Topinka Will Boycott WTTW-City Club Debate

Evidently miffed because one of her opponents released an interview with her ex-deputy who said she received money from George Ryan’s notorious McCook commercial license center, State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka has told WTTW that she will not attend the debate the station co-sponsors with the City Club of Chicago March 16. Efforts are being made to turn that decision around but it’s anybody’s guess if they will be successful.

Whether she doesn’t want to face the heat or has decided on a “Rose Garden strategy,” she is running the risk of being regarded as too fragile to take on the attack leveled by Jim Oberweis. While Topinka has been scored by a number of journalists, she has been defended against Oberweis by two—Rich Miller in Capitolfax and Carol Marin, of the Sun-Times who cited Miller’s research in defending Topinka. Miller and Marin are extraordinarily sensitive persons, known for aesthetic sensibilities. They have used similar kid language to disparage Oberweis’ attack on Topinka. Miller, a veteran in Illinois politics, describes the Oberweis criticism as “icky.” That’s right: icky. Icky! What about icky poo? That’s little kid language. I didn’t know Miller was such a delicate flower. My goodness, if he were in Washington covering the séances between Bill Clinton and Monica and Dick Morris massaging a prostitute’s toes Miller might faint dead away. It’s good this gentle person has been spared such indignities.

Now, for her part, Marin said the issue involving Topinka and her deputy was “creepy.” That’s right: creepy. Little girl talk. What’s creepy—the idea of a Treasurer and her Deputy dating? Or that money came from Topinka by his testimony from the notorious McCook facility delivered by a future convict? That’s not evidently creepy since Marin doesn’t mention it in her column. She added that to her Oberweis is creepy just as that other tender flower Miller says Oberweis is slimy. Goodness, dwacious! A marvelous and sophisticated terminology for these tender blossoms who supposedly know something about politics. This enlarged pretense of fainting dead away comes as a jointly managed theatrical device to produce mock horror at one who is a social conservative and both Miller and Marin know it. Icky. Creepy. These words should rank with the all-time lexicon of top Chicago journalists—Howard Vincent O’Brien, Finley Peter Dunne, Sydney J. Harris, Mike Royko. Icky. Creepy.

Incidentally, what ever happened to the promise from Terry Barnich, Topinka’s campaign manager, that he would produce the two women Kovarik named as witnesses to the deal—women who would deny all? Unless I missed it, there has been no appearance. That’s icky, too.

What these two Big Foot journalists should do to help their favorite, Topinka, is to get her to dry her tears and show up for the debate as she had promised. Anyone who can’t face up to attacks from a Republican after having dealt with old Bill Lipinski to torpedo Jim Nalepa and swap high-fives with that solemn minister Bobby Rush to hustle black votes from Tom Dart ought to be able to manage an appearance.