What Chumps We Are...And They Know It

What chumps we are, the voters of Illinois.

We select a candidiate for Lieutenant-Governor with a remarkable past and no skill-set toward governance whatsoever.

It's not the consorting/cavorting with a convicted prostitute that I'm talking about. That's a big so what? to me. Cover Springfield as a reporter for awhile and you'll understand why. Hookers and politicians go together down there like massage oil and warm hands.

It's the steroid and spousal abuse he also proclaimed. Oh absolutely he was up front about his shortcomings. And God bless him for it. You have to admire the guy for going into a political race with that kind of baggage and making it public.

I've long said we need a few "citizen politicians," Candidates without ties to the Machine. Candidates with a strong business background and a studied, if not practicial, understanding of Illinois politics. The guy voters chose as the democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor is a successful pawnbroker. It's likely he knows something of business.

He certainly did not understand Illinois politics.

Nor, apparently, do we.

First of all, the elected candidate for Democratic Lieutenant Governor is placed on the ticket with the elected candidate for Governor. That's a guy who is already is going to have a tough race. He is backed by the President of the United States and the Democratic National Committee. It should have been obvious to the Pawnbroker, and to us as voters, from the very beginning that the Democrats would never allow him to run in the general elections in the fall. But it took a visit with the Illinois Godfather, otherwise known as the Speaker of the Illinois House, to convince him. The deed is now done. The Pawnbroker is toast.

But through it all, the Godfather and the rest, have been laughing at what chumps we are. First that we would want to put a guy with his lack of credentials and obvious history, in office. And second that we accept, without challenge, the other candidates fielded by the Democrats. And, frankly, the Republicans as well.

Illinois is going into the elections in the fall with a slate of political hacks and lame wannabes on both sides. Every single one of them is connected in some way to the Chicago Democratic Machine.

What the Pawnbroker's rise and fall shows us is what the Godfather and others have always known. What those in power always know.

The sheepdogs lead the sheep. The manipulators lead the chumps. The Mayor and the Godfather select the candidates. And we elect 'em. Every time.