Awesome Is As Awesome Does

Rumor has it that Peter Roskam's campaign staffers never have to wait for the Chinese take-out delivery guy. That's because lobbyists pay for staffers' carfare to the restaurant. Haha, as readers of this blog are wantonly aware ...

A Chinese Junket

Peter Roskam, a Congressman who represents Lake County, got himself into a chinese cucumber pickle by having taken $25,000 from a questionable source for an opportunity to visit Taiwan. Lake County's newspaper of record, the Daily Herald, was not amused -- and, in an editorial, demanded that Roskam ...

Please explain to us and to your suburban constituents why, legal or not, you should accept a free junket apparently engineered by a foreign government that is interested in influencing your exercise of power? In fact, why should you accept a free junket sponsored by anyone seeking to influence you? Please explain to us why, legal or not, you should accept a free trip for your wife, paid for by a private grant that apparently had been engineered by that same foreign government?
Editorial: Roskam, ethics and an oddly funded trip to Taiwan

Smart politicians who are the target of undesirable media quickly pivot to damage control mode. When bad press appears on the Internet, operatives and staff are directed to post rebuttals at the offending websites.

Roskam was the beneficiary of one high-profile proponent -- Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran -- who took the Daily Herald to task on their own turf. Parachuting into the Daily Herald website, Curran dropped an A-Bomb in the comment section of the offending editorial ...

Editorial: Roskam, ethics and an oddly funded trip to Taiwan

... and like a special op, Curran was out as swiftly as he got in.

Operatives faint of heart are advised to avert their eyes. The Daily Herald is punk'd -- Mark Curran lays the smackdown!