly pro-life and pro-family candidates won handily in the Crook County suburbs. Indeed, State Senator Dan Rutherford holds the same views as Bill Brady and he was just elected as State Treasurer (mainly because the combine was so focused on manufacturing Quinn votes that they failed to notice Rutherford's numbers and he slipped by) The Dems who voted for Obamacare went down in flames. Even looking at the numbers, commie RATs in "safe" districts (like Bobby Rush) LOST the suburban chunk of their districts to unapologetic conservative opponents. The one Dem running for federal office that won re-election easily in the 'burbs was Congressman Lipinski, who is 100% pro-life and opposed Obamacare because it funded abortion. Why did the "suburban females" not all turn out against Lipinski's "scary" pro-life agenda and vote for his "moderate" Republican opponent who took a middle-of-the-road stance on abortion? He was on the same ballot as Brady. The "Kirk won cuz suburbanites love abortion and gay marriage" line just doesn't hold up to the facts.

[Breto]

I would trust a liberal democrat long before I would ever trust a liberal republican. Liberal republicans will always always betray you. They are the reason I am not a republican and the reason I do not trust the republicans. Too many liberals republicans are still in the closet like sleeper cells. Waiting to awake and destroy liberty in the favor of big government.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Percy (who is still alive) served 3 terms. Kirk makes Percy look like Jesse Helms.

[BlackElk]

This term "centrist" when applied to "Republican" office holders and office seekers is directly proportional to the level of enthusiasm by pseudoRepublican trash for the continuation of the annual slaughter of more than a million innocent infants by dismemberment in service to the convenience and pride and greed (paid killers) of those immediately involved. Likewise, directly proportional to the level of enthusiasm for letting Larry "marry" Barry in a despicable exercise of make-believe. Bonus points for gun-grabbing, stabbing the troops in the field, cutting weapons systems, getting the vapors over the myth of "global warming," and having a general Junior League/polo club/yacht basin set of political stands and sensibilities. Look up "centrist Republican" in the dictionary and voila! you get a drawing of Nancyboy Kirk, who racks up big points on all those issues.

There is nothing about Illinois that makes it inherently immune to conservative Republican candidates. We need to seize control of our own party by insisting that the rank and file be able to REGISTER as Republicans, that primaries be closed and allow voting openly by those who are so registered, and to give the party rank and file and not the self-perpetuating party oligarchy control over choosing party leaders at every level by primary. See S. B. 600 pending in Springfield.

Elect NO squishballs posing as Republicans. Destroy Nancyboy Kirk starting right now. He, Collins, Snowe, Moocowski, Graham and several others need to be purged from the party and from office, even if that means, in some cases, the temporary election of Demonrats.

The purpose of this exercise is not the care and feeding of senior corrupt GOP senators in DC. Giving them a premature opportunity to chair committees is like tempting diabetics with sugar-saturated treats. If we had taken the Senate, then the usual level of corruption in the GOP would have been restored immediately. Trent Lott and his sorry record are not role models for any GOP candidate for whom I would be caught dead voting. Let them starve for another two to flour years until, with Tea Party help, we can purge most of them and hold the rest strictly responsible (and maybe abolish seniority as a basis for rising to committee chairmanships?).

If you think that the senior GOP in the Senate are going to make any RINO/DIABLO responsible to toe the party line on matters ideological, you are kidding yourself. These SOBs despise principle and love graft. See their kid glove treatment of abortion-loving la passionara Moocowski after she was defeated in a GOP primary. Cornyn and Hutchison of Texas need to be replaced. Corker and Alexander of Tennessee. Orrin Hatch needs to go. There are all too many others. Listen to Marco Rubio and Jim DeMint. DeMint said it was too soon for a GOP majority because the GOP from 2011 to 2012 would not be fit to lead as conservatives. Rubio pointed out that the GOP would gain many seats in both houses as an unearned second chance and that a prompt return to corruption as usual and earmarks would guarantee the destruction of the GOP in 2012 and thereafter. He is right and the compromisers and corrupters are wrong.

Getting more than 60 conservatives means getting more than 60 CONSERVATIVES not more than 60 Republicans no matter how poor the quality. We can eject Obamao and elect a bunch of new Republican conservatives in 2012 and again in 2014 and get to the 60 mark if we dare. In 2016, get the stragglers like Nancyboy opr make him go Demonrat to be an easier target for defeat. The GOP brand name is badly damaged in Illinois and many other states and nothing less than a successful intraparty war will ever restore the GOP. If this is worth doing, then it is worth doing all the way. No half way measures, no RINOs, no DIABLOs. Bold colors and no pale pastels.

[Undocumented_capitalist]

Kirk won nomination in a primary ELECTION. Obviously majority of republican voters in Illinois preferred Kirk. SO why are so many whining? Are those of you who against Kirk have any power to change outcomes of elections by voters in Illinois? If not, this is such an unproductive exercise in futility.