Category — Friends of Peter Roskam

Tuesday morning, 5/27, Peter Roskam took a few minutes out of his busy schedule for one of his recurring appearances on WIND’s repugnant John and Cisco show to engage in a little Clinton-bashing. (You may recall Roskam’s recent appearance on the show when he insinuated that the Clinton’s would attempt to blackmail the super-delegates in order to win the nomination) I assume that spreading innuendo about his Congressional colleague is something that falls outside of his official duties and is part of his assigned role with the McCain campaign, but I can’t be certain. It was unclear whether he was calling from his Congressional office.

I have my own opinion about what he said but I’ll let you judge first. Here’s a transcript of the brief exchange, the first item of business in the call:

CISCO: “So as much as I hate being in a position where it sounds as though I’m defending Hillary, when you hear her bring up RFK and bring up how in the past party nominations have taken a lot longer certainly… and then people freak out over her using RFK, it kind of sounds like what she was getting at wasn’t all that bad.

ROSKAM: “Well I think it sort of…her problem is that…there is sort of a dark narrative about the Clintons right?”

CISCO: (sound of agreement)

ROSKAM: “There is these stories that follow them about not just being real aggressive towards…being aggressive towards being political opponents in the political sense but being REAL AGGRESSIVE toward political opponents and different operatives over the years. So when she invokes the assassination of Senator Kennedy it just kinda spotlights this feeling that a lot of people have about her…kinda that what won’t she do to get elected…and that’s…that’s why it just sounded bad.”

CISCO: “Because of the past history and people wonder is she bring that up just to plant the seed…”

ROSKAM: “Yeah. I mean it’s beginning to sound like a weird movie script doesn’t it? She’s kind of like the water skier after he goes down and just not letting go of the rope…

CISCO: “Being dragged through the water but not giving up…”

ROSKAM: “Yeah, that’s right. So it’s probably a two or three day story and it’ll end up going away…but I also think that it…it does highlight what a lot of people think about the Clintons…but obviously not going to that extent…but what won’t these people do to win this thing?”

What I hear is my Congressman, Peter Roskam, right wing radio code referring in code to the some of the accusations that have been fabricated out of whole cloth about the Clintons by members of Roskam’s own party (who is it that will really do anything to win?) - stories like those surounding the tragic suicide of Vince Foster - in an attempt to defeat Bill Clinton in the 1996 election. Roskam know’s his audience is familiar with this garbage - so all he has to do is ues words like “dark narrative” and “REAL AGGRESSIVE” to get that audience imagining all sorts of conspiracies behind Clinton’s remark the other day about the RFK assassination. I believe that Roskam knows exactly what he is doing and I think it is very sad that we have a man like him, devoid of conscience, representing us in the House.

Incidentally, this same show that Roskam is fond of appearing on, did a spot within the past few days mocking Senator Byrd for his display of grief on the Senate floor upon hearing that Senator Kennedy, his longtime friend and colleague, had been diagnosed with a brain tumor.

MoveOn.org has launched a campaign to pressure Republican presidential candidate John McCain to fire his chief advisor, Charlie Black, who in his work as a lobbyist has represented some pretty creepy foreign clients including dictators Ferdinand Marcos in the Phillippines and Mobuto Sese Seko in Zaire and mass murderer Jonas Savimbi in Angola. Here is MoveOn’s ad:

Charlie Black is a long-time Republican political operative who has served as an adviser to Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush, who themselves showed little compunction about cozying up to tyrants and terrorists when it served their ultra-right pro-corporate agenda. He is obviously without conscience and I concur with MoveOn that he should be dismissed.

In addition to contacting McCain at (703)-418-2008 to urge him to dismiss Charlie Black, residents of the 6th should contact Peter Roskam, who serves on the McCain Campaign’s Illinois Leadership Team. Roskam can be reached at his Washington office at (202) 225-4561 or in Bloomingdale at (630) 893-9670.

After you’ve made your phone calls, mosey on over to WBEZ’s web site and listen to the Worldview interviews from May 19th with Thomas Carothers of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and with James
Jordan of the Alliance for Global Justice.  The theme was the so-called “democracy-building” agenda under President Bush and predecessors. I think the show points out pretty starkly what a sham and failure this agenda has been, back as far as Nixon and Reagan and should help motivate you to throw out the McCains and the Roskams and their spooky hangers-on like Charlie Black. The world can’t handle much more of their brand of “democracy-building”.

Addendum 5/22: The Washington Post published an article about the Black controversy today.

Seems like the heroes of 9/11 might regard it as a sensitive gesture.

I learned about this from the blog Calitics. It seems Peter Roskam is one of a number of Republicans who have been beneficiaries of the largess of Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), a former car thief turned car alarm magnate. Roskam has received $3,000 in campaign contributions from the Issa for Congress committee.

Issa is the idiot who, during a recent house hearing on aid to 9/11 rescue workers expressed his concern that the federal government “threw buckets of cash” at New York in the aftermath of a mere plane crash:

“I have to ask, why damages from a fire that had no dirty bomb in it, it had no chemical munitions in it, it simply was an aircraft, residue of two aircraft, and residue from the materials used to build this building, why the firefighters who went there and everybody in the City of New York needs to come to the federal government for the dollars versus this being primarily a state consideration.”

Needless to say, Issa’s remark pissed off a bunch of ground zero workers who are having to fight the government to receive health benefits allocated by Congress. The government appears to be spending more money by far on court costs to fight payouts than it is on actual benefits to workers.

So I think it would be a great gesture to 9/11 workers if Roskam gave Issa his $3,000 back and repudiated his words. And also signed on in support of more robust health benefits for those who are suffering from lung diseases and other ailments in the aftermath of their heroic work at Ground Zero.

I first ran this back in November. I have not received any responses. Could my theory be correct? I’m giving you another chance to prove me wrong. There are fabulous prizes at stake.

Peter Roskam is George Bush. At least that’s my working theory.

Have you ever seen a picture of George Bush and Peter Roskam together? I haven’t and I’ve really hunted for one.

I’ve seen Roskam with Bush’s wife Laura:

I’ve seen Roskam with Bush’s evil VP Cheney:

I’ve seen Roskam with Bush’s Puppet Master Karl Rove:

And I’ve seen Roskam with Bush’s designated successor John McCain:

But I’ve never seen Roskam and Bush together.

Bush supposedly appeared at a fundraiser with Roskam and Denny Hastert in October 2006 but I can’t find a photographic record of it. Did anybody actually see them together or did Peter suddenly leave the room before Bush took the stage?

And look at Roskam’s voting record - he’s George Bush’s Congressional alter-ego:

So you can’t blame me for wondering whether they are one and the same person.

But to test my theory, I am running a little contest. The first reader to send me an undoctored .jpg image of George Bush and Peter Roskam standing next to each other will receive a wonderful prize: a copy of Paul Krugman’s book “The Conscience of a Liberal” and a copy of Barry Goldwater’s book “The Conscience of a Conservative“. (RSR is nothing if not fair and balanced.) The books are brand spankin’ new. Just ordered them from Amazon.

And, if the picture includes such public display of affection as shown in the photo below, the winner will receive a special bonus prize, the beautiful Greenpeace: Standing Up for the Earth Calendar 2009.

So get to work and prove me wrong. And don’t be disappointed if I am wrong because voting for Roskam will still be just like voting for Bush.

Send your entry to rubberstamproskam@gmail.com.

Breaking News: The source of Peter Roskam’s rosy assesment of the present situation in Colombia has now been revealed. RubberStampRoskam has learned that, during his recent visit to the country, Roskam and his delegation held high-level trade talks with fictional Colombian coffee grower Juan Valdez and his mule Conchita. Apparently Valdez and Conchita reassured Roskam that the situation for trade unionists in Colombia was hunky dory. On his returm from meeting with Valdez, Roskam complained that the issue of free trade with Colombia is being “simplistically caricatured in the Democratic debate“.

You can read the story from El Colombiano of Roskam’s meeting with Valdez and Conchita here:

Seguimos en la lucha por el TLC: Carlos Gutiérrez

The picture of Roskam and his delegation with Valdez and Conchita is priceless but, sadly, very tiny.

President Bush has previously held talks with Valdez and Conchita.

Noted nut bar, perpetual Republican candidate, and regular Roskam campaign contributor Jim Oberweis has been engaging in some hilarious last minute shenanigans in his bid to win Denny Hastert’s old seat in the 14th. (Why anyone would want to sit in Hastert’s old seat I’ll never know.) Read about it here:

Jim Oberweis Insanity…You’ve got to see this - IL-14 (UPDATE)

Sure hope we put this idiot to pasture for good today. Anybody know if Roskam endorsed him?