Thursday, April 06, 2006
Ill. GOP Gov. Candidate--NOT a Team Player?
George Will has an interesting article about our Illinois Gubernatorial candidate, Judy Barr Topinka. (A 'Straight Talk" Test For 2006)
It's mostly just straight forward discussion of the GOP's tenuous possibility to get back in political power in Illinois, with a mention of same in California and New York state. But, the article is mostly about Illinois' situation with our brash "straight talking" candidate, Judy Barr.
Most of it isn't too revealing until you get to the last two paragraphs and then you hit paydirt...
Topinka says Karl Rove urged her to run, hoping to offset in Illinois a probable gubernatorial loss in New York. Would she like President Bush to campaign for her? An aide says not exactly: "We just want him to raise money." Topinka does not demur as the aide adds: "Late at night." Pause. "In an undisclosed location."
Maybe Illinois Republicans have found their John McCain. Now they will find out whether such "straight talk" works.
What in the heck is this woman doing? She has told all Bush voters that she doesn't want their support as WELL as telling the president -- a president whose own political director urged her to run -- that she doesn't want his help, just his cash! So, even if Rove was willing to help her, why would he do so now that she has basically told him she doesn't want the president's help?
Does Topinka think that no one reads the newspaper?
Then, Will calls her our "John McCain"? Sure, if by calling her a person that is only out for herself with NO interest in the Party either locally OR nationally, maybe he is right in that assessment.
Illinois's GOP has been destroyed by successive waves of Ryans who have stolen their way to riches as well as a Party that has permanently eschewed any claim to ideology or principle and steered straight for pure power politics empty of meaning. And it is obvious that Judy Barr Topinka is not one who will "fix" the Party, but will leave it in much the same shape she found it, empty of meaning and out of power.
-Warner Todd Huston
# posted by Publius @ 4/06/2006 02:20:00 PM 
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