The Chicago Tribune Editorial Board has declined to endorse Illinois Democratic gubernatorial frontrunner J.B. Pritzker, citing Pritzker’s extensive moral failings and ties to the state’s crooked Democrat establishment. It’s just the latest piece of evidence that Illinois Democrats are on the verge of nominating a weak general election candidate with extensive baggage ranging from his conduct on the Rod Blagojevich FBI wiretaps to being a “yes man” to House Speaker Mike Madigan.
The Chicago Tribune writes,
Pritzker is just fine with the Madigan-Berrios axis; he occasionally offers the mildest of protestations and hurriedly changes the subject. Pritzker is their guy, so they’re his guys.
That Pritzker plays the supplicant in FBI recordings of his conniving conversations with a corrupt governor, Rod Blagojevich, in late 2008 tells the rest of us plenty. It’s not only the words spoken as Pritzker grovels for an appointment to statewide office. It’s the mutual appreciation, the comfort factor: Pritzker and Blagojevich are two players happy to be arranging which Democrat to stuff into which major office. No voters need participate. We’ve got this.
Most troubling in these calls is Pritzker’s descriptions of black pols, from the “least offensive” to the “crass.” It’s common for politicians to talk in shorthand about voting cohorts. But it’s, well, offensive and crass to tacitly isolate African-Americans as a subset to be tossed a bone today so they can be exploited for their votes tomorrow.
Listen to those recordings and ask yourself: Would a Gov. Pritzker be as pliant a “yes man” to Democrats who control the General Assembly as he was pliant to Blagojevich? Yes.
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