Someone who is trying to win over the swing voters in Illinois?
Jim did a fine job asking Topinka what she thought of the President even if she never answered the questions. The base of the Republican Party thinks clapping louder will make George Bush more popular and magically make him and his merry band of incompetents seem like they have some clue how to run a country. Judy has the problem of being in a state where Bush’s popularity is in Keyes’ land, with Republicans at a distinct disadvantage, and a base that won’t tolerate anything but praise for Dear Leader even if he leads them to the apocalypse–strike that–especially if he leads them to the apocalypse.
It’s perhaps ironic given the Blagojevich’s administrations string of bad audits that make it look a lot like the Bush admininstration. Can’t find CMS savings? Insist they are there.
That said, while the initial reaction to Holland’s first round was to Bushlike attack the messenger, Blagojevich backed down and showed some decent sense if not much better operation of CMS.
The obvious parallel is there to make between Blagojevich and Bush on management—but the problem is she can’t make it or her base will declare her an unperson.
Look at today’s news. Madigan’s grand jury called in Doug Scott. Karl Rove was called to the Grand Jury by Fitzgerald. If you start to rail about how Fitzgerald is going to get Rod, you get asked questions about Karl. Is Fitzgerald a grand inquisitor in one case and a sharp eyed prosecutor in the other? (and yes, I do understand the Fitzgerald is not involved in the Madigan Grand Jury)
If anything, Judy’s problem may be that she’s just not audacious enough to ignore the contradictions and go Bush-like in to attack mode ignoring the obvious questions.