The Illinois Chump Awards

Go to Dave Syverson, Steve Rauschenberger and Don Manzullo for unleashing this idiot on the good people of Illinois

In the article there is some hysterical background:

State Rep. Angelo “Skip” Saviano was mad.

His face red and his nerves frayed, Saviano glared incredulously at the political creme de la creme of the Illinois Republican Party arrayed around the horseshoe-shaped table in the Union League Club, Chicago’s posh and historic rendezvous for the rich and powerful.

The Illinois Republican State Central Committee once seemed as well suited to the Union League as the painting by Monet that accents the club’s wood and leather sitting rooms.

On Aug. 4, though, Saviano and the other leaders of the Illinois Republican Party seemed out of place in the rarefied atmosphere of a club dedicated to ideals like honesty and efficiency in government. The Republicans were engaged in a political scavenger hunt, desperately searching for someone to run for the U.S. Senate after their primary winner, Jack Ryan, dropped out of the race after embarrassing details from his divorce file became public.

“We need a name, we need a name,” state Sen. Dave Syverson, a Rockford conservative and the state GOP treasurer, chanted to his colleagues, urging them to select Alan Keyes, the controversial Maryland talk show host, to embark on the party’s “Mission Impossible”–running for the U.S. Senate against Democrat Barack Obama, who was seen as unbeatable.

But Saviano, an Elmwood Park lawmaker and one of the party’s moderates, would have none of it.

“If you had only recruited better candidates, you wouldn’t need any help,” Saviano yelled as he rose to his feet and leaned across the table. “It’s too late to worry,” he snapped as he stalked from the room.

Saviano gave Syverson the Daniels Treatment. When Daniels was the House Leader he wasn’t terribly popular with the troops, but they feared him because he had the cash. Skip didn’t because his support is pretty strong and localized and whenever Daniels would go to far, Skip would scream at him in front of the House Caucus and Daniels did what? Stood there like a doofus.

Sort of like Syverson.

The weird part of the story is that conservative candidates weren’t hurt by Keyes much–but helped by Bush. Keyes alienated a record number of Illinois voters in both raw numbers and percentages, but the grassroots conservative support for the President seems to have stopped the Illinois GOP from imploding. With the broad effort to turn out votes decentralized to conservative evangelicals, any drop off that might have happened with that loon running around the state was staved off.

But don’t worry, Keyes decided to stay so there will be plenty of time for him to screw up more elections.

Interested in being Governor, Alan?