Thoughts While Shaving: About that Crazed Sex Poodle…And Also About Elena Kagan.

                                   Gore.  

              I’ve held off commenting about the guy the 54-year-old lady massage therapist called “a crazed sex poodle,” the forty-fifth vice president of the United States, Al Gore. 

             Sex-crazed sex poodle he may be but he’s still boring. It shows you how wrong you can be in politics. If anybody qualifies for the title of “crazed sex poodle” is would be Bill Clinton: not Gore.  In fact I can’t fathom a man who looks less like a crazed sex poodle.  Oh wait. I can.  David Souter has all the wanton passion of a gerbil. People used to say he’s gay because he is a bachelor and lives even today in the heart of the New Hampshire woods with his mother. I don’t think so.  There are some people born without the vital juices, vital fluids that propel them to women: they’re not gay…but not unlike a bottle of 7-Up that’s been uncorked too long and ran out of fizz. 

              Initially I had two thoughts about Gore.   

              Here’s the first.   When he announced he was splitting from Tipper after 40 years this is what I told myself in time-honored 1940s Chicago idiom: 

          Listen, when a guy ditches his wife after that long a time, there’s got to be a tootsie involved.  That’s what I still think. And I’ll bet it’s Laurie David, the ex-wife of Larry, who steered Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth to the screen and got him an award for it. At the Academy Awards, she looked up at him with that adulation that sickens me.  Utterly nauseates me.  But then I’m not a sex poodle.  She’s a middle-aged type with a deep Hollywood tan: no looker but a fine set of choppers.  Yet…shallow as a pie tin. She really believes this stuff about global warming and saving the planet. 

           The second thought I had was this: I doubted the masseuse’s tale because I thought she was trying to make some money off a purely spurious association…either blackmail…pay me $1 million or I’ll tell…or sell the story to The Enquirer for $1 million.  

            Now I’ve started to be persuaded that the masseuse can be on the level.  For one thing, Gore has confirmed that his 2006 schedule shows  he did arrange for her services in Oregon.  He’s so goofy he would try to become the Leader of the Free World he never made… and order her to do things no 54 year old self respecting woman would be asked to do.  

            Here’s how I rationalize it.  Gore was a strange one to begin with. Remember when he debated Bush and while Bush was making his statement, Gore walked up and stood next to him?  That was the weirdest event in presidential debates I ever saw.  Bush looked sidewise at him and said Hello!  Can I help you!   

           Just calculate how tough it is to lose any election…but especially one where you’ve defeated your opponent in popular votes.  You must have to rationalize it over and over. What could I have done to carry just a handful of electoral votes more than I got?  And especially Tennessee?  You drive your wife crazy with the “what if’s”  Tipper has a depression neurosis anyhow and hearing this over and over…maybe in bed in the middle of the night…is likely more than she could take. She probably said: 

          Listen, goddamit, what’s past is past, you got me? 
         But that’s not what he wants to hear.  He wants to hear this:

        Sweet love, you are indeed the most intellectual and astute leader of this planet.  I really think you’re second only to Jesus Christ.  No wait a minute! You’re ahead of Christ!  You’ve passed Him up!   You’re Number One.  He came here to save people with the qualification that they BELIEVE.  You are striving to save  the planet without qualification…whether the people on it believe you or not.   You are a man of destiny, vision!  No without a doubt you’re greater than Christ.  I feel it. I know it! 

          There is no wife who would say this because her tongue would stick to the roof of her mouth.  But a tootsie would say it.  Get me? Once she becomes his No. 2 wife she’d drop it but for now?  Yeah.  

          Just yesterday Gore spoke to 2,200 corporate human resource people in San Diego…but he took no questions. I think his choice of an audience is strange.  Human Resource people in corporations are those who you get sent to if in the estimation of your boss you need anger management…or if he’s had a complaint about your attitude or over-friendliness to women. Probably each of the 2,200 were sitting there no concentrating on global warming at all but speculating about this guy’s case management.  

                                        Kagan. 

                Talk about boring: that interminable Senate Judiciary session with Elena Kagan was stultifying.  But I don’t know why somebody doesn’t bring those sessions to life. 

                 By asking her this question: 

                Mme. Solicitor General…are you a lesbian? 

               The reason I’m asking you is this.  You have been identified with gay, lesbian, transgender issues for years…and you came to prominence as Dean of the Harvard Law School by fighting military recruiters come to your campus because you regard the military’s adherence to “Don’t ask, don’t tell” as an insult to gay closeted recruits. I will say parenthetically that you fought the military in this case unjustly because as a Law School Dean you should know that the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” rule came from the Congress and was signed into law by Bill Clinton for whom you worked in the White House.  Now your president is trying to end that qualification and make mandatory the fullest of expression of gay people who want to join the military. 

              I take it you support him in this…the goal to encourage people to come out of the closet. For that reason I’m asking you to come out of the closet—if in fact you are in the closet.  You can tell us.  

             If it makes sense for people joining the military to declare whether or not they’re gay…it should make even more sense for people appointed to the U. S. Supreme Court for a lifetime term.   

             Thus I ask again: Are you a lesbian? You’re 50 years old and single. Not known for dating men.  When news of your appointment to the Court came out, a CBS reporter blurted out on the wire that your appointment would be the outing for a self-declared lesbian Justice.  Now the White House has denied you’re one but I think you should declare whether you are or not. 

              And before you respond: Let me tell you that a woman friend of yours…a former college roommate…said a remarkable thing. She said that you are not a lesbian but that you are so concerned about hurting the feelings of gays and lesbians that you don’t want to declare you are not which can be assumed by them that you are distancing yourself from them.  This I must say is an extraordinary rationalization but at this hearing we have been dancing around the central issue here.  And it has to do with your own sexual orientation. 

             You say with stunning untruth, let me say, that you did not try to block military recruiting at Harvard.  You most certainly did and you know you did. The only thing that called you off was the threat that Harvard would be penalized from receiving federal funds if the blockade went through.  So you compromised and used the Harvard Veterans group to sponsor it.  And this answer you gave earlier about not wanting to entertain a discrimination that is not consonant with Harvard’s own anti-bias rulings is bunk. Total bunk. You backed off and let the Veterans group handle it because you didn’t want to take the heat for Harvard’s losing its federal funds. 

             That being said…I invite you to tell us now: 

            Are you a lesbian?  

          Are you a practicing lesbian?  

         If you are a lesbian how you can rule on the Court concerning issues affecting gays and lesbians when you stand to benefit from such rulings as a lesbian?  I eagerly await your answer. 

Thoughts While Shaving: An Old Windbag at Last Runs Out of Wind…A Younger Windbag Will Strive to Make Gun Ownership Here Next to Impossible. More.

Feast of Saints Peter and Paul* 

       

                                     The Old Windbag.

      All this stentorian rhetoric about “the soul of the Senate has died” causes any objective student of that body to wretch.  U. S. Senator Robert Byrd had only one accomplishment: one. He knew the arcane Senate procedure well enough to bring so many federal installations paid for by taxpayers that the whole state is in danger of sinking into the ground.   Everything else…his legendary astuteness, his encyclopedic knowledge of Senate procedure which antedates to Rome, is baloney.  He postured as a constitutionalist and always carried in his breast pocket a copy of the Constitution.   How sensitive of him! Guardian of the Constitution, my eye. What he did for the Constitution aside from rasping its virtues is unclear.  

       Early in his career, he applied the maxim of George Washington Plunkett, the old faker who was a legend in the New York state Senate: “I seen my opportunities and I took `em.”   He saw himself standing like the oracle Cato against the line-item veto, the old crustacean saying “I will stand back here and let my bones crumble under me until I no longer have breath in me.  Such a process is a lethal…lethal…lethal aggrandizement of the chief executive’s role in the legislative process.  Lethal.  Deadly. It is a gross…gross…colossal distortion of the congressional power of the purse.  It is a dangerous proposition, a wolf in the sheep’s clothing of fiscal responsibility!”  The line-item veto would have enabled a president to block the old charlatan from hustling more money for his state which he carefully supervised would be dedicated to his name.  

        He made a pledge once that he would deliver $1 billion in federal grants in five years: he made it a reality in three years. So in West Virginia there is the Robert C. Byrd Highway…two Robert C. Byrd federal buildings…the Robert C. Byrd Freeway…the Robert C. Byrd Center for Hospitality and Tourism…the Robert C. Byrd Drive…and the Robert C. Byrd Hardwood Technologies Center.

      So, it can be asked: What did that old faker know of fiscal responsibility? He never saw an appropriation he didn’t inflate.  The first day he entered the Senate he made a beeline like a flat-nosed hog to the trough under the sponsorship of Lyndon Johnson.   Careful not to antagonize his old racist roots, he led a filibuster against the 1964 civil rights bill.  He also voted against the confirmation of Thurgood Marshall, the first black nominated to serve on the Supreme Court. 

         As a young hustler running for the West Virginia House of Delegates in 1944, he sent this letter to Sen. Theodore Bilbo (D-Miss.), the ranking black-hater in the Senate who was opposing integration of the military services.  

        “I shall never fight in the armed services with a Negro by my side. Rather I should die a thousand times and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.”  

         Shortly after writing that letter, he was named Grand Wizard of the West Virginia Ku Klux Klan. 

         He was spectacularly wrong on most issues…but was okay on pro-life, okay on increasing missile defense. Opposed tax cuts because he couldn’t believe they would stimulate economic growth. Opposed the Iraq War because he couldn’t recognize that it was the first and only time in our battles with the Muslims that we struck back tellingly rather than taking it on the chin.   He led a crusade that probably contributed to the Democrats’ loss of the Senate in 2002.  One was his opposition to the bill setting up the Department of Homeland Security. That and his opposition to Iraq was used by Republicans to snare the Senate.   He never used the word filibuster but that’s what he did on Homeland Security until Joe Lieberman broke it. He stalled the Iraq War resolution insisting on a clause-by-clause debate until Tom Daschle made a wording change that caused Byrd’s motion to be ruled out of order. 

         The Old ex-Klansman tried a final time to cleanse his august senatorial robes by coming out for Barack Obama for president. He called the man who almost unarguably is the worst president whose very patriotism and lack of support of exceptionalism for America is suspect this: “He is a shining young statesman who possesses the personal temperament and courage to extricate our country from this costly misadventure in Iraq and to lead our nation at this challenging time in history.”  

         Byrd’s opposition to the Iraq War caused him to be glorified by the liberal media.  You can always trust The New York Times to revere its own.  Two old Senate segregationists died in advanced age—Strom Thurmond at 100 and Byrd at 92.   The headline on the Thurmond story saidThurmond Dies, Foe of Desegregation.  The headline on Byrd’s was laudatory…in fact there wasn’t a mention in the obit of his Klansman days—just his fervent support of Obama for president. 

                             The Younger Windbag. 

       Immediately after the Supreme Court decision yesterday ratifying the 2^nd Amendment, the Younger Windbag…a man who cleaves to myth of gun control that ingratiates him to the Left…said the City Council will introduce legislation that will make it onerous and cumbersome to own a gun in Chicago. Thus Richard M. Daley who knows as well as anyone that gun control doesn’t work is groveling around for Left adulation heedless of whether his attempt to tie gun ownership in red tape will help people defend itself in a city where Daley’s own police department seems powerless to affect it. 

         Ah, gun control. That will gain him further kudos from Apassionata van Leftward aka the one-woman news monopolist (Sun-Times…Channel 5…Channel 11) Carol Marin whose passion burns unremittingly for all liberal causes and WTTW’s ring-bearer for same-sex marriage. 

                                Biden’s “Gaffes” Are More than That. 

       The liberal media of course don’t make much of the recurring statements from Joe Biden that are downright odd. The latest is that he called a Wisconsin grocer “a smart ass.”  The media, always keen on protecting Old Joe, keep on saying aw that’s Joe…rather profane. But he’s refreshing, don’t you think?  As when he embraced Obama on the passage of Health Care and whispered to him “This is a big f----- deal!”  

          No it’s not a case of Good Old Joe sounding off inappropriately. This guy has had two severe brain aneurisms, a highly precarious health record to be second in line for the presidency.     

         _____________________________________________________

    *: Saints Peter and Paul.  What more can be said about these two? Peter was the first Pope and leader of the Apostles.  His original name was Cimon but Jesus gave him the name “Peter” which is Greek or “Cephas” which is the Aramaic equivalent.  Peter and Cephas means Rock. What made Jesus’ choice of significant is that until then neither  Peter nor “Cephas” was used as a man’s name. Peter was indeed a rock but not a paragon.  He was rebuked by Jesus for misinterpreting the Messianic mission (John 18:10). His impetuosity was shown in the Garden where he attacked Malchus but cutting off his ear with his sword.  He was humiliated when led by cowardice he denied Jesus in the courtyard.  But none of these things reduce the assignment he received when Jesus said: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” 

         Paul was the most dynamic of the Apostles even though he was not one of the original 12. His original name was Saul and his conversion on the road to Damascus is famous.  When he began to preach Christianity, as a former persecutor of Christians, it was awkward. Barnabas eased his way, introducing him to groups who were wary of him at first.  This was so effective that the Church in Antioch commissioned Barnabas as leader and Paul and Mark as assistants to take a missionary voyage through Cyprus, Pamphylia, Iconoium, Lystra and Derbe. It is hard to think of Paul as an assistant…but this back-seat role didn’t last long.  There was the famous dramatic confrontation between Paul and Peter. In Jerusalem Paul urged a more flexible concept of Christianity than that of a circumcised Old Law Jew.  All viewpoints were heard for Paul’s won the day. 

         The voyages of Paul are well known. Only the street smarts of his followers saved Paul’s neck time and time again. Especially venomous were the Jews in Jerusalem. Paul’s greatest epistles were written when he was under house arrest awaiting trial…and death came to him finally in Rome under Nero’s persecution by beheading.

2011 Comes First with The Chicago Squid, Not Oil Spill, Deficits or Iran.

     Feast of St. Irenaeus*.         

     

As the nation worried last week about oil spill, Iran, immigration  and deficits, leaders of The Squid who control Chicago, Illinois and now national government, were engrossed in something else that has first priority. 

        It has to do with 2011. That’s the year the senior partner of The Squid, Mayor Richard M. Daley, is to run for reelection. This takes precedence over anything and everything else. 

               How Defeating a Local Prosecutor Elected Kennedy.  

      Those who believe The Squid thinks of national elections  before its own Chicago ones are sadly mistaken.  There is still extant the myth that in 1960 Richie’s father, Richard J., masterminded massive vote fraud in order to elect John F. Kennedy over Richard Nixon on the sentimental pretext that Kennedy like Daley was Irish Catholic and Daley wanted to help elect the first Catholic president in U.S. history. 

     No way.  

       Richard I was not in the slightest sentimental over a future Catholic president but was a cold-eyed politician concerned about himself solely. The old man masterminded massive vote fraud not to elect Kennedy but to defeat a long forgotten Republican states attorney named Ben Adamowski(the county’s prosecutor) who was out to convict Squid crooks. Earlier, ex-Democrat Adamowski closed down illegal gambling dens, gained convictions in the circuit courts and the Summerdale police scandal where cops were conspiring to burgle dozens of North Side retail establishments. He needed one more term as prosecutor and then…as a popular Pole from the Northwest Side…he’d run against Daley himself for mayor. 

         This threat was regarded  by the then Squid with the same urgency as the Great Fire of 1871. The presidency was ignored.    

        To rid themselves of Adamowski, Daley’s Squid hustled every available illegal vote by rustling up ghost voting and fraudulent multi-voting by the Syndicate-controlled “River Wards.” As one who headed an independent anti-vote fraud organization in the `70s, I heard the stories of the infamous `60 election.  I remember Bernie Carey who was running as a Republican in the `70s tell me he made a nocturnal visit to a storefront polling place before it’s opening at 6 p.m. The store’s lights were on and Dem precinct captains were working the voting machines.  The way the machines were run in those days was that you stepped inside the booth, pulled the lever and the curtains rang closed to ensure voter privacy.  As Bernie watched outside the storefront, the voting booth curtains were opening and shutting with rapidity as Dem precinct captains were ringing up false totals before the polls opened. 

      To be Adamowski, drunks were rounded up in trucks and delivered to the polls, each receiving a chicken for food or a bottle of whiskey for sustenance as thanks for voting straight Democratic. The dead arose from their graves as if it were Resurrection Day and the last trumpet had sounded, voting the straight Democratic ticket. Precinct captains stood by as the curtains closed and timed how long the bums and derelicts stayed inside.

          Hired voters were expected to stay in the voting booths no longer than 3 minutes, enough to pull the lever on the voting machine for the straight Dem ticket. Any dilly-dallying meant they were inside the booth picking and choosing which was unacceptable. Meaning they wouldn’t ge4t a chicken or a bottle of booze. In addition in the River Wards election officials got to the polling places before they opened and rang up a good number of tallies, the curtains on the booths flying open and closing.  

       Ben Adamowski the honest prosecutor was defeated by 26,000 votes..  The undertow enabled JFK to carry Illinois by fewer than 9,000 out of 4.75 million cast.   Kennedy heaved a great sigh of relief and blessed Daley for his help. Naïve historians including the late Teddy White have since recorded that Daley motivated by Irish ethnic pride, Catholic solidarity and/or love of the Democratic party came through for his young compatriot. 

          Hah!

          Every Chicagoan alive and politically aware then knew Daley did it for his own survival.  He could have taken Dick Nixon for president…or even Bugs Bunny…but not another term of Ben Adamowski as prosecutor—else many would go to jail. .  

                                   Daley Survival Comes First.

         Now once again, while other Dems are thinking how they can keep the Congress Democratic after 2010 and how they can reelect Obama, The Chicago Squid is concentrating exclusively on itself and Richard II’s reelection.  There is no doubt that the pro-abort, pro-gay rights mayor, age 68 is going to run for a 7^th term.  He dearly loves his wife Maggie who’s a cancer victim  and tears up whenever he mentions her but… 

           …he’ll run whether she’s alive or dead—unless his own health is so precarious as to be nearly terminal—which doesn’t seem likely.   His Squid co-pilot, Irish Catholic House Speaker Mike Madigan who’s also 68 (and a pro-lifer by convenience since he represents a conservative blue-collar pro-life district) prays for the day when his pro-abort, pro-gay rights stepdaughter Attorney General Lisa Madigan runs for governor—so he wants to remain politically viable…which means staying as Speaker and state Democratic chairman at least until she’s elected.  Staying in politics is also good for his multi-million-dollar net worth as he runs a law firm that gets reductions in personal property taxes for big businesses—dependent on his remaining close to the chairman of the Cook county Board of (Tax) Appeals who is also the Cook county Dem chairman.  

        The accommodative Catholic chancery, of course, continues to be mum about the Democratic party’s near top-to-bottom support of abortion and gay rights. It’s not brought up: a no-no.  

             Daley and Madigan aren’t close but nevertheless both are bound together like two men in a lifeboat on the high seas. Actually one is so voluble he’s gabby goofy (Daley) and the other is laconic and terse as Gary Cooper (Madigan) but in cold-blooded politics they’re like twin peas in a pod. Neither has thought of retiring. Retiring from politics is like going to Kenny Brothers funeral parlor, hopping in coffins made by Trappist monks and allowing them to shut the lid and screw it tight. Retiring from politics is to them like retiring from life. . 

            A few years ago Madigan’s Democratic state government and toady governor changed the office of mayor to “non-partisan” which means that there will be no Republican challenger—just a straight runoff.  It makes it easier for Daley to win in one fell swoop rather than be nominated by his party and run in the general. Last time he ran in 2007 he won by 70%. 70%.  

          The dates for reelection are drawing near. The first day to circulate petitions is Sept. 15 of this year. .  Deadline for filing the petitions isDec. 13. Election is Feb. 22, 2011—Washington’s birthday.  Term of office starts with the swearing-in, May 4, 2011.  

            If perchance Daley doesn’t run (because of terminal illness or death), other names mentioned are: Rahm Emanuel , Obama’s pencil-thin, eclectic, pro-abort, pro-gay rights, potty-mouthed, quirky, Jewish chief-of-staff who is wearing on Obama’s nerves and would soon get on Chicago’s…pro-abort, pro-gay rights Catholic Cong. Luis (Little Looie) Gutierrez the most radical Lefty in the Squid who is too emotionally mercurial to be effective who has egotistically all but announced leadership of Hispanics…city clerk Catholic pro-abort, pro-gay rights Miguel del Valle a less stentorian, lower key rival to Gutierrez for Hispanic leadership…and pro-abort, pro-gay rights Catholic States Attorney Anita Alverezho probably is the ablest and is certainly the most centrist and most diplomatic of the lot.  

                               The Daley Record: Pro and Con.  

           Because the media, big business, labor unions and the Left are allied with him along with the supine Chicago media (with one notable exception), Daley has compiled a record of pros and cons.  Last week the pro-Daley  Crain’s Chicago Business wrote this shockingly candid assessment:   

• What used to be Skid Row is a glittering façade of condo towers, businesses and restaurants; the population of the Near West and Near South Sides has tripled (mostly whites) and income has more than quadrupled.

• However parts of the city are seriously lagging and the city itself is hip-high in debt from the failed Olympics bid, Millennium park, expenses in slum removal for theatre districts—all because of massively under-funded city pensions and tax-increment financing subsidies handed out to city developers instead of what they were intended for—rehabbing poor neighborhoods.

• Bonded debt and long-term leases have risen much quicker than the city’s property tax base, amounting to $5,600 for each Chicagoan.  The budget gap is serious, created by Daley’s drive to make the city amenable for young professionals and big corporations such as new arrivals: Boeing, UAL and Miller-Coors.  He’s borrowed enormously for schools, parks and other agencies Daley controls.

• The nominal value of the city’s property-tax base since 1989 has risen faster than that of suburban Cook county: up 336% as compared to the suburbs’ 270%.  This is not entirely bad for Daley because those who choose to remain are usually better healed and white, more inclined to vote for Daley and not fool around with racial stereotypical demagogues.

        As result of the substantial black flight to the suburbs similar to white exodus in the `60s and `70s, Chicago is whiter and more middle-class, which helps the Irish who largely still control The Squid politically since growing minorities would be more inclined to press for the toppling of white  leadership. 

Unlike his father, Richard II does not face challenge from the

Left. I asked the ranking far-Left strategist in the nation who was on my ABC radio program last week if he was satisfied with Daley.  “Yes, indeed,” said Bob Creamer. “He’s a very effective mayor.” Old Man Daley refused to accommodate the Left because he couldn’t stand them.  Not so his son who has absorbed them into The Squid including unrepentant terrorist Billy Ayres and his wife Bernardine Dohrn.  

                                 

                              Gangs, Murder the Most Serious Problems. 

            The most serious problem Daley has is the reputation of Chicago for violence, bloodshed, murders and mayhem which equates with and sometimes exceeds Baghdad.  

           Last weekend alone there were 10 dead and 60 wounded across the city largely through gangs.  The shootings followed no pattern but the emergency rooms were frantically busy.  The youngest victim was a 1-year-old girl wounded when shots rang out at a barbecue at 12:15 a.m. on the Near West Side.  Questions like: what was a baby doing outside at that hour are not asked by either media or clergy.  The churches including my own Catholic one have forsaken their role of encouraging marriage and family solidarity.  Among the poor, family structure is almost non-existent as youth join Gangs that serve as substitute for non-families. Instead priests and ministers talk about “gun control,” and how bad the Nazi-like Arizona immigration law is.    

           Riding with the politically correct flow is Daley…along with his side-kick, the demagogic Catholic priest ally Fr. Michael Pfleger who received a top award from the archdiocese for “social justice.”   Both he and Pfleger as well as the police superintendent make a big deal of collecting guns from the neighborhoods—but everyone knows the poor need guns to protect themselves from criminals.  Forty-eight states have what is known as “conceal carry” where average people can acquire arms if they agree to firearms training.  But the liberal community is hotly against this—and therefore so is Daley.  

         To liberals including the media, the cause of murder and violence are inanimate objects—guns, not the personal irresponsibility of gangs which pack them and shoot cowboy-style at will. Pentecostal and evangelical Protestant churches so popular with blacks including thundering, oracular, charismatic ministers emphasizing more civil rights, more subsidies and higher taxes to be paid by the rich, scarcely if ever touch on the most salient issue of all: family breakup. This includes the Catholic archdiocese which seems not to stress personal responsibility but just concentrate on the inanimate: guns ostensibly being fired by themselves, with no human personal responsibility. .  

        This despite the skyrocketing rate of black out-of-wedlock births stands at 72.3% ore than three times the rate that existed when Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote his famous report in March, 1965 that identified Great Society government subsidies to women with children as responsible for driving fathers out of the family. White out-of-wedlock birth rate in 2008 was at 28.6%. When black illegitimacy was at that rate it alarmed Monyihan. Hispanics is at 52.5%according to the book Freedom is Not Enough [Basic Books, 2010] by James T. Patterson, professor emeritus at Brown University. 

                    Churches Ignore Marriage Issue. 

         Why aren’t churches of all denominations stressing marriage and family responsibility and pointing up the connection between single-headed families by women and poverty, gang membership with their children and murder?  It is seen as an insult to minorities to mention this fact.  A preacher who does is berated as a racist, concentrating on onerous personal responsibility resting on the poor instead of hailing more government largesse.  People tend to vacate such churches and contributions fall off.  

          Too, big media play the role of enablers. Editorial boards are too timid, politically correct or abjectly secular to stress marriage and family life.  Politicians are indisposed to wage what may be seen as an indictment of an entire class.  Daley shrewdly steers clear of the subject and sputters against the U. S. Supreme Court which seems poised to invalidate the Chicago gun ordinance as it did Washington, D. C. ‘s.   

            But the failure to stress marriage and family isn’t the main job of politicians or the police. It’s that of the churches. Churches could stress the need for adhering to the Judeo-Christian moral code and marriage rather than living together in herds but won’t. The reason is timidity and cowardice. 

        If there were an attempt to gather all the clergy…Protestant, Jewish and Catholic…form a Chicago Ministerial Society  and join in a mass campaign to encourage marriage and legitimate births, there could be some advance.  But timidity rules and nothing of significance is being done.  The archdiocese points to certain strictures that are mentioned in pre-Cana conferences but there is nothing publicized on a vast scale by it or other churches that reach the minority public.   

            You see, it’s not politically palatable.   And the Catholic archdiocese is nothing if not politically accommodating to The Squid.

            That being the case, Daley’s worst problem will be shucked off in favor of more money for police and more “gun control.” Encouragement for marriage will not mentioned by either he, any candidate who may run against him or from the pulpits. It will be strictly treated as mum by the media and the churches including the Catholic archdiocese here.  Instead churchmen seem to rail against any immigration restrictions such as Arizona’s as “Nazi-like” and rally for more subsidies from government.  

                          Public Opinion Growing More Conservative. 

          While Daley and The Squid concentrate on reelection, Barack Obama’s strategists in Washington are scratching their heads about trends they can’t understand.   Here less than two years ago, the country signaled what the Obama people thought was a sharp leftward turn in governance by electing a president who signified he would govern from the Left. They spent almost $800 billion in good old Keynesian, FDR style to win approval for forestalling a full-scale depression…and what has happened? Only 6% say the stimulus has provided jobs…according to a New York Times-CBS poll. . 

         They passed a universal health care law and 57% want it repealed. . Public opinion is moving against them on immigration, gun control, abortion, global warming and the role of government.  Since the last presidential election, voters who consider the Dems too liberal have grown from 39% to 49% says Gallup.  Stunningly, voters in swing districts believe “President Obama’s economic policies have run up a record federal deficit while failing to endthe recession or slow job losses,” by an alarming measure—57% to 37%.            

           Liberals can’t even count on Massachusetts to continue the Kennedy senate legacy: they elected Republican Scott Brown. New Jersey was supposed to be solid Squid territory: it elected a conservative Republican governor who told school teachers complaining about budget cuts to go find themselves other work if they don’t like the new austerity. Virginia has a new Republican governor.  

        Last week South Carolina moved closer to electing a conservative woman governor, an Indian American—the first woman to hold the office in the history of the state—who is a Sarah Palin clone…and indeed was endorsed by her.   Nikki Haley announced she held her victory party in South Carolina’s Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum!  A black conservative running for Congress defeated Strom Thurmond’s kid who was adjudged too wishy-washy!   

           So while The Chicago Squid concentrates on its destiny, the nation appears to be moving rightward. It won’t affect the Chicago Squid but it looks like after this November there won’t be a Speaker Nancy Pelosi or a Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for that matter. And just maybe there’ll be an Irish Catholic pro-life Republican governor who will trim Mike Madigan’s sails.  

     __________________________________________________________

   *: St. Irenaeus [203].  Bishop of Lyon, France and an important theologian whose significance has been fully recognized only in the 20^th century.  His principal works, only discovered in 1904, effectively refused the heresy of Gnosticism, stressing a clear reassertion of Catholic monotheism, emphasizing the identity of the God of the Old Testament with that of the New and the unity of the Father and Son in the work of revelation and redemption. Although all his other works have perished, the two works found in 1904 present a unified theory of theology that is as fresh today as when he wrote them. He died at Lyons and was buried in the crypt of the church of St. John until it was destroyed by Calvinists in 1562. 

Personal Asides: Chicago Media Cuts Back on News Harmful to Dems…Ignores Coverage that Aids Republicans.

Feast of  St. William of Vercelli*

               

                                       The Pro-Squid Chicago Media.

             Say, whatever happened to that story that seemed to pass by in a twinkling of an eye about Gov. Quinn’s early parolees including one locked up for a 2008 murder disappearing after they were set free as part of Quinn’s infamous early release program?  If anything should underscore the incompetence of the Quinn administration, this is it: yet after the first glimmer of the story…zip…nothing has been heard of it since. 

           This is only the most glaring case of the Chicago media tipping the scales to elect Quinn by sitting on follow-ups of a glaring story.  Instead the media are concentrating as if it is as important as release of the Pentagon Papers of Mark Kirk’s inflated resume.  Okay…it’s been given justifiable and expansive coverage.  Now where is the guy who’s news director of Channel 2 WBBM-TV who complained that Kirk was sending out too many news releases attacking Giannoulias’ failed bank?  Remember this guy said: “Alexi’s been pilloried enough”? I haven’t heard a word of complaint from Channel 2 or any of the other stations concerning the repeat and re-repeat and re-re-repeat of Kirk’s failings.  Guess you can’t get enough of that stuff when it happens to a Republican. 

          If any story is worth more than a one-day exposure it’s Quinn’s failure to keep tabs of the inmates who were put on early release.  Yet Chicago media is ho-hum not all that concerned. For those who missed the one-day story here it is:

           The parolees released on early parole were part of a program that Quinn tried to sneak over on the public without release.  The Associated Press here released it.  Known as MGT Push, the program was launched last December and after the public gained wind of it, Quinn shut it down. He said he hadn’t known that Corrections Commissioner Michael Randle was going to release violent offenders.  Then the Governor announced that they were going to be rounded up.  One hitch: More than 50 are on the lam, some have been gone for months and dozens are still missing. 

         Hundreds of violent criminals were among the 1,745 released weeks early, 

         My question is: why did this story which under the canons of journalism demands a follow-up…die on the vine? It certainly hasn’t gained much attention after the initial disclosure from the big urban papers and the TV stations.  Instead we’re being treated to pap “analysis” stuff by such Big Foot ahem “serious pundits” who pronounce themselves seriously worried…as partisans do…about the tardy campaign being mounted by Quinn—as if commentators like Carol Marin have a stake in his Democratic victory: which, of course, is evident.  

          For emphasis: The biggest gaffe in governance to-date is Quinn’s release of early prisoners…his protests that he didn’t know about it…his determination to recoup the absconders and state government’s inability to find them.   

          In any other state, that issue would be determinate.  Here it’s just a one-day story.  

                                           Ignoring Republican Events. 

          The last viable survivor of Cold War victory over Gorbachev is Lech Walesa.  He along with Ronald Reagan, John Paul II and Margaret Thatcher turned the balance that won the Cold War.  I guarantee you that if Lech Walesa came here to tout the glories of (a) Alexi Giannoulias…(b) Pat Quinn,…(c) Richard M. Daley he would be surrounded as he made his speech by a forest of TV cameras and microphones.  Nary a one when he came out for Adam Andrzjewski running for governor.  Carol Marin the one woman media-monopoly…columnist for the Sun Times…commentator for NBC Channel 5…commentator for WTTW Channel 11…was busy mooning over the future of Forrest Claypool. 

            What’s the story with these biased editors even if the reporters are hopelessly Left-Wing?  Even on a matter of personal history doesn’t Lech Walesa, a genuine hero of the West mean anything? Forrest Claypool more important?   

          Another thing: I guarantee you that in the old days…John Callaway on “Chicago Tonight”…if Alan Dershowitz, the Harvard law professor who is rated as the top criminal lawyer in the country and the pre-eminent civil rights lawyer as well were here to endorse a candidate Dershowitz would be interviewed on “Chicago Tonight.”

          Further if he had come in to campaign for Rep. Jan Schakowky, he’d be interviewed up one side and down the other and especially by Phil Ponce (with help in the form of 3x5 cards supplied by the `TTW staff).  

          Nothing happened. Why?  Because he came in to campaign for…gag, it sticks in Big Liberal Media’s throat…Joel Pollak who’s running as a Republican against Schakowsky. 

         I’ll tell you, the hideous bias…big stories that last only one day and are shoveled under the rug because they reflect on the Dems…big stories that never see the light of day because they impact favorably on conservative Republicans…stories that are recycled endlessly because they wound Republicans.  Protests from a TV news directors because poor Alexi has been pilloried enough. I’ll tell you… 

         …this is the sickening scandal of media here—and nobody talks about it because it’s so politically correct to protect the Dems and politically exciting to rage about Republicans.  

          Years ago there was for a short time something known as The Chicago Journalism Review.  It’s sorely needed now as media monopolists and others ply their trade favoring their liberal biases…favoring whom they wish and ignoring as it suits their prejudices. 

       _________________________________________________________

   *: St. William of Vercelli [1142] Abbot of Monte Vergine. . The founder of a religious congregation known as The Hermits of Monte Vergine was born in 1045 of as Piedmontese family.  His parents died early and at the age of 14, believe it or not, he set sail for Spain where he lived a penitential life as a hermit.  He returned to Italy, to Melfi in the Italian Basilicata and then at Monte Solicoli where he lived for two years in prayer and solitude. He started a community at Monte Vergine but the rule he wrote was so austere that the community engaged in a revolution against him.  So he handed it over to a prior and left, taking with him five faithful followers.

        He started one congregation after another.  King Roger II of Naples heard of him and invited him to be his chaplain. This encouraged William’s enemies to be very jealous. They tried to set him up with a woman of loose morals who came to his cell and invited him to a orgy of licentiousness as William’s enemies peered through a knothole in the wall. You know what William did?  He received her in a room where a roaring fire was going in the fireplace.  When she began her blandishments he walked over to the fireplace, parted the coals with his bare hands and stretched out on the roaring fire, inviting her to join him!

       She screamed and ran away whereupon he arose, walked to the center of the room, brushed his hands from the ashes and remained completely unharmed.  That was the formal end of the trick played on him. The woman was instantly converted and took vows as a nun.  William died at Guglietto on June 25, 1142.

Thoughts While Shaving: Obama Missed a Golden Chance in McChrystal Removal…and Missed Another with Court Veto of Drilling Ban.

      The Birth of John the Baptist* 

      

                                            McChrystal Removal.

       Given that President Obama seemingly had to remove Gen. Stanley McChrystal for a Rolling Stone article that captured his insubordination…although I wish he had bit his lip and kept him on at this crucial stage of the Afghanistan war…he had a golden chance to reverse the dynamics with the appointment of David Petraeus…but botched it. 

      The statement removing McChrystal was excellent…courteous, gentlemanly, statesmanlike. Moreover for the first time it stressed Obama’s determination towin the war—an eloquent speech which affirmed the same clear vision that other presidents have shown in times of war.  But he could have made it perfect by taking advantage of the disruption in command by seeming to lift the deadline for withdrawal of troops: a meaningless finesse to the Left that has created great difficulties with the Afghans.  

       How many Afghans are going to be with us in opposing the Taliban when they know that we will be pulling out and they will be left at the mercy of their enemies?  With the public fully understanding the seriousness of the situation, Obama could have gently lifted the deadline and given Petraeus the psychological help he needs to deal with the Afghans. 

          No, it didn’t happen because Obama is very careful to placate the anti-war Left.  I don’t remember a president who once elected with his reelection date significantly far off (2012) who was so delicately careful not to offend his base. People don’t remember now, but Ronald Reagan deeply offended his conservative base by being willing to negotiate nuclear arms with Gorbachev.  Remember Richard Viguerie the mailorder king of the conservative movement?  Not long after Reagan’s election he was talking 3^rd Party with his friends.  Richard Nixon offended many conservatives with his dawdling around with the Family Assistance Program ala Pat Moynihan which was a variant of guaranteed annual income.  And also his support of the Environmental Protection Act.  

           The point is: On the negotiations with Gorbachev Reagan pulled Star Wars out of the hat and Gorbachev lost the momentum.  We’ve never heard Viguerie apologize for his earlier wrongheaded views on that. With Nixon he was indeed too far left, listening to Moynihan tell him he could be the Disraeli of conservatism—moving the country to a social compact under the guise of being a right-winger. 

              But the point is both Reagan and Nixon took chances with their popularity and their base.  Obama hasn’t been willing to do this and passed up the opportunity with the Petraeus appointment.

                            The Federal Veto on the Drilling Ban. 

              Everybody knows that a six-month moratorium on deep-sea drilling for oil pleases the Environmental Left but is bad…shockingly bad…for the economy of those states impacted by the oil spill. Several reasons.  The drilling rigs won’t stay there but will go elsewhere…to China…and the Gulf states will be bereft.  But a drilling moratorium pleases the Eco-Left, the editorial boards of The New York Times and The Washington Post and perky Katie Couric.  

               Once again, the veto by the federal judge could have been used by Obama as a political cover to allow drilling and save the economy of the Gulf states.  He had a perfect opening. But no…the Lefty base is too important to this president…and his Stetson-hatted Interior Secretary will issue an executive order…while the Justice Department appeals. 

             More than any other president, Obama is governing from the Left.  This hard-nosedness will do him in by 2010 and make him a one-termer in 2012.  Good for the country but until then the economic pain will be tumultuous.  

                    The Weekly Standard Misgauges the Tea Party’ers. 

          The Weekly Standard is often my favorite magazine but it really goofed…and I mean goofed…with its cover story this week entitled The Two Faces of the Tea Party. Seldom has a publication more seriously misjudged a grassroots revolution and the culprit is the writer, Matthew Continetti. 

           Continetti contrasts two spokesmen for the Tea Party: Rick Santelli who on CNBC came up with the idea and Glenn Beck, the Fox TV host.  When Santelli blurted out the idea that there should be a Tea Party, he obviously had in mind a kind of reaction against wild spending and unlimited taxation.   Fair enough.  But Continetti disses Beck as a kind of latter-day John Bircher. 

              I can’t watch Beck all the time but I can tell you from my experience as a decrepit octogenarian that he has been infinitely more valuable to conservatism at this time than any other pundit including Limbaugh, in my estimation. 

          Limbaugh is invaluable for one thing: examining the news and giving one-line zingers that put the truth in sharp chiaroscuro perspective…along with an often hilarious repartee which keeps listeners entertained and eager to be informed. He can’t be over-estimated.  His value to conservatism is measure-less. 

            But Beck is far different. He gives conservatives an invaluable historical perspective…showing how liberalism has grown from the bellicose histrionics of Teddy Roosevelt through the visionary era of Woodrow Wilson…on through the extra-constitutional days of FDR…the tumultuous era of Truman (his undeclared war was not even voted on once as a specific engagement: no Gulf of Tonkin—just a presidentially declared  “police action”).   

            Conservatives need both…it’s like asking you whether you prefer your right or left arm…but Continetti’s attack on Beck is foolish, short-sighted, ignorant and anti-historical.  To me, the glory of Tea Party’ers is that they are not just rooted in taxes and spending but thanks to Beck many of them are willing to re-examine the liberal excesses that dominated this country throughout much of the 20^th century.  Continetti regards this as Birch-like.  P-l-e-a-s-e. 

            Take for example the amendment that changed the dynamics of the Constitution away from the concept of the Founders who saw…as Washington himself postulated…the House of Representatives as a direct sounding board of the people…and the Senate as a coolant.  To illustrate this, Washington took up a cup full of hot tea and poured some into his saucer.  The Senate, he said should be a coolant: taking the hot passions of the House and cooling them for a time so that seasoned judgment can be made. 

            To do that, the Founders wrote into the Constitution that the Senate should not be directly elected by the people…but should be indirectly elected by the Legislatures: so as to act as a kind of mature House of Lords.  It took a long time for the 17^th amendment…providing for direct election of the Senate…to pass.   The first attempt was made in 1826 and from that date on until the amendment’s adoption 86 years later there were in all 187 attempts that proved unsuccessful.  It was finally ratified in 1912. 

            The idea that everything that has happened in the past is verboten for discussion is absurd and a liberal tactic to foist silence and frustrate dissent. To me the glory of the Tea Party movement is that it is wide-ranging.  The 17^th passed because progressives argued that the democratic principle militated that the Senate be elected directly by the people.  Pardon me? Do I have to repeat the age-old statement that this is supposed to be a Republic—not a democracy?The framers understood that electing Senators via legislatures stressed the goal that lawmakers of at least one house shall be concerned to protect the original interest of the states…as states. 

           As Roger Sherman wrote to John Adams (who agreed): “[T]he senators being eligible by the legislatures of the several states and dependent on them for reelection will be vigilant in supporting their rights against infringement by the legislative or executive of the United States.” 

             Look at things since 1912.  Has the Congress or the presidency respected the original concept of a union of states? I think not. Now look at the composition of the Senate today.  I used to sit in the Senate gallery in the 1950s when the original stature of senators was fading away but still existent.  I can count them all from my gallery seat: Taft of Ohio…Milliken of Colorado…George of Georgia…Russell of Georgia…Dirksen of Illinois…Douglas of Illinois…Humphrey of Minnesota…Harry Byrd of Virginia.   What do we have now?  Dickie Durbin of Illinois…Roland Burris of Illinois.  A retired TV comic representing Minnesota: Al Franken…and a Minneapolis Star sportswriter’s daughter, Amy Klobuchar.

           

              Indeed the Senate today is composed of pencil-thin anchormen types. Maryland has an ex-social worker, single Barbara Mikulski who gets elected by purveying sound-bytes to the Left. 

             Now think of the Senators we had when the legislatures elected them: Daniel Webster of Massachusetts…Henry Clay of Kentucky…John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. 

           If Glenn Beck can help us focus on the Founders’ ideas…and as a former college adjunct professor myself I find him gloriously accurate and a brilliant instructor…who the hell is a punk like Matthew Continetti to say that this is Birch talk?  He ridicules that Beck is a reformed alcoholic. That’s a lousy cheap shot which disparages anyone…everyone…who has reformed or wants to.  

          So I salute Beck and the Tea Party’ers for encouraging us to think beyond the economic—to the source of what made our country great. And we don’t need sarcasm from a phony “journalist” who doesn’t know our history and who thinks referring back to the Founders’ original ideas is Birch-like… to slur the ongoing effort.   

          What do you think?  If I had to give up one…Limbaugh or Beck…I’d reluctantly give up Limbaugh and stick with Beck.  

     ______________________________________________________

    *: The Birth of John the Baptist. Legend has the Angel Gabriel who announced the forthcoming pregnancy of Elizabeth who was thought barren, said this to her and her husband Zachary: “You shall call his name John and you shall  have joy and gladness and many shall rejoice in his birth because he shall be great before the Lord.” The birthday of the Baptizer was one of the earliest feasts to find a definite place in the Church’s calendar and it has always been where it stands now—June 24.   

         No one expressed John’s value better than Augustine. He found it appropriate that John said in the 4^th Gospel: “He [Jesus] must increase and I must decrease.”  Appropriate, says Augustine, because after the birthday of John, the days grow shorter whereas after the birthday of the Lord the days grow longer. As we know during Elizabeth’s nine month pregnancy, her husband had suffered some disability…probably it would be adjudged today as a stroke…for he turned mute. After the 8^th day when the baby was circumcised, a small gathering at their home speculated on the baby’s name. A number suggested he be named after his father. Elizabeth held out for the name “John.”  At last Zachary called for a tablet and writing utensil and wrote “His name shall be John.”With that he regained his speech.  In his joy he sang the great canticle of love ands thanksgiving The Benedictus which the Church sings every day in the priestly office and which is often recited over the grave of her faithful children when their remains are committed to the earth.

Personal Asides: Conservatives Rout Opponents in South Carolina…Obama Move to Thwart Opinion on Drilling, Arizona and Amnesty? More.

  Vigil of Saint John the Baptist.* 

        

                                         Conservatives Rout.

        If there was any doubt of a conservative resurgence and a Tea Party revolution, it was blown away by the results from South Carolina.  Here’s a state that’s supposed to be staid and fusty…nominating by acclaim—in vote totals that presage almost certain election…Nikki Haley a beauteous 38-year-old Indian American, former Sikh who embraced Christianity…as the likely first woman governor of the state.  

        Her likely election could well make her a vice presidential hopeful in 2012 but if that’s too ambitious, certainly a media superstar roughly proportionate to Sarah Palin.   She defeated nominally conservative…but as it turned out, not conservative enough…Rep. Gresham Barrett, a 4-term congressman who’s been in hot water with voters for supporting the unpopular Wall Street bailout.   Haley’s victory came with a landslide momentum: 65% to 38%.   

        In a fitting nose thumb to politically correct  liberals who conservatives to apologize for history that occurred more than a century earlier, Haley announced her victory party will be held at…get this… 

         The South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum. 

        I love it.

         And lest this be interpreted as a rising of the old segregationist South, the Republicans nominated a 44-year-old African American Tim Scott to become the first GOP congressman for the state in more than 100 years.  More interestingly, Scott defeated Strom Thurmond’s kid, Paul, whom the late 100 year old crustacean tried to push for job after job including U. S. Attorney.  Scott will face a black Democratic nominee Ben Frasier in a district which is about 72% Republican.  

         Another supporter of bailout lost heavily, Republican Rep. Bob Inglis was crushed by prosecutor Trey Gowdy.  He was the 5^th congressional incumbent to be toppled.

                         How Long Will Obama Thwart Public Opinion?

           As the election returns were rolling in validating a conservative restoration in the country, the Obama administration… 

           …(1) rebuffed by a federal court which overruled its drilling ban…is getting the Secretary of the Interior to order the ban while it fights its way through the Courts… 

            …(2) is holding up an earlier presidential pledge to send 5,000 national guardsmen to Arizona to fight the deadly wave of illegals fortified with drug dealers and kidnappers.  Why the delay?  Arizona Sen. John Kyle says Obama told him that it’ll be a political swap: the troops come if a “comprehensive immigration bill” is approved.  This Obama denies.  But where are the troops he promised? 

             …(3) is rumored to be considering granting amnesty to 10 million illegals by executive order. If this is done, there will be a state of civil war between the legislative and executive unrivaled since the days of Richard Nixon and touching as well on the battle over the Tenure of Office Act between Andrew Johnson and the Congress.  

                          The Fight Between McChrystal and Obama. 

            There is no gainsaying that General Stanley McChrystal was wrong in publicly criticizing the Commander-in-Chief and administration figures anent the war in Afghanistan.  There are no two ways of looking at it. A general is supposed to defer to civilian leadership and if he cannot do it, he should resign.   

               Accordingly there is every likelihood that he will bring a letter of resignation to Obama today.   I would hope Obama would make no bones about stressing that McCrystal was wrong…but that he would refuse to accept the resignation basis the danger of changing commanders at this time in a crucial war.  

              After all, Obama named McChrystal to his post after removing Gen. George Casey from the post.     

      _________________________________________________________

    *: Vigil of Saint John the Baptist.  This is the Vigil of, and tomorrow is the Feast of the birth of, John the Baptist. The son of Zachariah and Elizabeth he was a few months older than Jesus and destined to become His forerunner.  He was an austere figure and was looked upon by the apostles as a kind of reincarnated Elijah preparing the way for the acceptance of the Lord. He lived an ascetic life in the Judaean desert, preparing himself for a ministry in the country around the Jordan. Jesus always spoke of him with reverence: “I tell you, of all the children born of women, there is no one greater than John.”  

         The common people treated him with reverence but the Pharisees and lawyers showed disdain for him and refused to be baptized but Jesus Himself submitted to being baptized by John. Herod Antipas imprisoned John for boldly denouncing his unlawful marriage to Herodias.  Using her daughter to trap Herod into promising her a reward, Herodias demanded and received the head of John the Baptist. 

Thoughts While Shaving: Dan Sugrue a Super-Star Debater is One of the GOP’s Best Kept Secrets…Big Deal—Why Did Burge Name His Boat Vigilante?

  Feast of St. John Fisher* 

   

                                       Segrue in Illinois 59^th. 

      As one whose been either covering politics or involved in it as a staffer, assistant cabinet officer and private sector lobbyist for a total of 57 years, I rarely enthuse about any novice candidate: for good reason. Usually no matter how bright and articulate they are, candidatorial novices who get into radio or TV debates for the first time usually have a lot to learn…and it’s almost always a case of their handlers telling them afterward, “Listen, you did okay for a first time. Keep on practicing, keep on debating and you’ll nail it down in ample time. All you need is a little more experience and you’ll be fine. 

     But that advice doesn’t apply to Dan Sugrue the young lawyer from Green Oaks (Lake county) who I off-handedly picked for my radio show on Father’s Day.  My heavyweight Dem contender was Bob Creamer who is one of the national Democratic party’s best debaters. When I picked Sugrue I thought I’d have someone entirely different on the opposite side but that someone bowed out and in desperation I called…at the last minute…Creamer who is CEO of the Strategic Consulting Group, husband of Congresswoman Jan Schakowky and who since the demise of Saul Alinsky has carved out a reputation as being the premier strategist of national progressive politics.  My conservative friends hate it when I say this but he is one of the most accomplished debaters and advocates of the Left in this city.   

        Now don’t flood the emails telling me this and that about Creamer—that he’s no good, evil, a bounder, etc.  I’ve heard from several of you and frankly you don’t get it.  As the host of a program going into its 20^th year, my first responsibility is to field good debaters—and Creamer is one of the very best on the liberal-progressive side.  The reason the program has been on so long is that I stay out of the fray and “moderate” the show.  Which means I’m a referee…making sure that both sides don’t usurp the time and make their points without repetition.  

         As it is, the listeners to my show are mostly conservative and usually fill all 10 phone lines with good debating points. So the liberal-progressive who’s on my show has to fight two battles…one with his opponent in the studio and one with a highly intelligent conservative audience on the phone.    

         Some guy wrote me after the show condemning me for not weighing in against Creamer as well.  My point is that if I am to serve as host and referee…as a football referee…it is overbalanced to have me zing the liberal along with everyone else.  Believe me as a guest for many years on Bruce DuMont and Callaway I’ve zinged plenty.  But not here. It’s as if you watch a football game and lo and behold the referee runs out onto the field and tackles the guy with the ball.  Everybody has a right to say “Wha?”  

         But of course this guy exceeded the limit and accused me of being “soft” on Creamer…meaning that if I don’t whack somebody on the head with a meat cleaver as in the 3 Stooges, I’m a crypto liberal.  He’s forgiven: he just doesn’t understand the dynamics of the show.  

        But I digress.  I signed up Sugrue for the show Sunday and hoped he’d do okay.  Well, for those who heard it, he did far more than okay. He turned out to be a powerfully good forensic debater at least as good as Creamer who’s been doing this for 40 years.  In fact, he’s as good as I have ever seen in the contemporary Republican party…and that includes the late Henry Hyde, Everett Dirksen and the very much alive Mike Huckabee. 

         Now remember, I’m not in the business of consulting candidates and frankly didn’t know Sugrue well until he walked into the studio—so I have no axe to grind in all this.  He’s not paying me.  I’m just telling you what I think.  

       So let me by means of this blog put in a word with state Republican leaders to fund Dan Sugrue. Believe me, if he gets some money he’s going to win easily over his Democratic opponent who has not been elected to her post but is appointed and is not very well known. The 59^th district has been leaning Democratic in the past but with these changing times is veering Republican. It will stay so I believe by watching Sugrue. The district takes in much of suburban Lake county including Vernon Hills, Prairie View, Lake Bluff, Green Oaks, Gurnee, Waukegan, Indian Creek, Lincolnshire, Mundelein, North Chicago, Park City, Riverwoods, Wheeling and Northbrook.  

          In the past it was represented by Democrat Kathy Ryg (who has been on my show) but she resigned her post to become head of Voices for Illinois Children.  Appointed to the seat was Democrat Carol Sente (pronounced sen-tee).  

         Sugrue, in his early 40s, the son of Irish immigrants, was born in Oak Lawn, went to Catholic schools, graduated from the U of I in Champaign with a bachelor’s in economics and political science and got a law degree from Chicago Kent.  He made a run before and was under-funded against Ryg.  He practices law by himself and has taught real estate at the College of DuPage.  He’s married to Margo whom he met when both were teaching inner-city kids in Chicago. They have three kids: Kevin 10, Vivian, 6 and Sean 4.  

         Well, I’m shilling him because he’s a terrific debater. He kept Creamer busy I’ll tell you that. When he left the studio, Creamer knew he had been in a fight.  

                                              Jon Burge. 

         Because much of Chicago media are infected with the Carol Marin virus…in the absence viable eternal verities why not adopt a religion of the here-and-now which means sanctimonious liberalism…it did not strike them as odd, strange and exceeding eccentric when the prosecution demanded to know from retired police commander Jon Burge whether he named his boat Vigilante because he really savors extra-curricular lynching and beatings. 

          Believe me if that’s one of the major things they have to go on, Burge is going to walk.  So far I don’t think they’ve laid a glove on him.  Decorated veteran of Vietnam who doesn’t like cop killers. That according to modern nihilistic liberals is enough.  So far nothing has eventuated in the trial that shows complicity but still Burge is convicted in the eyes of scribes who have embraced the canons of ever-changing political liberalism as a substitute for a higher cause.   

         You can write the articles of that perverted liberal faith down: support the underdog no matter what, even if the facts aren’t there—it’s good to blister police authority: makes who missed the civil rights days feel good…America is a great big fat exploitive country while the poor in the Third World have a kind of expressive nobility…hey, just like the blue people in Avatar had a quiet nobility while we Big Exploiters roll in power through their exploitation…why can’t a gay nun be Pope?  What’s wrong with that? Christ Himself would approve! 

         Here’s hoping Jon Burge pulls it out.    

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  *: Saint John Fisher [1469-1535].  It’s also the Feast of St. Thomas More as well but he’s received tons of publicity.  About John Fisher, an old legendary religious story is appropriate. A self-sacrificing, hard-working nun who embraced voluntary poverty from her teen-aged years and spent the remainder of her life in anonymity, working as a scullery made in a convent kitchen, died in the fullness of grace and ascended right to heaven (justifying bypassing Purgatory). She was greeted warmly by Saint Peter at the Gates and was conducted to a wonderful life in eternity with a very nice house, garden and lovely rose bushes attendant thereto.   

          She wasn’t there long when she heard a celestial orchestra booming and saw everybody running down the street to greet the next arrival. She slowly made her way to Saint Peter and asked who was entering heaven.  “Ah,” he said, “a bishop of the Catholic Church!”  The nun smiled sadly and Peter asked why the smile.  “It’s just that this is evidently the same as on earth,” she said. “I lived almost 90 years as a scullery maid in a convent and the outside world honored bishops.  Now I see it’s that way in heaven too!” 

         Peter drew her aside, put his lips to her ear and whispered, “Sister you have it wrong.  Nuns and brothers like you come in here all the time. This is the first bishop to come in that Gate in  500 years.  Get me?”  She returned to her cottage smiling. 

       The bishop who was ushered in with fanfare might well have been John Fisher, bishop of Rochester, England.  He was the only bishop of 22 in England who didn’t bow to the newly named Supreme Head of the Church of England Henry VIII in order to save their own heads.   

      John Fisher was educated at Cambridge, elected a Fellow of Trinity College was ordained priest, became chaplain to the king’s mother and through her intercession reformed and re-endowed Cambridge University.  He became Chancellor of Cambridge and then Bishop of Rochester. He wrote four tracts opposing Luther and Henry VIII himself said he was a paragon among all bishops for erudition and courage. 

     That courage was tested when he became confessor to Henry’s wife, Catherine of Aragon, whom Henry wished to divorce. A few years later he became champion of Catherine’s cause.  For this offense he was condemned to life imprisonment.  Because of his poor health the life sentence was commuted with the order that to spare his life he would have to take the oath of Succession which endorsed Henry as head of the Church.  He refused as did his friend Thomas More. So he was sent to the Tower of London.  The Pope tried to intervene saying that he was ready to send Fisher a red hat, signaling his being raised to the level of Cardinal.  Henry responded that the Pope need not send the red hat but to make it more convenient for His Holiness Henry would send John Fisher’s head to Rome.   Hahahaha.  

      The trial of Bishop John Fisher took place June 17, 1535 and because he did not accede to Henry’s wishes he was adjudged a traitor and condemned to die on the scaffold.  He was in fact beheaded and his body minus the head was buried in the churchyard of All Hallows.  His head was mounted on a pike and displayed on London bridge for a fortnight before being thrown into the Thames.  Saint John Fisher was canonized in 1935.