Laura Washington, you should keep your day job. You’ll never make it as a Democratic party strategist, although to be sure your heart belongs to that party.
You said yesterday in the Sun-Times that Alexi Giannoulias is a heavy drag on the Democratic ticket—and will be knocked off by Mark Kirk. Right you are! You said that if the Democrats know what’s good for them they’d replace him. Right again.
Then you suggested three possible names. One: Lisa Madigan. Laura, do you think Madigan’s nuts? Giving up a job that is extra high in media visibility and a natural conduit to a future governorship for a chance to become a junior U. S. Senator to Dickie Durbin? Two: Bill Daley. Laura, this guy is making a fortune and is ready to take on a second wife! Does he need to have the details of his divorce aired as I assure you it will (after, all, Dick Mell threatened to do that when Bill wanted to run against Blago…and Bill pulled out). Beyond that, do you think the name “Daley” is golden this year across the state?
Three: Rahm Emanuel. Laura! Laura! Do you think the return to Illinois of the guy who brainstormed the Louisiana Purchase (to get Mary Landrieu’s vote), the Connecticut Hospital Deal (to reward Chris Dodd) and the Cornhusker Rental which caused Nebraska senator Ben Nelson to upchuck the thing as an embarrassment fits the political mood of these turbulent reformistic times? Naw.
There’s only one course for the Illinois Democratic party to take—that is to replace Giannoulias with a candidate so fiery that she could…understand I say could… vault over the Republican blockers, knock Kirk for a loop and run unimpeded to the goalposts. A take-no-prisoners candidate aided by the savviest strategist of the Left who rallied the down-and-out Democratic party after Massachusetts and wrote the battle plan that caused them to win health care. Who would that be?
Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky of course! You don’t have to guess where she stands on any number of issues—the possessor of 100% ADA, ACLU, AFSCME and League of Conservation Volunteers ratings. Does she have fire in the belly? Of course! She wanted to run for the seat originally! Her 9th district seat would be safe—filled by either Joe Moore or Julie Hamos, of equal firepower on the Left.
What would Schakowsky bring to the ticket? First, she’d bring her brainy albeit Che Guevara-style husband, Bob Creamer, whose strategy to get ObamaCare passed was put to the test and succeeded. Second, her campaign would hoist no pale pastel battle standard but one painted in vivid colors. Third, her candidacy would activate the grassroots Left to compete with the grassroots Right. Fourth, she’d be a in good position to attack Kirk since her district adjoins his.
As one who has read Bob’s book, I fully agree with his theory that in times of trouble you run straight on at the enemy; you don’t fade back. Bill Daley and Rahm would spend their campaigns defending The Squid. Schakowsky would spend the campaign assailing the evil conservatives…and could very well put them on the defensive with the perversely brilliant forensic style she has in debate.
You think I’m suggesting Schakowsky because I want to send her into a buzz-saw? Of course I do! But there’s something in this advice that tells me the Dems would be smart to follow it.
Smart, but they don’t have the guts.
Vat’s This? The word’s going around Washington that Obama and the Left who have moved us to the status of a European state-controlled democracy will more than likely want to pay for it by having the National Deficit Commission…organized to come up with a strategy after this November’s election on how to cut the deficit and the debt…come up with the recommendation that the U. S. adopt the Value Added Tax or national sales tax which would be just like Europe’s. It would trigger as well-spring of revenue and allow the Left the option of presenting a good many other socialist ideas. It’s bound to be a key debate issue in 2012.
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*: St. Turibius de Mogrovejo [1538-1606]. The archbishop of Lima, Peru. He was born in Mayorga de Campos, Valladolid, Spain and became professor of law at the highly regarded University of Salamanca. His intellectual attainments led to his being named Grand Inquisitor of Spain by King Philip II. Ah but luck was on his side which decided not just his future but his future canonization. The mails were so slow then (a little slower than they are here today) that when his appointment as Grand Inquisitor of Spain arrived he was already on his way to Peru, having been freshly ordained before he got on the ship…so he was spared that awful title.
A year after he got to Peru he was ordained Archbishop. He began his mission traveling on foot, baptizing and teaching the natives. He traversed the entire length of his diocese…180,000 square miles…three times generally on foot, frequently alone and defenseless, exposed to wild beasts, tropical heat, fevers and dangers from hostile tribes.
Believe it or not he personally baptized nearly 500,000…among them St. Rose of Lima and St. Martin de Porres. He built schoolhouses, roads, chapels, hospitals and convents and founded in Lima the first seminary of the Western hemisphere. He launched building of the Lima cathedral. At Pacasmayo he contracted a fever but continued laboring until, dragging himself to the sanctuary where he received the Eucharist, he died on March 23, 1606. He was beatified by Innocent XI in 1679 and was canonized by Benedict XIII in 1726.
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