I'm thinking about starting a competitive Constitutional Literalism league.
Made In America
From Scottish Parts
A Series of Unfortunate Events
11:02 pm, 2/8/10
February 4th: Illinois Democrats learn that Scott Lee Cohen, their nominee for Lieutenant Governor, liked to cheat on his taxes, once got himself arrested for holding a knife to the throat of his prostitute girlfriend, and was being sued for tens of thousands of dollars of back child support. It's not like he can claim he didn't have the money, since he'd just blown millions of his own money on his primary race.
February 4th: Cohen's ex-wife, Debra, who looks alarmingly like the current wife of "Dog" the Bounty Hunter, speaks, arguing that he's not really a bad guy: he only tried to rape her because of all the illegal steroids he was taking at the time. (This may not have been especially helpful, but maybe that was the script she had to read to finally get him to cough up the child support.)
February 5th: Cohen, apparently using the word differently than we do, declares that he is "not an embarrassment" to the Democratic Party.
February 7th: What may be the shortest-lived editorial in Chicago Tribune history, "Don't Forget, He Won", attempting to defend Cohen against the threats and intimidation drifting out of the Democratic Party machine, appears on the Tribune's website, then, purged, disappears down the memory hole.
February 7th: Cohen's ex-girlfriend decides it's time to help.
If it hadn't been for Blair Hull's problems with cocaine and spousal abuse coming out before the primary, Barack Obama would've no doubt lost the Senate nomination, and if Jack Ryan's divorce allegations hadn't been held until after, it's probable Obama would've lost the race to the Republican, and remained in the shadows of American politics forever. Cohen might very well have been a relative paragon of public decency compared to some of the people that might be under consideration now, and it's interesting to wonder how different the race might already look had people taken notice of his arrest record just a few days earlier.
"I have no intention of stepping down or stepping aside. When the facts come to light, after my ex-wife and ex-girlfriend speak, the people of Illinois can decide, and I will listen to them directly," said Cohen. "I tried to tell everyone about this early on."February 4th: As it turns out, Cohen really did try to everyone, informing Chicago Sun-Times reporter Mark Brown.
Let the record reflect that on the very day last March that Scott Lee Cohen announced his campaign for lieutenant governor of Illinois, he voluntarily disclosed he had once been arrested in what he described as a domestic battery case involving a live-in girlfriend.Given their prior track record, I don't know why Brown would expect anything else. Still, the audacity to blame voters for not knowing what he refused to report? Impressive.
The problem for Cohen was that he made his announcement to me, and I wasn't taking him very seriously.
How was I to know way back then that the Democratic voters of Illinois would be so dumb as to elect him, brainwashed by millions of dollars in advertising about his job fairs?
February 4th: Cohen's ex-wife, Debra, who looks alarmingly like the current wife of "Dog" the Bounty Hunter, speaks, arguing that he's not really a bad guy: he only tried to rape her because of all the illegal steroids he was taking at the time. (This may not have been especially helpful, but maybe that was the script she had to read to finally get him to cough up the child support.)February 5th: Cohen, apparently using the word differently than we do, declares that he is "not an embarrassment" to the Democratic Party.
February 7th: What may be the shortest-lived editorial in Chicago Tribune history, "Don't Forget, He Won", attempting to defend Cohen against the threats and intimidation drifting out of the Democratic Party machine, appears on the Tribune's website, then, purged, disappears down the memory hole.
February 7th: Cohen's ex-girlfriend decides it's time to help.
The ex-girlfriend who accused Democratic Lt. Governor nominee Scott Lee Cohen of threatening her with a knife said Saturday she "does not believe he is fit to hold any public office.''February 7th: Cohen waits until the middle of the Super Bowl to quietly step aside.
Even for Chicago, known for weird political moments, Cohen's departure was odd. Cohen, who departed the race after it became public that he had once held a knife a prostitute ex-girlfriend's throat and had a history of using steroids, held a press conference. During Super Bowl halftime. In a bar. At a table. With his emotional son crying into his father's chest.February 8th: The Chicago Tribune's Eric Zorn:
Maybe you didn't feel bad for Scott Lee Cohen on Sunday night when you saw him biting his lip and blubbering through his announcement that he was withdrawing as the Democratic Party's candidate for lieutenant governor.Frankly, I doubt that he's any less savory than anyone Michael Madigan will now appoint to the ticket. That person will just have made sure that none of it is in writing in a courthouse somewhere, awaiting a FOIA request from the Tribune.
He's not a sympathetic character in many ways. His past contains a greater than average number of unsavory episodes and allegations, and it was vain and foolish of him to invest more than $2 million of his own money imagining he could carry all that baggage across the finish line in November for a high state office.
Still. I felt a pang for the guy.
If it hadn't been for Blair Hull's problems with cocaine and spousal abuse coming out before the primary, Barack Obama would've no doubt lost the Senate nomination, and if Jack Ryan's divorce allegations hadn't been held until after, it's probable Obama would've lost the race to the Republican, and remained in the shadows of American politics forever. Cohen might very well have been a relative paragon of public decency compared to some of the people that might be under consideration now, and it's interesting to wonder how different the race might already look had people taken notice of his arrest record just a few days earlier.
Dairenn Lombard at 06:14 PM, 2/12/10
It's not particularly shocking that this bag of trash is the best the DNC could do (as the Chicago rag opined, "don't forget, he won") but what is surprising is that the Chicago Sun Times would, in fact, defend him, defend him with such a flimsy argument, and then try to pretend as though they hadn't when it became too disgusting, even for a far-Left leaning editorial staff to even appear as though they've signed off on someone like this.
When it is apparent that an American news organization is not only uncritical of government, but is actively campaigning for and allowing its politicians to write their headlines for them, any remaining credibility the traditional press once had has surely perished. And between this and Newsweek's most egregiously running an op-ed BY the President, I can think of no better instance on which to mark such an occasion.
It's not particularly shocking that this bag of trash is the best the DNC could do (as the Chicago rag opined, "don't forget, he won") but what is surprising is that the Chicago Sun Times would, in fact, defend him, defend him with such a flimsy argument, and then try to pretend as though they hadn't when it became too disgusting, even for a far-Left leaning editorial staff to even appear as though they've signed off on someone like this.
When it is apparent that an American news organization is not only uncritical of government, but is actively campaigning for and allowing its politicians to write their headlines for them, any remaining credibility the traditional press once had has surely perished. And between this and Newsweek's most egregiously running an op-ed BY the President, I can think of no better instance on which to mark such an occasion.
at 11:45 AM, 2/14/10
Ah Illinois politics... LOL
Ah Illinois politics... LOL
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