Personal Aside: Possibly a Good Republican State Ticket Abuilding (Cross My Fingers).

The pathetic but viable resurrection of Roland Burris—or at least the re-emergence of Lazarus from the tomb…ala the p. r. magic of Del Marie Cobb…has given the state GOP new life: if it doesn’t blow it (but don’t count on it).

The mobilization by Ms. Cobb of vocal black ministers and the always reliable Black Caucus of the City Council has frightened that political wind-sock Gov. Quinn so he has rushed to the blacks…including the ever-present basso-profundo-voiced (sing me a chorus of “Old Man River”) Rep. Dannuy Davis…and for all practical purposes has veered away from his view that Burris should resign and we should have a special election. Now Windsock Quinn is pulling back to his original position…I guess it was his original one, he has taken so many different tacks he’s hard to follows…of Burris sticks around and runs for Senate in 2010.

Ms. Cobb has richly earned her consultancy fee. What we have now is a seriously flawed specimen of mediocrity for the U.S. Senate, ripe for the pickings if the GOP can run a good candidate (since Roskam is unavailable I’ll grudgingly listen to entreatments for Mark Kirk)…if Kirk can somehow mollify his North Shore Planned Parenthood rant (most of the GOP base is for un-planned parenthood as am I).

So the ticket is a-building. Kirk for Senate (maybe if he changes to reasonable)…a good pro-life candidate (unnamed as yet for governor) who can capitalize on Quinn’s likely income tax hike and his likely suggestion of a progressive income tax for the future (on top of Obama’s taxes, oops!)…a good pro-life candidate for AG…a good pro-life candidate for secretary of state…I’ll even take Judy Baar Topinka who wants to run for her old treasurer job (she has a following and let her mould away in that registry) …a good pro-life candidate for comptroller…and I’ll take Paul Vallas running for president of the Cook county board (once I try to get him to moderate an instinctive but perhaps not indissoluble stand on social values).

That’s coalition building, my friends. And maybe…who knows…a ticket that can win despite all the tugging and hauling within the Republican family! What do you say?