Will Mark Kirk knockout Obama's man?

by Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury
January 30, 2010

http://www.weeklyblitz.net/467/will-mark-kirk-knockout-obamas-man

According to Associated Press, if the Massachusetts special election was a kick in the shins for President Barack Obama, the political turmoil in Illinois, his home state, is a pain in the neck that never seems to go away.

Democratic candidate Alexi Giannoulias is already seen far behind the Republican candidate Mark Steven Kirk. 33-year old Giannoulias describes Obama as his 'mentor'. He has never served a full term in the office. His only past experience is working for a family bank, which also is now in deep financial crisis. He has also been accused of mismanagement of a pre-paid college tuition fund he reorganized.

On the other hand, Republican candidate Mark Steven Kirk is a five-term member of the Congress and Naval officer still active in the reserves [he returned this month from his second tour of duty in Afghanistan], who supports abortion rights and gun control.

Democrats have already failed to find a proper candidate who would fight to keep this seat in their quarter. The Illinois Senate seat was vacated by Barack Obama as he contested for Presidential election. No doubt, losing Illinois seat will turn into a massive embarrassment for Obama, which will ultimately be a major dash into the very image of the Democrats. It is even apprehended by media that, the next defeat for Democrats in Illinois, which is Obama's home state will be the office of the Governor.

Democratic Governor Pat Quinn is in danger of losing in the primary because of his association with disgraced former Governor Rod Blagojevich, who was expelled from office on a long list of corruption charges. Quinn twice ran as lieutenant governor on the same ticket as Blagojevich. He has also taken heat for proposing a tax increase to clean up the state's financial mess and for working with Obama to move terror suspects from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to an Illinois prison. His effort to cut costs by letting some nonviolent inmates out of prison turned out to include releasing violent offenders — some of whom have been accused of serious new crimes. Whether or not Quinn survives the primary, Republicans see a strong shot at winning back the governor's office.

"For the first time in a long time, the Republicans have a good chance of winning this Senate seat," says Paul Green, a professor of policy studies at Roosevelt University in Chicago.

In a sign that President Obama was concerned about Illinois long before the special election in Massachusetts, he summoned Lisa Madigan, the state's attorney-general, to the White House last year and asked her to run for the seat. She declined and several other high-profile Democrats have also ruled themselves out.

The Republican front-runner in the race to fill President Obama's former U.S. Senate seat called on supporters in Decatur on January 12, 2010 night to help him repeat what he called "The Massachusetts Miracle" in Illinois.

He introduced himself by saying, "My name is Mark Kirk, and I'm going to join Scott Brown in the United States Senate."

Just back from the State of the Union address in Washington, D.C., on January 13, 2010, Kirk called Obama's speech a "lost opportunity" and said he had hoped to hear Obama reset his domestic agenda.

Kirk said he disagreed with Obama's call to repeal "don't ask, don't tell," a policy that prevents homosexuals from serving openly in the military.

"I'm a member of the U.S. military," said Kirk, a Naval Reserve intelligence officer. "I don't think we should change the policy."

He also disagreed with Obama's call to take $30 billion from the money returned by Wall Street banks and give it to community banks to help support small business.

"That would, of course, dramatically increase the deficit," Kirk said. "He claims that he wants to restrain spending, but then every item that he detailed in his speech increased spending."

But, Obama's advisor David Axelond is not worried about the seats in Illinois. He thinks, as the voters will chose their Senator and Governor for that State in November 2010, there will be lots of charismas from President Obama by that time, though Illinois voters are tremendously annoyed at the increasing number of unemployment as well gridlock in Washington and increasing corruption in the State government, which is now under the control of Democrats.

Though I am not a voter in United States, but I feel greatly attached to this particular election as Mark Steven Kirk was the only man who did everything at the request of my Jewish brother, Dr. Richard L Benkin [who is also a constituent of Mark Kirk] and set me out of prison in 2005. Before that, my brother Dr. Richard repeatedly requested for help from Barack Obama, who was then the Senator from Illinois. But, despite such requests, Mr. Obama did not initiate anything in my favor, as I was in prison for supporting relations between Israel and Bangladesh and for criticizing militant Islam as well advocating inter-faith harmony. Barack Obama might have thought that, any effort from his end would annoy those anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli voters in United States. But, Mark Steven Kirk clearly stood against such gross violation of human rights on me and continued his frantic bids, till he was successful in setting me out of prison.

Even after my release from Bangladeshi prison after 17 months, Rep. Mark Steven Kirk did not stop his efforts till today in pressing demand of dropping the false charges that was brought against me by an Islamist coalition government in Bangladesh.

It may be mentioned here that, Bangladeshi previous government brought sedition, treason and blasphemy charges against me, which is still under trial in a local court. According to Bangladeshi law, sedition bears capital punishment. Each time, when I visited United States, Mark Kirk met me and assured repeatedly that he is not going to stop continuing pressing Bangladeshi government until they drop the false charges and set me free.

Even in May 2007, during the military controlled interim regime in Bangladesh, when I was abducted at gun point by the members of rapid Action Battalion and taken to their office blindfolded, Mark Kirk immediately took all out efforts in setting me free from the virtual death trap of Rapid Action Battalion, which is infamous for extra-judicial murders.

Mark Steven Kirk has saved my life and still fighting for setting me free from the charges brought by the Islamist alliance government. For all such reasons, I am fully convinced that, he is a man of integrity and firm determination and commitment. To my own judgment, Mark Steven Kirk is the champion defender of human rights.

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