The Hound could quote Yakov Smirnoff about "What a country!", but in fact what happened since Feb. 2 to the Illinois Democratic Party could only take place here in the not-so-great Land of Lincoln. Dem party bosses didn't learn from the Rod Blagojevich-Roland Burris-Pat Quinn debacle. So they got a refresher course from Scott Lee Cohen, the party's former lite governor candidate.
Cohen says he's resigning from the ticket and going back to being whatever he was before: Pawnbroker, green entrepreneur, dead-beat dad, massage/spa customer. Which leaves Illinois Democrats a do-over to pick a new running mate for Quinn. The Hound figures it will be someone from outside Chicago, and not state Sen. Terry Link, D-Waukegan, who came in last in the lieutenant governor race on Feb. 2. Perhaps state Rep. Mike Boland of East Moline, or then again some nobody from Christian County with less hair than Quinn.
The Hound finds it surprising that party leaders or the two Democratic gubernatorial candidates didn't vet Mr. Cohen's candidacy. Guess that won't happen again because voters nor the mainstream Illinois media certainly didn't investigate the candidates. It's a tough job to look into a candidate's past, but some party functionary will be vetting candidates running for everything from lite gov. to precinct committeemen from now on.
But if Mr. Cohen had a shady past, what do you do with the candidate who won the party's nomination for U.S. Senate? His baggage is starting to rear its ugly side. He can talk about jobs all he wants, but he won't talk about his family's Chicago bank and loans that were made to certain individuals? The media big boys let one slip by them. The Hound believes they won't let another one off the hook.
I think you mean Yakov Smirnoff
THE HOUND SEZ: Of course!
It's interesting that you don't acknowledge that the media played a big role in allowing the voters to nominate Cohen. Your own parent paper, The Sun Times, was the only one to report about Cohen's past. But the News Sun said nothing. There's a lot of blame to go around, but perhaps you should point the finger at yourselves before directing it at others. Doesn't the press operate on the franchise of the 'people's' right to know? If you profit from exercising the 'people's' right, don't you have a responsibility to help inform them? And now you make snarky remarks about Democratic Party leadership? Didn't Link call upon all the democrats in Lake County to refrain from personal attacks? And your own staff is well aware that these democratic primaries in Lake County could have descended into personal attacks, but they did not. It's just sad that those who claim the 'people's' right to know decided to just sit back and watch the fun.
THE HOUND SAYS: The Hound takes as much blame as the next Democratic leader and voter in the Scott Lee Cohen debacle. So Lake County Dem Party boss Terry Link asked candidates to refrain from personal attacks? Did that include the entire state? And would pointing out Mr. Cohen's failings be a personal attack? The Hound doesn't think so.
it's Y-A-C-K-O-V....Not Y-A-K-I-M.......
Now that we got THAT out of the way, why do the media keep bringing Blago & his brother, Roland Burris, and Quinn to the forefront???
People probably just want to forget about all that garbage, but every time they turn around, they're being reminded of some horribly wrong choices they made...When people forget about guys like that, LET IT BE.........Nobody wants to be constantly reminded of what a couple extremely poor choices they made when electing those guys....Leave well enough alone.The sooner they're all forgotten about, the sooner they will all just fade into oblivion....
THE HOUND SAYS: They will not be fading away soon because Blago will be on the next Donald Trump "The Apprentice" and his trial is scheduled to begin just as the November election campaigns kick off. Remember, Joe, if that is your real name, Blago didn't have any political skeletons in his closet per Scott Lee Cohen when he was first elected. The swill of Illinois politics drove him to having his hand out.
You would think that the media outlets, which didn't have a problem using their resources to force open up Hull's and Ryan's court records, would have no problem doing a little background check on candidates for State office. Especially during this election when the balance of power in Illinois may be at stake. I know that newspapers are in trouble, but they can't at least get somebody to do a Google search?
THE HOUND SAYS: No argument here, Hermie.