USPS In 1st at 3rd Check Point
ArchPundit
Sweet–a Spaniard riding for a US based named after a romantic French writer is about to take the yellow.
UPDATE–DOH–he is Colombian.
2003
USPS On Pace For 2nd maybe more
The Team has been steadily increasing its time during the team time trial and Pena may be headed for the Yellow Jersey.
Tame Stage
Just about nothing exciting happened today at the Tour, but tomorrow is the Team Time Trial. Interestingly, if USPS takes the stage, Pena will be wearing the Yellow Jersey and not Lance.
No One Said He Was an Evolutionary Biologist
But he is hell of a manager
In other news, Patterson is out for the season with Hubbard coming up from Iowa.
Remember, this is a Cubs free zone when they are in first.
A Dream Come True
Too bad I couldn’t watch. Even worse there is a former perma-smile Dean who should be inside.
Man on Dog Crap at the Leader
Why let Santorum have all the fun as a bigot, Dan Zanoza at the Illinois Leader goes to the slippery slope argument that once one accepts homosexuals as human beings deserving of civil rights just as anyone else, next it will be man and other species. Yeah.
A more heartening look is from Ruy Texiera at his new blog, Donkey Rising. Scroll down to It’s a Postindustrial Thing: You Wouldn’t Understand–one of the finest blog subject headings I’ve read.
Hull’s Outreach and OUTreach
While whispers around the Hull campaign have painted him as a lot more savvy than people realize, there is always a bit of trepidation. Other multi-millionaires throwing their hat in the ring have been somewhat lacking such as the current Senator who shares a last name with Dave Corzine, lackluster center for the Bulls. John Corzine ran a somewhat tone deaf campaign in a Democratic state and pulled out a win, but only by spending tons of cash over what he expected.
Hull has shown some smart tactics and one is reported in Kristine McQueary’s column this week.
The loose cannon so far is Thornton Township, where Democratic Committeeman Frank Zuccarelli has yet to pick a side. He shared a long lunch recently with Hull ? the first in the field to reach out to Zuccarelli, surprisingly. That scored points.
Hull is white, and Thornton Township tends to pick black candidates in primaries (Roland Burris was an overwhelming favorite in the gubernatorial primary).
But if the "Z Team" busts it out for Hull, it could get interesting. The township churned out an impressive 30,000 votes during the gubernatorial primary and about 48,000 votes in the general ? 35,708 of which went to Blagojevich.
On the more adventurous side, Hull had a special appearance on his Pride Parade float,
Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Blair Hull was scheduled to host a special impersonator aboard his float in the Gay Pride Parade this weekend.
Hint: If she could turn back time, if she could find a way, she’d take back the words that hurt you, and you’d stay.
It’s all about coalitions. Give him some credit for going all the way and not just acting like a stuffed shirt. Now, if he can just promise to bring Trent Lott back for a parade–that would be worth just about anything to see.
Speaking of the Pride Parade, John Birch (kid never had a chance) seems to fit in well at the parade.
The Problem of Public School Choice: Transportation
As Wellston prepares to allow students to transfer to accredited schools, it dawns on many that there aren’t many place to go. U City will pick up several students, but the other districts are severely limited. Even harder, there are few transportation options besides U City. More on this later.
Bad News for the East Side
A recurrent theme in this blog is the consistent nature of corruption in Metro East St. Clair County. One of the few bright spots for the area was the appointment of Miriam Miquelon as US Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois. It seems she is stepping down. No reason given yet, but it might be due to pressure or she planned to step down in the next year, but wanted Fitzgerald to have influence over her replacement before he left office. More later, I’m sure.
The George Ryan Diva Story
G-Ry was notoriously thin skinned and much of that was shown in his shots at people in his own party during 2002. He also believed strongly in loyalty and the premium may have kept Scott Falwell close to him even after being convicted–thus creating the one person who could blow the whistle on him as a loyal soldier who falls on the sword. During the campaign he took shots at Kris Cohn and especially Jim Ryan for running away from him and in a bizarre twist, chastised Lisa Madigan for saying she would investigate her own father.
The Sun-Times does a profile of The George Ryan Years: Tales of Clout with a hysterical anecdote,
SPRINGFIELD–Being blunt about how scandal had ruined George Ryan’s political fortunes almost cost state Sen. Wendell Jones $1.7 million.
In early 2001, after the Palatine Republican told the Chicago Sun-Times it would be a "good thing" if Ryan didn’t seek re-election, the former governor retaliated in private by halting Illinois FIRST construction projects in Jones’ district for three months.
Realizing he had ruffled Ryan’s feathers, the senator asked for and was granted a special audience with him. In a memo to the governor about the meeting, a Ryan aide attached the news article and wrote that Jones would "apologize for comments he made regarding your re-election chances. Senator Jones says he regrets the comments and did not want to offend you with them."
After the apology, Jones now recalls, "all of a sudden, my projects began to move. That’s the way George Ryan was."
Of course, the next anecdote points out Skip Saviano’s close ties,
"Mr. Duffy and Mr. Anderson will both have fund-raising checks for you on Friday, but they will give them to Skip Saviano before the meeting so that Skip can give them to you at a more appropriate time," Ryan’s legislative liaison Kraig Lounsberry wrote. "The coroners would like to thank you."
Saviano was one of the people Tom Cross selected to run the funds for the Republican House Caucus once they ‘decentralized’ the money control from simply the House Republican Leader. He also is from River Forest and, um, has other ties, let’s say.
One of the favorite punching bags of this blog makes an appearance in the Illinois First program,
At the time, Ryan denied politics was behind an announcement touting $795,000 in Illinois FIRST projects obtained by former state Rep. Tim Johnson (R-Sydney), who was in a bitter primary for an open congressional seat.
However, an internal memo prepping Ryan for the event indicates otherwise, noting prominently that "one of Johnson’s opponents has raised Illinois FIRST as a campaign issue." The memo also encouraged the governor to pad Johnson’s pork tally by bringing up a previously announced $285,000 grant for a sewer plant "since it is one of the major projects sponsored by Representative Johnson," staffer Laurence Msall wrote.
Johnson went on to win the congressional seat.
Against one of the most decent human beings to run for a Congressional Seat in the general election–Mike Kelleher. From talking to people who have worked for Kelleher he is the kind of guy who would be Mr. Smith goes to Washington, much like Jim Leach of Iowa. Tim Johnson is, well, a moron and well, I’ll stop after the cheap shot the other day.
Overall, the story paints an accurate picture of one of the most egregious abusers of the political system in Illinois. There certainly are others who are happy to game the system, but Ryan took it to another level out of personal arrogance and sense of entitlement that no politician should possess.