Karl Rove, former senior adviser to President George W. Bush, says he was offended by Chrysler's "Halftime in America" Super Bowl ad starring Clint Eastwood, and he claims the ad is "Chicago-style politics." more ›

The freshman congressman suggests the rich be able to donate to the federal government as a charitable donation. more ›

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani hit the campaign trail in Illinois today for Gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady and Senate candidate Mark Kirk. Giuliani met with Brady this morning in Brady’s home town of Bloomington and stumps for Kirk this afternoon in Chicago. Republicans hope to use Giuliani’s “tough on crime” status and 9/11 credentials to boost support in an already close electioral race. Aides for Kirk said the two men would endorse legislation providing $20 million for a national anti-gang task force. more ›

Yesterday we took a look at the progress of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, opinions of which predictably split along party lines. Illinois’ Republican Congressman Aaron Schock has a new bone to pick with the stimulus - signage. According to the Chicago Tribune, a spokesman for IDOT reported that about 950 signs have been posted along roadways to inform people that the roadwork was funded by the stimulus bill. Calling it “propaganda” and an “unnecessary overhead expense,” Schock introduced a bill titled "End the Stimulus Advertisement Act” to put an end to the signs. more ›

Sarah Palin made an appearance in Rosemont last night, and we're interested in what she had to say to those of us that don't live in the part of America that she views as "pro-America." So, without comment, here's a run down of the highlights of her address last night, from around the media: more ›

The State Board of Elections has spoken and by a very narrow margin of 193 votes, state Sen. Bill Brady has been ruled the winner in the GOP's gubernatorial race. That's just .025 percent of the vote. But it's enough that Brady's opponent, state Sen. Kirk Dillard, will very likely concede the race to Brady at a press conference this afternoon, setting the stage for Brady to take on Gov. Pat Quinn in this fall's general election. [Tribune] more ›

The state GOP may soon have their gubernatorial candidate. Kirk Dillard, who's in second place behind Bill Brady in the state's GOP governor's race, looks like he'll concede the nomination to Brady. He's scheduled a press conference for tomorrow afternoon at which point he's slated to announce "an update on the status of his campaign." [Crain's] more ›

The GOP has released a number of virtual Valentine Cards for Republican fans to send to their friend. We think they're supposed to be insulting towards Democrats, but personally we find them hilarious. Instead of stoking Conservative furies we suspect the GOP is just going to end up collecting a lot of useless email addresses from Liberals loving the cards. more ›

In the wake of this week's State of the Union address, President Obama met with House Republicans today to talk openly about issues. It was, in a word, remarkable. It makes us wish the President did this more often (you know, like the way the British Prime Minister faces off with Parliament on a regular basis). The Q&A is below; you can watch Obama's opening remarks here. more ›

We're less than a week away from next week's big primary and a new Rasmussen Poll shows Andy McKenna with a slim lead in a tight race for the GOP nomination for Governor. The poll, conducted on Monday, January 25, surveyed 527 likely GOP voters and broke down like so: more ›

The 2010 primaries are five weeks from tomorrow and things are getting nasty in the race for the Republican nominate for U.S. Senate. Candidate Andy Martin has put into a rotation an ad that questions the sexuality of opponent (and U.S. Congessman) Mark Kirk. Martin has scheduled an afternoon press conference in which he'll hit on the theme of "Disclose the facts, Disseminate the truth and Defeat—Mark Kirk." According to WBBM 780: more ›

Six Republican candidates for governor met in a debate Monday that focused hard on the issues of government spending and corruption in Illinois. Each candidate vowed to slash spending and restore ethics to a state government that has seen its share of scandal over the past few years. How this will be achieved, however, is still up for, well, debate. more ›

There were a pair of debates last night of interest to voters with the approaching primaries in February. Of particular interest to local voters is the The Hispanic American Construction Industry Association (HACIA) Cook County Board President forum. ABC 7 has video of the complete forum that you can check out here. The participants were current Democrat candidates Pres. Todd Stroger, Ald. Toni Preckwinkle, and MWRD Pres. Terrence O'Brien, Green Party candidate (and former No Games Chicago leader) Tom Tresser, and only one Republican candidate, John Garrido. more ›

2010 is a big election year and state Republicans are hoping to take back, among other offices, the governor's seat. But first they've got to get through the primary and with seven candidates in a heated campaign, the race to see who will oppose Quinn or Hynes in 2010 could be pretty interesting. The debate happens tonight at the downtown Hilton (720 S. Michigan Ave) and Chris Robling will moderate. You can purchase tickets here, find a viewing party, or wait for WLS 890 AM to rebroadcast the entire debate tomorrow night at 7 p.m. more ›

The results of New York’s special election in the 23rd district congressional race might have effects nation-wide, even here in Illinois. The Tea Party movement successfully derailed the campaign of Dede Scozzafava, a moderate GOP candidate in the race in favor of Doug Hoffman, a much more conservative republican. Politico reports that their success could embolden their efforts to push out more moderate GOP candidates in favor of hard right conservatives. more ›

Something's up over at City Hall where, according to Crain's Greg Hinz, the GOP's national party has filed a request for communications with Attorney General Lisa Madigan and her father, State Speaker of the House Mike Madigan (pictured right). more ›

The wife of Gary Skoien, former Cook County GOP Chairman, filed for divorce Thursday and lost a request to block him from taking their three children out-of-state on vacation. Less than two weeks ago, Skoien called the cops to his house and claimed his wife Eni beat him with a plastic guitar. Police say that Skoien told him that he was with two prostitutes when his wife found him. He later disputed that, but the police wouldn't let him change the police report. He told WLS-AM last week, "If they were prostitutes, I would've lied. I would never tell the police there were prostitutes in my house." more ›

Strange happenings in Inverness. Depending on who you believe, former Cook County GOP Chairman (and current Palatine Township GOP committeeman) Gary Skoien was caught with two prostitutes in his children's playroom , prompting his wife to beat him up with her fists and a guitar. But now Skoien is disputing some of those claims made in the police report. He said he was talking with a friend, not prostitutes, and that they were talking around 1 a.m. when he was attacked by his wife Eni. All 110 pounds of her. Skoien told the Daily Herald, "She heard talking and went crazy. Toy guitar understates it. I thought I was going to die." He added, "No money was exchanged. Nobody was naked." more ›

We have to hand it to the GOP: regardless of your political stance, the Republican Party has come up with a nice piece of online satire with Barackbook.com. The site, designed to mirror Facebook, satirizes Barack's online presence while also being used as a tool for pushing the GOP agenda. The site was originally started in July, but continues to be updated even since Obama won the Presidential election on November 4. Of course, the site loses its bite by satirizing one of the reasons Obama won the election (those pesky internets), but its continual presence may provide Republicans with a successful tool as the new administration begins and focus turns to 2010. That is, if they can come up with more successful attacks than the exhausted attempts to connect Obama to William Ayers and ACORN. more ›

The 11th Congressional District race in Illinois started off looking like a slam-dunk for the Democratic Party. But that might not be the case anymore. more ›

Palin (she's gone from "unqualified" to "Goddamn frightening" in the space of a week) have been formally nominated by the GOP, let's take a look back at previous Republican conventions. more ›

Our dream has been realized! Obama and crew cover Bowie! more ›

For Michigan Democrats, the choices in today's primary are pretty stark. Late last year, Michigan Senator Carl Levin supported moving Michigan's primary up to January 15 in an attempt to make the state more relevant in this year's race. That move backfired, however, when the Democratic National Committee punished the state party by stripping it of all its delegates at the convention. Party rules mandate that Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina hold the first primaries. more ›