Whoever was after Schock did a masterful job not only of finding the different bits, but of doling it out in a disciplined and controlled way. That’s something Schock never had–he started his Congressional Campaign with a long rambling treatise that he thought showed off how bright he was. It didn’t–it showed what an incredible lightweight he was and then he traded more on beefcake than substance.
One of the better quotes in the archive is here:
In 2008, Schock hadn’t even been sworn in as a congressman yet, but when I asked him whether he was frustrated that he wouldn’t turn 30 until 2011, he didn’t even deny that he was looking past his next job.
“In politics,” he said, “you never know who’s going to die, retire or — in Illinois — get indicted.”
He was prescient. The next week, Rod Blagojevich was arrested.
So you could say Schock has been running for the Senate for the last two years.
That was in a particularly bad piece by Edward McClelland who seemed to think Schock was the bees knees and one of the most awful style over substance pieces by the local press in years–about typical if it had been in DC.