One Man’s Opinion: Brady’s Too Smart (I Hope) to Take Capitol Fax Blog’s Advice…Palin’s Chaotic Household Should Disqualify Her from the Presidency…The Old Media’s Refusal to Cover the Panther Vote Blockade.

  Feast of Saint (and Emperor) Henry II*
       
                                          Brady’s Too Smart (I Hope).

         The Capitol Fax blog is many good things…thorough…complete…covers Illinois politics like a blanket…but it is also well to remember that it is largely a Democratic house-organ and megaphone for the Madigans, especially Speaker Pop.  Yesterday it gave expansive coverage to an NBC-TV blogger who laments that Bill Brady is unknown in Cook and that he hangs around too much with Tea Party people. To which liberal lip-synch Capitol Fax blog adds a hearty amen. Both Capitol Fax and the blogger are well-known for labeling anyone slightly to the right of Mark Kirk (whom they also defile) as a right-wing, dinosaur, Bircher, nutty, loony, anti-woman (which means pro-life), homophobe (which means special rights for homosexuals). 

          Capitol Fax blog tries to snuggle up to Brady and show him the way to victory is via the Left. That is so much outdated nonsense. It has already devoted yeoman’s service to the Quinn forces…ignoring for the most part two major scandals: the unconscionable botch-up of early released parolees coupled with the unaccountably inept loss of computer records so that they are virtually home free to prey on the public…and the “all must share the sacrifice” bleating of its favorite Pat Quinn tied to Quinn’s giving lavish raises to his top staff. What Capitol Fax blog does is to give him a hearty smack once apiece on these scandals to demonstrate its “objectivity” and let the stories drift away while concentrating unremittingly on Republican sins such as the bio discrepancies of Mark Kirk.  

           Every so often the blog drops its guard and says what it really thinks and hopes. Yesterday it advised Brady that the media will never change from its leftward stance and the prudent thing to do is for Brady to change to accommodate “it” (it usually refers to the media as “it” rather than “them”  just as it uses the word “like” kid-style with hoped-for beguiling grammatical incorrectness).  Saying the media will never change from their leftist stance  reflects the blog and newsletter’s fervent  wish as mother of the thought.  Oops.  

           Valuable as they are as news sources, Capitol Fax and Capitol Fax blog are hyper-articulate instruments in voluntary, enthusiastic advocacy of The Squid…Obama-lovers…Madigan allies…Giannoulias defenders.  Along with a good deal of creditable news and insights the twin publications brim with proffered advice for Republicans to turn liberal and drink the Kool Aid. 

                                 Palin’s Chaotic Household. 

            News that Bristol’s boyfriend…the sire of their illegitimate baby…has returned and that they are engaged is not the best of news for Sarah Palin. First, just as she didn’t know Bristol was pregnant; now we are told she didn’t know that the Boy Friend had returned and that the couple is re-engaged. Third, all the scurrilous things the Boy Friend said about the Palins were, as he confesses, “lies.”  

           The thought that this kind of soap opera would continue during a presidential campaign is all the Republican party needs to pitch it into social issue disarray.  Sarah Palin has a great contribution to make to victories in 2010 and 2012.  Three things. She ought to concentrate on her household, her unwed daughter and see that another unfortunate occurrence doesn’t happen again…a second birth…a second pre-marital smash-up…a second evacuation by the Boy Friend with attendant slurs on the family.  

          A key feature of Republican tapestry is adherence to traditional social values. Already Palin has shown she is not on top of her family’s problems. She invited Fox News to interview Bristol after the baby was born and lo and behold Bristol excoriated the idea of abstinence before marriage. Then she walked it back. 

          This is no time for the Republican party to nominate one who can’t control her household and who will likely see further chaos occurring under her roof while she tries to govern. Sarah Palin would do her party a great deal of good if she announced forthwith that she is not going to seek political office…either first or second slots on the national ticket…in 2012.   

                        Holder’s Tolerance for Voter Intimidation. 

          As one who headed up Project LEAP (Legal Elections in All Precincts) in Chicago for a decade during the reign of Old Mayor Daley…and who saw all the intimidation The Squid has muster…I was always aided by federal Justice Department officials in securing convictions of those who sought to intimidate honest voters from casting their ballots. 

            That having been said, it is appalling to see Eric Holder’s DOJ aiding the Black Panthers to escape from prosecution in the infamous Philadelphia episode where sullen black thugs stood guard over the polls and intimidated white voters from entering.  Appalling too to see the lack of news coverage in the so-called mainstream media including the Squid-supine Sun-Times and the weak-kneed Tribune where the only views on race are expressed by Clarence Page as the remainder of the editorial board…which endorsed Obama largely as a business marketing venture with the acquiescence of Bruce Dold… cringes deferentially.  

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  NOTE: You’ll note on some Catholic calendars that saints’ feasts are variable, e.g. today Bonaventure is listed as well as yesterday.  There’s no one right feast but the chaos is fascinating to me because in the listing I get a chance to pick the saint in which I have most interest…in this case Saint King Henry II [972-1024].  He was born the son of the Duke of Bavaria and succeeded his father as Duke, marrying Kunigunda about 998 and chose Emperor on the death of his cousin Otto III. He spent early years at war seeking to consolidate Germany.  (I chose him because my paternal people were Bavarian Catholics).  

            He was a monarch of great spirituality, outstanding piety and asceticism.  At a certain time in Henry’s life he determined that he was too worldly, with all this Emperor stuff, and so went to a monastery at Saint-Vanne at Verdun, France. There he gave up his crown…unbeknownst to his countrymen…and pledged his fealty to the Benedictine Abbot. The Abbot, a wise man, said: okay, if you pledge to obey me, I now order you to continue as Emperor!  So that was that: he returned to his throne with his countrymen unaware of what had happened.  He died at his palace at Grona near Gottingen, German and was canonized by Pope Eugene III.   What a guy!