This came in an email from EDDI this morning. Thought it was interesting and I am posting the entire thing. The email begins (without blockquotes, due to the length):
A progressive activist in the health care debate participated in Melissa Bean's tele-town hall tonight and forwards this report:
My wife and I received an automated call tonight inviting us to participate in Congresswoman Melissa Bean's tele-town hall, so we joined in. Based on the questions asked, it appeared that we were selected randomly. The entire town hall (about 30 minutes) was about health care reform. We were very pleased by what we heard.
Here's the industry's play: progressives will approach Nancy with ideas for reform, and she'll agree to push for their proposals, and she'll really mean it. Then industry lobbyists will go to Dennis Moore, Melissa Bean and a few other Democrats, and tell them how dire the consequences of the proposals would be, and that the members who understand how the economy works need to step up to stop Nancy and the crazy liberals from doing something rash. Then those Democrats will go to Steny and tell him how terrible Nancy's crazy ideas would be, and how we can't rush into something like that without much, much more thought. Maybe Barney will try to talk to Dennis or Melissa, but it will become apparent quickly that they have no idea what they're talking about; they're just repeating by rote what the lobbyists told them to say. Melissa may actually be dumber than Sarah Palin. Barney will realize he might as well talk to the lobbyists directly and save a step. The lobbyists will agree to something inconsequential, but certainly nothing that would really affect the industry's conduct. Then the leadership will do the math and conclude that because the vast majority of Republicans will vote against any bill, we can't get enough votes without the Dennis and Melissa crowd. The only way, our leadership will conclude, to get anything at all passed is to include nothing more than the inconsequential proposals that the lobbyists agreed to. Then we'll all go along because it would be wildly irresponsible not to act when we're staring over the brink of a complete collapse of world financial markets.
Clearly someone doesn't have a very positive view of Melissa Bean. I don't know if Bean appreciates that this is not just how the progressives and DFHs view her, but that this is also the mainstream view of her in Washington. I'd like to think that her heart is in the right place but that she just doesn't see things the same way we all do. (This perhaps overly optimistic view of politicians and mankind generally extends to Rahm Emanuel, the machine Dems of Chicago, and even Republicans.) I'd hope that if she sees it in stark enough terms like this that she might revisit her positions. If not, maybe we this might spur a credible progressive challenger in a primary.
Oh and in case you missed it, the money quote, emphasis mine:
Melissa [Bean] may actually be dumber than Sarah Palin.
Please Congresswoman, prove the anonymous Democratic congressperson who wrote this wrong.
Update: Here's why Bean is against the regular home owner and opposes Mortgage Relief: The number is in bold that means that the Finance/Insurance/Real Estate industry was/is the biggest contributor to the member for that cycle. Bean, Melissa:
2006: $404,527
2008: $400,851
Blue and Bush Dogs including Melissa Bean of IL-08 are blocking mortgage relief legislation being pushed by real Democrats. The 2005 Bankruptcy Bill prevents the terms of mortgages from being renegotiated by bankruptcy courts. A bill permitting bankruptcy courts to restructure mortgage terms put forth by Brad Miller, Linda T. Sánchez, Barney Frank, and Mel Watt is being opposed by Bean and other Bush/Blue dogs.
As home values decline and variable rate mortgages rise people can find themselves caught. Unable to pay the new rate and unable to get a price for their house that equals what they still owe on it and without the protections of the old bankruptcy rules, they are truly trapped.
At some point we will need to either fish or cut bait with the likes of Melissa Bean. What good does it do to elect a Nancy Pelosi and get blamed for Republican/Conservative blockages of good legislation?
DeKalb's 3rd Ward alderman was assisted in his campaign last spring by Joe Wiegand. If his name sounds familiar, it's because Wiegand ran Jim Oberweis' gubernatorial campaign last year (see blueollie's post on the campaign's use of fake news headlines) and Chris Lauzen's winning state senate campaign in 1992. He is a former DeKalb County Board member, a personable guy, excellent speaker and arguably the P.T. Barnum of the far-right faction in DeKalb County.
Another person who helped the 3rd Ward effort was Jon Zahm of Maple Park, a political consultant and associate of Wiegand's. Maple Park is situated on County Line Road so part of the town lies in Kane County, part in DeKalb County--he dabbles in both and more. Zahm was behind a dubious Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request made to City Hall that culminated in a smear of the incumbent alderman and associated lies that perhaps contributed to his 14-vote loss in the election.
Because of his involvement in a campaign so blatantly slimy that it may yet result in an aldermanic recall ordinance, Zahm's activities have been on my to-do list and last weekend I had the chance to check on some of them. The result was discovery of the Illinois Center Right Coalition (ICRC), an organization formed to unseat Democrats and Republicans in Name Only (RINOs) at all levels--yet is not a registered PAC.
Faced with a president with approval ratings in the Nixonian range, GOP favorable numbers plummeting, and public opinion on every single issue favoring Democrats, Democrats again last night stood strong and gave President Bush exactly the FISA legislation he demanded!
I'm so proud to be associated with such a strong party that sees capitulation over such a clearly bad piece of legislation as strength.
And once again, just like a record player that is stuck in a groove, Melissa Bean (8th Illinois - Blue Dog) and Daniel Lipinski (3rd Illinois) lead the fight to bow down in fear of the popular President and fear mongering Republicans, voting for a bill that gives AG Gonzales, the guy who has difficulty remembering much of anything, more power to spy on Americans.
Melissa Bean has a Republican challenger queuing up for 2008. IL-8 is one of the Republican's top targets, again, for the next cycle. Bean got only 51% of the vote in 2006 with Democratic margins nationwide at high water marks. (Of course, Bill Scheurer's 5% gives the number an artificial aspect.) The challenger is Steve Greenberg, a young, wealthy novice politician who comes from the family that buys failing businesses and "rebuilds" them. The Republican national party previously tried to convince Greenberg to challenge Dick Durbin, but Greenberg passed, hoping for an easier time of it with Bean. The NRCC is crowing about their "top-tier candidate", but it sounds more like a Pyrrhic victory. In any case, this ought to be an interesting one to watch as November 2008 rolls around.
Costello gets some credit here for voting with the progressives. Weller was non-voting.
Again the leadership as represented by Emanuel and Durbin refuse to stand up to, or at least force the Republicans to take ownership of the Iraq war. Here are the full House votes.
Update: Even Pelosi voted against it!!! Update 2 the list after the jump:
The big news is that according to this polling Dan Seals has taken the lead against Mark Kirk! Keep up the great work all you Seals volunteers. Your work is paying off. Let's keep pushing it through to election day!
Latest from Constituent Dynamics. (Hat tip, as always, to Chris Bowers at MyDD who gives us the data even though it isn't posted on the Majority Watch page quite yet.) (Found the data hiding here, and it looks like it is up now.)
This is the first polling for the Dan Seals-Mark Kirk race. I had high hopes, but wow is it close!
Lots of good pictures of the Illinois Republican Congress Bush/Hastert lovefest.
Protest pics, including the one to the right, can be found at "remove office"'s recommended DailyKos diary.
News photos of Bush, Hastert, Peter Roskam, and David McSweeney below the fold.
We remain in search of the elusive pics of Bush and Hastert with Mark Kirk, Jerry Weller, or John Shimkus. (And hell, throw in Don Manzullo, Ray LaHood, and Tim Johnson for the fun of it). Finders of said pics will get a coveted front-page posting of it and laurels for the ages.
Consituent Dynamics has its most recent round of polling up. Lots of good stuff (internals available). I don't have time to dig deeply into it now, but here are the conclusions. August/September polls in parentheses (where available). More midwest races are below the fold.
I ran across the details of the house vote on yesterday's torture bill and was surprised to see that Melissa Bean was on the list of Dems that vote "YES". I know we are supposed to be looking at the bigger picture - winning back the House - but this is a little hard to swallow. I have a very difficult time understanding how anyone could vote for this dispicable legislation - Republican or Democrat. But Democrats have no excuse.
$72,000 spent against Donnelly in IN-02 by the NRCC for an issue ad.
$33,000 spent against Bean in IL-08 by the NRCC for an issue ad and $18,000 against Duckworth in 06 for an issue ad.
the washington post reports that republicans plan to spend more than $45 million on "defining" democratic candidates in the hope to contain losses to a handful of congressional seats. story and link below the fold.
Chris Bowers is reporting on polling of 25 house races over at MyDD. Among them are IL-6 and IL-8. The very pretty graphic illustration can be found here. I haven't been able to figure out how they chose the races they have, but they have already polled IL-6 and IL-8 and have polls in the field for IN-2, IN-8, and IN-9.
IL-8
Melissa Bean
48
David McSweeny
45
IL-6
Tammy Duckworth
47
Peter Roskam
46
Go to the Constituent Dynamics site and click on the races and there is tons of great information including strength of support, Bush approval rating for the district, partisan identification (including within district differences), demographics, and how the district voted in the 2004 Presidential, 2004 and 2002 Congressional elections.
IT is taking back the house, a goal shared across the netroots, including here in illinois. smart observers realize that changes in the house's partisan complexion will be clustered, with a few states having a dramatic impact on this outcome, and others having virtually none.
the midwest holds two of those clusters, ohio and indiana. both these states have internal trends favoring democrats that sit on top of the national trend moving away from republicans. iow, a wave on top of a wave. any surfer will tell you, that's the one to catch!
some of the things i'd like to see democrats emulate from republicans (gasp!) are: WORK SMARTER, not harder; and CONCENTRATE your resources. on the net, we call that a swarm (used to, anyway). here's where to swarm!
First Lady Laura Bush will headline a fundraising luncheon Aug. 14 in Addison, Illinois for Republican Sen. Peter Roskam.
A Republican and resident of the 6th District will help Democrat Tammy Duckworth tout her support for expanding federally funded of embryonic stem cell research.
Tom Bowler is a registered Republican from Glen Ellyn who contacted the campaign after Bush's veto--the first of his presidency. Bowler's recorded phone message states that his son, Joshua, 31, became a quadriplegic in an accidental fall two years ago, and that stem cell research holds his best hope of regaining some movement.
Bowler notes that Duckworth's opponent, state Sen. Peter Roskam (R-Wheaton), "led the fight against embryonic stem cell funding in Springfield. He would ban all such research, even if privately funded."
