IL-8: Talk Radio, Trial Lawyers & Abortion

Republicans running in 8th Congressional District of Illinois to unseat Democrat Rep. Melissa Bean continue their bickering. Republican David McSweeney went on Al Salvi's radio show on WKRS 1220 AM to discuss the issues of the day. Al Salvi served two terms in the Illinois House of Representatives as a Republican and lost to Senator Dick Durbin in a 1996 Senate race. So, you would think Republican wingnut Al Salvi and Republican wingnut David McSweeney will have a love feast on the radio.

Wrong, Al Salvi is married to an other Republican wingnut Kathy Salvi who is running against David McSweeney in the Republican March 21 primary. Al Salvi and Kathy Salvi are both trial lawyer who are partners with Tom Delay clone Peter Roskam in the law firm of Salvi, Roskam & Maher. The word trial lawyers is use by Republicans as a negative and insult. So, when the caller on Republican trial lawyer Al Salvi show calls this wife a trial lawyer Al Salvi goes on the offensive.

The first caller said, "Kathy Salvi is a trial lawyer and it seems to me ..."

Of course, being a trial lawyer nowadays is a negative. Particu-larly on the issue of tort reform. The caller immediately raised the ire of Al Salvi, who, a few minutes later, began attacking McSweeney on abortion.

McSweeney is pro-life, but Salvi contended that McSweeney had a different position in 1998 when he challenged then-U.S. Rep. Phil Crane in the primary. During that race, McSweeney said he favored banning abortion after a pregnancy reached eight weeks.

Republican wingnut attack an other Republican wingnut on not being anti-choice enough, it gets better.

McSweeney has begun airing a radio ad that repeatedly and almost comically refers to Salvi as "injury trial lawyer Kathy Salvi" For her part, Salvi had automated calls made to district residents last week asking them to please disregard the ad.

lol, what next claims of plant callers and a Richard Nixon insult?

Al Salvi contends that several callers to his show were plants by McSweeney. The theory goes that McSweeney went on the show hoping to draw fire so he then go could negative. It's the Gulf of Tonkin incident of radio interviews, if you will.

Al Salvi told me that McSweeney was the "sleaziest" person he had dealt with in three years of doing radio, adding that McSweeney "made Richard Nixon look like a choirboy."

Al Salvi has not official role his wife campaign. Republicans are not following Ronald Reagan's 11th Commandment, "Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican.".

Rebuttal to David McSweeney's Attacks

Until last week, this was a friendly campaign based on the issues with all candidates agreeing and disagreeing face-to-face in public forums. Unfortunately, David McSweeney chose to change this with negative attack advertising.

McSweeney's slash and burn radio ad says Liberal Democrats in Congress will have a friend in Kathy Salvi. This is an out-and-out falsehood. Kathy Salvi has repeatedly taken positions in opposition to the liberal Democrats in Congress on virtually every issue including: the War on Terror, wasteful spending, taxes and the right to life.

McSweeney attacks Kathy Salvi on the issue of lawsuit reform. Kathy Salvi has made it clear that she would have supported the recent Republican legislation to curb lawsuit abuse. She supports those reforms at the federal and state level.

It is unfortunate David McSweeney feels the need to make such inflammatory statements as "Kathy Salvi stands with Democrats."

David McSweeney hits back with this own press release.

Kathy Salvi Campaign Meltdown Continues:
Candidate's spouse calls McSweeney an "ass" and a "nut"

Barrington Township: David McSweeney, candidate for Congress in Illinois' 8th Congressional District, was attacked personally, once again, by the spouse of one of his opponents in the Republican Primary. Al Salvi, Personal Injury Trial Lawyer Kathy Salvi's spouse, unleashed a verbal barrage in the Waukegan News-Sun newspaper against McSweeney. The recent attack marks the fourth day in a row of attacks. [..]

"Our campaign asked the Salvi campaign to apologize for the personal attacks on David McSweeney. Instead, the attacks continue and, in fact, have reached new lows. Clearly, the Salvi campaign is spinning out of control. Kathy Salvi has issued 'no comments' in response to questions about this unfortunate chain of events and her campaign, incredibly, tries to say that their candidate's spouse has nothing to do with the campaign. I can understand the Salvi camps claim that the candidates spouse had a bad day but I don't buy the fact that he is having a bad week," said McSweeney Campaign Manager Jim Thacker. [..]

"It is unfortunate that the Salvi camp has resorted to the personal name calling. I hope that Kathy Salvi can get control of her husband and please ask him to stop the trash talk. Kathy is a very nice person, and I wanted to believe that she was not associated with her husband's remarks but after enduring at least three days of this I am left scratching my head as to what is real and what is not from the Salvi campaign," said David McSweeney.

The Illinois GOP continue to make fool out of themselves. Once again, Democrat Mellissa Bean is a way better choice for 8th Congressional District of Illinois than a typical rubber stamp or rubber room conservative.