When journalists decide to do a piece on local politics they inevitably miss the nuances of the race. In the case of today’s article in Roll Call, they miss the point. Social conservatives aren’t mad at Fitzgerald. In fact, they consider him their boy in the state party apparatus. Of the major mouthpieces for the social conservatives, Byrne at the Trib, Roesser at the Sun-Times, Pat O’Malley, Steve Rauschenberger, and the whole wing-nut collection at the Illinois Leader, Pete can do almost no wrong. They might complain mildly on his positions that he has moderated including gun control and ANWR, but he is their boy and they sell him as the Messiah of the Illinois Circular Firing Squad Team.
The McKenna challenge should be considered either a moderate Republican challenge or a Combine challenge. Combine, in the parlance of Illinois politics, is defined as the deal-maker portions of both political parties in Illinois. Members of their respective parties, these folks are the mysterious THEY referred to by conspiracy theorists everywhere. They are not dark conspiratorial forces, though. They simply practice Ubi Est Mea (mandatory Royko reference) or ‘Where’s Mine?’ and they do it inside or outside the confines of the parties. The Combine isn’t some vast conspiracy as the Illinois Leader or John Kass on a bad day try to portray it. It is a group of people who put pork over policy.
The Daleys are the most prominent members to those outside the state, but Big Jim Thompson is probably the consumate Combine guy. G-Ry was also a Combine guy. Lee Daniels and his successor Tom Cross are Combine guys. Pate Philip and his tollway authority chief brother are Combine players. LaHood is sort of a Combine guy, but not as much. Dan Hynes is a Combine guy and Blago is a Combine guy. Da Speaker, AKA Madigan, is majorly a Combine guy.
If you are true believer, Combine guys are the enemy. They dole out money to their friends and many don’t give two hoots about policy. They don’t push the ideological issues and look to big money when unsure of what to do. They also have their advantages. They get things done. Compare Misery’s roads to Illinois and you learn a lot about the advantages of pork.
What does the Combine think of Pete? Primarily, they think he is weird. Why such deep analysis of him? He doesn’t play ball and he makes things harder than they have to be. Leaders like Pate Philip in the Illinois Senate where Pete was before he became US Senator understand that conservatives have views that are inconvenient and are happy to resolve those problems when they come up and they don’t cost the party too much. It is an inconvenient fact of doing business that when an ideologue comes along and actually cares about policy you have to bargain with them. Pete doesn’t believe in bargaining. Unlike Rauschenberger and some other conservatives, Pete took a liking to pissing on Pate’s leg just to piss on it. Pate didn’t understand this and sure as hell didn’t like it.
This seemingly irrational behavior in an organization designed around the concept of Ubi Est Mea, was not without its audience. The nativist, wingnut ICFST party faction had long been angry that these moderate deal makers had run their party and wanted it back. Pete’s routine attracted them just as Pat O’Malley did in the gubernatorial primary. He won the primary on the back of those wingnuts over Loleta Didrickson, a moderate GOP woman.
Slowly the social conservatives had been organizing. Jack Roesser ran against Edgar in 1994 and was handily beaten. Some argue Rich Williamson’s run in 1990 was the first volley, but that is misreading of Williamson and forgets that he was supposed to be a sacrifice to Alan Dixon for his vote on Clarence Thomas. Al Salvi won the nomination for Senator in 1996 and was handily beaten in the general by Durbin. Finally, in 1998 a perfect storm arose. Carol Mosely Braun was a black woman and a member of the Combine. She was none too bright and was caught in a series of ethical problems that made her position worse. The conservatives were pissed at years of being the crazy aunt in the attic and out organized the machine in the primary. Pete’s habit of pissing on people’s legs appealed to them. In the general election, their boy Pete, avoided saying anything causing a whole lot of airtime being spent on Mosely Braun’s ethics. Scratch that–Mosely Braun’s lack of ethics. Pete rode that to a win.
Now the Combine is just annoyed. Pete is holding up the single most important vote for Illinois in O’Hare expansion. Previously quiet and unassertive in state politics, Hastert has actively worked within the Combine to thwart Pete. Pete won’t play ball on other issues and he gets in the way of important projects in other ways and he has pissed on the leg of the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Some of these efforts are admirable. Appointing Patrick Fitzgerald and Miquelon as US Attorneys was a great feat and should be applauded. The Combine didn’t like it because it means their friends will undergo long-needed scrutiny. In another case, he took on the Governor regarding pork barrel excess on the Lincoln Library.
In other cases, his opposition is silly and petty. He will most likely win the nomination for 2004. The wingnuts simply have a better ground operation than does the party apparatus. When he wins the nomination, barring Mosely Braun as the Democratic candidate, perfunctory talk of party unity will be heard, while the Combine Republicans knife him in the back and get a Democrat elected. The Daley family has done it for years to Democrats who didn’t play ball and the Republicans are fully capable of doing the same.
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