Chicago SEIU protest report

Tomorrow morning I will post my entry about what happened at the Joel Pollak fundraiser inside the Four Seasons Hotel in Chicago. First I want to discuss the protest outside the hotel.

During the luncheon, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee, endorsed Pollak, the GOP candidate for Congress in my district, Illinois' 9th. Ryan, who represents a southeastern Wisconsin district, is the author of the Roadmap for America's Future. Ryan says social security is going bankrupt, and I don't think a single sane person disagrees with him. Too few workers will be funding too many retirees--it's a numbers game. Ryan that workers under 55 be given the opportunity to invest one-third of their social security taxes into personal retirement accounts. The protesters, most of whom are over 55, were waving signs "Hands off My Social Security." Ryan's plan won't effect them, and besides, he wants to strengthen social security.

There were about 50 protesters.

Initially it was believed that MoveOn.org was organizing the rally, but this was a Service Employee International Union operation, I believe. Although with these leftists, it's hard to tell where one group ends and another begins. Which brings me to the picture on the upper left. The man in the blue sport coat is Keith Kelleher, a longtime SEIU organizer. For years he was the head organizer of SEIU Local #880, which was started by the disgraced community organizing group ACORN--the serial voter registration fraudsters. Kelleher once claimed he was "a field organizer, lead organizer and head organizer for ACORN."

Here's what Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL), the GOP candidate for the US Senate in Illinois, wrote last fall about this two-headed monster:

SEIU Local 880, which until recently boasted it was founded by ACORN, used an ACORN e-mail address on its Web site and tax filings, was co-located with an ACORN "tax center" and employed the former president of ACORN Illinois, according to official records. Recently, the IRS terminated is relationship with ACORN tax preparation offices.

Local #880 is now SEIU Healthcare Illinois Indiana, Kelleher is still in charge.

Whose "roadmap" would you believe in? Ryan's? Or a gaggle led by a former ACORN organizer?

On the lower left is John Gaudette, who is the organizing director for Citizen Action/Illinois. If he looks familiar, it's because he was the astroturfer shown on Fox News last summer coaching attendees to chant "Health Care Now" at a Jan Schakowsky townhall at near my home at Niles West High School. Robert Creamer, the husband of Pollak's opponent, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, was caught kiting checks while serving as executive director of this organization. He spent five months in prison for fraud and tax evasion for his avionics.

Yikes! Democrats, this is your party.

Gaudette must have liked the way I looked, he took about a dozen pictures of me. I took only two of him. Perhaps he was trying to intimidate me, which isn't easy, although a rattlesnake in Utah succeeded.

I spoke with some of the protesters, who (surprise!) knew nothing about the Roadmap for America's Future, other than Ryan wants to privatize it, which is a colossal distortion.

Once again, Ryan wants to strengthen social security.

What I witnessed this afternoon could be a preview of the Democrats' counterattack against the GOP this fall. Using imaginary assaults on social security to scare voters hasn't worked for them before. But it could be the only thing they can come up with this year. If that's the case, the Dems are in a worse predicament than I thought.

Coming in November: The Great Correction.

Related post:

SEIU goons fail to disrupt Joel Pollak fundraiser

Technorati tags: Congress Illinois illinois politics chicago elections news joel pollak Schakowsky Jan Schakowsky wisconsin politics paul ryan republican wisconsin SEIU labor unions organized labor Robert Creamer law ACORN vote Mark Kirk