Last week, the DNC announced the launch of “The Accountability Project,” a new website volunteer project “to hold Republican candidates accountable for their claims, their public statements, and their campaign tactics.”  To call the project “grassroots” while a banner at the bottom of the page states that the site is paid for by the Democratic National Committee is surely pushing the frontiers of shamelessness; but desperate times call for desperate measures.  For citizen journalists have been making the news as well as reporting in recent weeks, and not in ways favorable to the left.

On the reporting front, the career of far-left journalist Helen Thomas was ended by a camera-wielding Rabbi posting footage of her anti-Semitic rantings on his website.  Meanwhile, conservative citizen journalists have been physically assaulted, notably by Democrat representative Bob Etheridge and at a campaign event for Illinois senatorial candidate Alexi Giannoulias.   It seems that, when it comes to citizen journalism, liberals can dish it out, but they can’t take it, and in considering just why they are apparently so touchy with respect to this particular manifestation of “new” media, we need to look at the a bigger picture, one which goes beyond the significance of the stories broken, or the merits or otherwise of the tactics employed; what is really remarkable is that conservative “citizen journalists” exist at all, and that they are reaching an increasingly wide audience with their exposure of the antics of liberal activists and Democrat politicians.  You see, it was not supposed to be like this. (more…)

It’s long been clear modern Democrats and their ops are quick to anger, and far too comfortable with resorting to physical violence. The other day it was Congressman Bob Etheridge (D, N.C.), going nuclear on a couple of college kids, and now this:

That would be representatives of the Democrat candidate for Senate in Illinois, Alexi Giannoulias, the Obama pal whose family-owned Broadway Bank was recently seized by federal regulators. (more…)

Helen Thomas, liberal icon and veteran White House correspondent for UPI and Hearst, owned up to her hatred of Jews this week when she declared that Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine!” and go back to Germany. Her remarks are only the latest and worst in her long history of Israel-bashing. They are also an embarrassment to the establishment Democrats who have lately been using Thomas to raise campaign cash.

Only last month, Thomas headlined Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s big campaign fundraiser, the “9th Annual Ultimate Women’s Power Lunch” in Chicago. The list of guests included all of the major Democratic candidates for federal office, including Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias and 10th district contender Dan Seals. Senator Dick Durbin was also there, as were representatives of J Street, the new lobby for left-wing policies on Israel.

Rep. Schakowsky and her guests were well aware of Thomas’s record of anti-Israel rhetoric, and were invited to distance themselves from her views. None did. Instead, Rep. Schakowsky declared proudly of Thomas: “She’s so awesome!”

Thomas’s comments are also problematic for Giannoulias, whose family foundation funds radical anti-Israel groups such as Electronic Intifada, which it honored at a benefit last year. (more…)

In the wake of revelations by the New York Times that Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal lied about serving in Vietnam, the Beltway media has already gone into its protective crouch: yesterday’s breathtakingly defiant and disgraceful press conference is being hailed as a win. From Politico, which ought to know better:

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal’s defiant response to a report that he falsely claimed to have served in Vietnam appears to have salvaged his Democratic nomination for the Senate.

“Defiant?” That’s one way to put it.

But the controversy touched off by a story in The New York Times has robbed the Democratic Party of another safe seat and reopened the door, if narrowly, to Republicans’ retaking control of the upper house this fall. Blumenthal’s self-inflicted wound is the latest in a surprising series of retirements, deferrals, misfortunes and intramural bloodbaths that have transformed a map seen a year ago as heavily favoring Democrats into a grab bag of Republican opportunities deep in Obama country.

Boo hoo. A series of unfortunate events is robbing the Democrats of their historic opportunity to inflict unwanted hope and change. (more…)

When CBS 2 News producer Ed Marshall interviewed Republican Senatorial candidate Mark Kirk on May 3, 2010, he revealed his bias in the race that pits Kirk against Democrat Alexi Giannoulias, Illinois Secretary of the Treasury, whose family bank, Broadway Bank, recently went bust.

WLS radio in Chicago noted the exchange between Marshall and Kirk and thought it odd. First, here’s a transcript of Marshall’s comment to Kirk that caught WLS’s attention:

Marshall: “Channel 2’s made a decision. We’re really not going to cover the Senate race if it consistently, only in your terms, is about Broadway Bank. The bank’s been taken over by the government, Alexi’s been pilloried. Tell me: what is your campaign going forward? What are the issues that you are going to tell the voters why they should vote for you?”

Now listen to the WLS’s on-air comments about Marshall’s question here, as a Windy City media mini-fire storm broke out between the two news outlets. (more…)

Reporting on politics, “The Chicago Way.”

The Illinois Senate race is shaping up to be a high-profile and influential campaign that will have national implications.  Not only because Illinois is the most populated state in the mid-west, but also because the seat up for grabs is President Obama’s former seat.  If Republican candidate Rep. Mark Kirk, were to win the seat it would be seen as an enormous PR loss for the White House.

The Democratic nominee, Alexi Giannoulias has been under fire because of the failiure of Broadway Bank and his direct connection to it.  Believe it or not, there are suspicions of corruption, incompetence  and graft with regard to a Democrat in Chicago.  Go figure! (more…)

In his March 12, 2010, interview with FOX News’ Greta van Susteren, former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich described a conversation he said he had with Rahm Emanuel concerning a replacement for Obama’s Senate seat.  His comments on that subject are within 1:09-3.29 of this video.

Blago’s words came in the context of discussing former Congressman Eric Massa’s allegation that Emanuel lobbied him in a shower while both men were naked. Suggesting this episode displayed Emanuel’s tactics, Blagojevich said,

I chose Rahm Emanuel. He was my first choice to help us pick a United States Senator. I wanted him to make a deal with the Democratic House Speaker here in Illinois. In exchange for me appointing his daughter he would stop blocking a public works bill that would create jobs. He would stop blocking healthcare expansion for fifty to three-hundred thousand people. And a written promise not to raise taxes on people.  Rahm was the guy I chose to make that deal happen. And was about to do it and then everything changed when they came and arrested me.

The Illinois House Speaker in Illinois is Michael J. Madigan. He’s been Speaker since 1982, and chair of the Illinois Democratic Party since 1998. Here’s some of what the Chicago Tribune knows about him: (more…)

The Chicago media is having trouble picking a winner out of the line-up of likely suspects for the Machine’s chosen candidate for Barack Obama’s old, hardly even used U.S. Senate seat.  The dragnet doesn’t include anyone with an impressive rap sheet of accomplishments. So what’s up? Is the Machine sputtering?

The Illinois primary election for U.S. Senator is February 2. Senator Roland Burris isn’t running. No money. No support. No surprise.  After what the disgraced Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s hand-picked seat warmer had to go through just to get credentialed, it’s no wonder he just wants to pack up and go home to his monuments.

And the recent victory by Scott Brown in the Massachusetts special election for the U.S. Senate certainly has put the fear of God into party hacks from sea to shining sea. So, who’s the Machine’s candidate among the leading suspects? Here’s the line-up. (more…)