Will of the People-Not

The Democratic power brokers of Illinois have pushed out the party's nominee for lietenant governor, Scott Lee Cohen, not because of his checkered past, but because he would pull down "the ticket" (i.e., incumbent Gov. Pat Quinn). Instead of a candidate duly put forward by voters, the bigwigs in Springfield and Chicago will choose someone more to their liking. This is democracy?

Global Warming Alert

From the Wall Street Journal: "Huge snowfall shuts public transport, forces event cancellations and causes hundreds of road accidents; hundreds of thousands lose electricity."

Blind Guides

The Republican leading vote-getter (so far) for governor in Illinois was virtually ignored by the Chicago media. So was the democratic nominee for lietenant governor, whose list of ethical and legal problems is longer than Rod Blagojevich's hair. Too bad we can't sue the journalists for breach of the social contract.

Clowns

The Democratic lieutenant governor nominee and pawnbroker in Illinois is a real prize: There are accusations of holding a knife to the throat of his prostitute girlfriend, 'roid rage, a tax lien, and other items. He'll fit right in with Roland Burris, Rod Blagoyevich, Rahm Emmanuel, and the rest of the clowns.

Aspiring Hypocrite

The ethically challenged Illinois Democratic senatorial candidate, Alexi Giannoulias, is ripping his opponent, Rep. Mark Kirk, as a "Washington insider." This doesn't work on at least two levels. First, he plays hoops with Barack Obama, so you can't get much more inside than that. Second, Giannoulias is trying to become a Washington insider, which is precisely what he is criticizing Kirk for. So the best you can say about Giannoulias is that he is aspiring to be a hypocrite.

Runoff Request

Yesterday Illinois held its first-in-the-nation primary, and it looks to be setting up well for the Republicans to take "Barack Obamma's Senate seat" in November.

In the Republican contest for governor, the leading vote-getter is right now just 503 ballots ahead of his nearest rival. Isn't 503 the margin of victory in Florida for George W. Bush and the country over Al Gore in 2000? Every vote does count!

Anyway, the top four Republican gubernatorial candidates all have less than 25 percent of the vote and are extremely close. I think Illinois voters deserve a runoff of the top two candidates to get a clear winner.

President Miranda

President Obama may have a measure of vindication in his (to me) incomprehensible decision to read the Nigerian terrorist his Miranda "rights":

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's cooperation could prove to be a national security victory and a political vindication for President Barack Obama, who has been under fire from lawmakers who contend the administration botched the case by giving Abdulmutallab the right to remain silent, rather than interrogating him as a military prisoner.

If the guy talks, for whatever reason, it's a victory for us all, including Obama. But I still think it's a wrong-headed policy.

Era of Big Problems

With his lips Barack Obama says that the era of big government deficit spending needs to be over. But with his proposed $3.8 trillion budget he says, "Not yet." With a deficit of $1.6 trillion just for this fiscal year, that's a new obligation of $5,333 for every man, woman, and child in the United States-and that's before interest, which will likely end up in the pockets of the Chinese.

But don't worry, the president is focusing on what's most important to the American people, such as ending "don't ask, don't tell" in the military. So not only is our financial house in ruins, so is our moral house. And I'm sure this sop to his gay base will help our all-volunteer armed forces in recruiting, so our security house will also be in trouble.

The era of Barack Obama can't end soon enough. I'm not sure we can take much more.