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Mark Kirk: I Voted For Cap And Trade In The House, Would Vote No In The Senate (And Crowd Cheers)

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Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL), who is running for President Obama's former Senate seat in 2010, just pulled off an amazing trick at a Republican event over the weekend: He said that he voted for the climate bill in the House, but would vote against it in the Senate -- and got the crowd to switch from booing to cheering him.

"Let me say briefly about cap and trade. I voted for it because it was in the narrow interest of my Congressional district. But as your representative," Kirk said, then getting interrupted by booing. "As your representative, representing the entire state of Illinois, I would vote no on that bill coming up."

The amazing thing is how quickly the crowd switched from booing to cheering, even as Kirk flip-flopped right in front of them. This would explain Kirk's upcoming policy: "Abortions for some, miniature American flags for others."

Check it out at the 3:10 mark:

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6 comments

Recommend Recommend (2)

September 15, 2009 3:06 PM   

He's not the man for the senate!! He has performed well for IL (I'm in his district) BUT he voted Bush all the way. Forget this Cap and Trade nonsense--he voted for all of Bush's very regrettable agenda

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September 15, 2009 4:23 PM   

On the sixth day of Hate Week, after the processions, the speeches, the shouting, the singing, the banners, the posters, the films, the waxworks, the rolling of drums and squealing of trumpets, the tramp of marching feet, the grinding of the caterpillars of tanks, the roar of massed planes, the booming of guns -- after six days of this, when the great orgasm was quivering to its climax and the general hatred of Eurasia had boiled up into such delirium that if the crowd could have got their hands on the 2,000 Eurasian war-criminals who were to be publicly hanged on the last day of the proceedings, they would unquestionably have torn them to pieces -- at just this moment it had been announced that Oceania was not after all at war with Eurasia. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Eurasia was an ally.

There was, of course, no admission that any change had taken place. Merely it became known, with extreme suddenness and everywhere at once, that Eastasia and not Eurasia was the enemy. Winston was taking part in a demonstration in one of the central London squares at the moment when it happened. It was night, and the white faces and the scarlet banners were luridly floodlit. The square was packed with several thousand people, including a block of about a thousand schoolchildren in the uniform of the Spies. On a scarlet-draped platform an orator of the Inner Party, a small lean man with disproportionately long arms and a large bald skull over which a few lank locks straggled, was haranguing the crowd. A little Rumpelstiltskin figure, contorted with hatred, he gripped the neck of the microphone with one hand while the other, enormous at the end of a bony arm, clawed the air menacingly above his head. His voice, made metallic by the amplifiers, boomed forth an endless catalogue of atrocities, massacres, deportations, lootings, rapings, torture of prisoners, bombing of civilians, lying propaganda, unjust aggressions, broken treaties. It was almost impossible to listen to him without being first convinced and then maddened. At every few moments the fury of the crowd boiled over and the voice of the speaker was drowned by a wild beast-like roaring that rose uncontrollably from thousands of throats. The most savage yells of all came from the schoolchildren. The speech had been proceeding for perhaps twenty minutes when a messenger hurried on to the platform and a scrap of paper was slipped into the speaker's hand. He unrolled and read it without pausing in his speech. Nothing altered in his voice or manner, or in the content of what he was saying, but suddenly the names were different. Without words said, a wave of understanding rippled through the crowd. Oceania was at war with Eastasia! The next moment there was a tremendous commotion. The banners and posters with which the square was decorated were all wrong! Quite half of them had the wrong faces on them. It was sabotage! The agents of Goldstein had been at work! There was a riotous interlude while posters were ripped from the walls, banners torn to shreds and trampled underfoot. The Spies performed prodigies of activity in clambering over the rooftops and cutting the streamers that fluttered from the chimneys. But within two or three minutes it was all over. The orator, still gripping the neck of the microphone, his shoulders hunched forward, his free hand clawing at the air, had gone straight on with his speech. One minute more, and the feral roars of rage were again bursting from the crowd. The Hate continued exactly as before, except that the target had been changed.

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September 15, 2009 4:37 PM   

So he voted for Cap and Trade, presumably because he was going to run for Senate in a very blue state and would have difficulty winning without that vote, and then turns around and throws that away in an unopposed primary to appease the base that is going to vote for him anyway? And we're supposed to be afraid of this guy winning in one of the bluest states in the country?

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September 15, 2009 5:38 PM   

Part of Kirk's campaign schtick as a Navy reserve officer is he rightly says most service members in the Gulf don't want to be going back to the middle east every 20 years to fight, (never quite admitting the last part "for oil"). This of course doesn't square with his new opposite position on Cap and Trade. It does have appeal downstate in coal country though where he has to win by a huge margin to offset some of the Chicago vote he isn't going to get.

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September 15, 2009 7:19 PM   

I had never seen Kirk in person until a recent "town hall" he did with Biggert in Naperville IL. He was in full campaign mode. What struck me was what a douchebag he is, given that he has long been considered one of the "good" republicans. But I guess they all have to "go rogue" these days to have any chance of winning the wingnut beauty contest.

He pretty much came out with the standard campaign geared to appeal to smug, white Chicago surburbanites who are afraid of black and brown people. It's pretty much a "paint by the numbers" approach--again it surprised me because he is supposed to be a smart guy, I thought he would have more creativity.

All I could think of as I was listening was where he expected to get his votes? In a blue state like Illinois, I don't see how you win an election with 3% of the African American vote, less than 15% Hispanics, almost no labor and, what, maybe 25% in Cook County. Last statewide election, voters preferred Blago to any republican--I don't think there are enough teabags to offset that.

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September 15, 2009 10:34 PM    in reply to Azdak

It's all part of his clever plan - when he loses, he'll claim that it's all ACORN's fault, and the base will believe it.

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