"When you put my name in there with Blagojevich several times in the same ad, that's an attack!" - Illinois State Senator Gary Forby, complaining about his opponent's ads.

Given the continuing war in Iraq, the United States is not in a position to invade Iran, but missile strikes might be a viable option, he said. Obama conceded that such strikes might further strain relations between the U.S. and the Arab world.

"In light of the fact that we're now in Iraq, with all the problems in terms of perceptions about America that have been created, us launching some missile strikes into Iran is not the optimal position for us to be in," he said.

"On the other hand, having a radical Muslim theocracy in possession of nuclear weapons is worse...."

The chairman of the Chicago Board of Elections toured precincts Tuesday where investigators have found more than 2,000 suspicious registrations..."...we found individuals who have eight, 10 or 12 people registered in a single family house," Neal said. Cook County Board Commissioner Roberto Maldonado...was shocked to see three people registered to vote from his home where he lives alone.

The closest Chicago Teachers Union election in 30 years was declared null and void Tuesday after a union committee found "evidence of fraud" including 600 missing ballots, according to union officials.

Nilda Sanchez remembers the two campaign workers who came to her family's West Town three-flat in 1998...They suggested...vote by mail so the women "wouldn't have to go out in the cold," she recalled.

The new primary election was set after the state Supreme Court last month threw out the results of the 2003 East Chicago[, Indiana] primary because of widespread fraud by the campaign of long-time Mayor Robert Pastrick.

"...[N]ow they're calling me a beach killer," Natarus said.

"Even in Lebanon, and we're certainly better than Lebanon, they're restricting all non-public development along their shorelines because they recognize shorelines are finite," Duffy said.

Natarus...cited a scene in "Doctor Zhivago," Boris Pasternak's 1957 novel about the 1917 Russian Revolution...

"What, are you people silly?"

"If the top priority of your life in politics and in other things is that you must have the right to kill your offspring in the womb ... then I guess I won't get your vote," Keyes said.

"I wish the governor was running this year. We would take him out so fast," roared Senate Minority Leader Frank Watson, R-Greenville, at a luncheon Thursday afternoon.

Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, who also serves as the state party chairwoman, said she plans to vote for all the Republican candidates. "I'm the party (chairwoman) what do you think I'm going to do?" she said.

Barack Obama might get a race, after all.

Former GOP presidential candidate Alan Keyes told Illinois Republicans Monday that he is ''open to the idea'' of taking on the Democrat in the U.S. Senate race -- a move that would pit two eloquent, nationally known African Americans against one another.

''It would be a classic race of conservative vs. liberal,'' said state Sen. Dave Syverson, a member of the panel looking for a candidate to go up against Obama. ''It would put this race on the map in this country -- just for excitement.''

''Wow!" said Ronald Smith, another member of state central committee. ''I'd love it. I'd love it. I tell you, in a debate, he would blow Obama out of the water. ... I heard him speak. He mesmerizes you, just his grasp of the issues.'

State Sen. Steve Rauschenberger is not a member of the state central committee, but he said his discussions with insiders lead him to believe it's a better than 50-50 chance Keyes will seek the nomination.

The Illinois Tollway Authority is looking for someone to run the cafeteria at its Downers Grove headquarters.

A contract to run the building's cafeteria was initially awarded to a Chicago-based catering company, but officials killed the deal in June after learning that Taylor-Made Cuisine rents space from a tollway employee. And that employee, Andrew E. Lawrence, served on the tollway's cafeteria vendor selection committee.

The contract is now being re-bid.

Tollway Executive Director Jack Hartman said the conflict was an "honest mistake" and that Lawrence was not familiar with procurement laws.

Lawrence, who runs a catering company of his own, was suspended for three days without pay for the mistake.

Lawrence referred all calls on the matter to the tollway authority. He and his company, AEL Catering & Associates, have donated money and services to Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his father-in-law, Chicago Alderman Dick Mell.

The biggest contribution Lawrence made was in August 2001 when he donated more than $36,000 in food services to Blagojevich's campaign for governor, state records show.

Hartman denied that Lawrence landed his $55,020 a year position because of his political support of the governor's campaign.

The Democratic Party of Illinois has received five $100,000 checks this year - all from lawyers or law firms, three of them with Metro East-area connections, according to a study released Monday by two legal reform groups.

The five donations dwarf any other contributions to the party in the same six-month period, according to campaign finance records filed by the party last week. In fact, a look at the party's donations in 2000 and in 2002 turned up only one donation of a similar size - $100,000 from the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America in October 2000.

When they're not busy practicing their rank political incompetence, they're providing tepid defenses of shady dealings and even shadier characters. And the "they" I am specifically talking about are State GOP Chairman Judy Baar Topinka and GOP National Committeeman Bob Kjellander.

Unfortunately, however, they are not the only ones who should be outfitted with seltzer bottles and cream pies as opposed to positions of leadership in Illinois politics.

The conservative "movement" in Illinois is not substantially better organized or more effective than the party "leadership" with whom they are at war.

In fact, considering the fact that there are so few conservatives in positions of leadership within the party or as ambassadors for the party, it's probably more accurate (and painful) to say that the conservative movement is less effective.

Because we have too many citizens that are apathetic and ill-informed, we have too many party leaders and elected officials at all levels of government that are, well, apathetic and ill-informed. In Illinois, you can add the adjective "corrupt" as well.

[A]s conservatives who believe in personal responsibility, we have no business absolving ourselves either. When the reactor core melts down, there is enough blame to go around for everyone.

One conservative leader is fond of saying that getting conservative leaders together in Illinois is like trying to herd cats. I agree but it's worse than that. Cats don't have the capacity to be hypocrites.

Our adversaries do not purport a worldview. They are happy to wallow in the mediocrity of being in charge of the policy-making machine, advancing minor adjustments on the margins and calling it good government.

Conservatives promulgate transcendental ideas rooted in the recognition that our time on this mortal coil should be spent identifying moral axioms and leading by example, engaged in the unending battle for free minds, free markets and free societies.

Sinking down into the morass of backbiting and self-righteous moralizing has cost conservatives dearly in Illinois. We fight over titles, we engage in an endless litany of purity tests, and we propagate conspiracy theories about one another.

Meanwhile, the inexorable march toward a Platonic society rolls forward with nary a word of opposition. This week, IllinoisLeader.com reported on a government program of compulsory mental health screenings for pregnant women and children.

Meanwhile, our state government is fast on the heels of New Jersey as the most corrupt in the nation.

Meanwhile, 400,000 school children in Illinois go to schools we know are going to fail them thereby putting us on the cusp of another lost generation of young people who will not be able to compete in our globalized, technology-driven economy.

Still don't think the petty bickering and infantilism in the conservative movement has consequences?

I have five words for you: United States Senator Barack Obama.