Did They Speak or Did the Speaker Just Glare
After Durbin’s criticism, Madigan’s office divulged for the first time that the speaker initiated a face-to-face meeting with Cohen on Friday and “strongly urged him to drop out,” Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said.
Madigan, who has controlled the Democratic Party of Illinois since 1998, has rarely faced such public criticism over his leadership of the party, particularly from someone of Durbin’s stature.
Brown insisted his boss bore no responsibility for Cohen’s election because he endorsed Rep. Art Turner (D-Chicago) for lieutenant governor. Brown also denied that the party has ever vetted candidates.
“I think the candidates all campaign actively across the state so there were plenty of opportunities for local officials to meet them,” he said.
You know, I don’t blame it all on Madigan by any stretch of my imagination, but to say he has no responsibility is asinine. There’s plenty to go around especially with the clowns in the primary who all lost to this guy, but the head of the party is a part of the calculus. Hell, even lump of nothingness Andy McKenna got out in front of Andy Martin.
February 8th, 2010 at
Madigan is a big problem. Anyone who has worked on enough campaigns in Illinois knows that if you aren’t working for a candidate for State Representative then you can’t expect any help or cooperation from the state party. You might even have the party working against you. He has consistently fought against any downstater who shows signs of being a leader. But, he doesn’t mind backing downstate candidates too conservative or too stupid to be a statewide threat (think about Mangieri).
Durbin deserves much credit for stepping up to the plate and organizing the party in downstate for several years now. Madigan needs to finally get out of the way.
February 8th, 2010 at
First, the chairman of the party has responsibilities beyond endorsing an opponent of the bad news candidate.
Second, Madigan endorsed Art “Stupid” Turner. How stupid is Turner? Too stupid to get the media to cover allegations against Scott Lee Cohen.
Now that stuff can be released directly online without going through the media, there’s no excuse for Turner, Link and Boland not getting the info out. They suffer from incompetence.