Why is everyone so surprised? No one who’s been paying attention at all over the past 40 years in Illinois is even batting an eye that Bob Woodward, of all people, has been threatened by the White House. These are folks from Illinois, folks. You know, Daley, Rostenkowski, Blagojevich, Daley, George Ryan, and for you old-schoolers – Dan Walker or Paul Powell – take your pick…
But it’s not so much the people who are in prison – it’s the folks who aren’t and have been running Illinois in such a corrupt fashion that it’s become a long-running joke. Ballot-stuffing, dead people voting, cronyism, guys with bad hair, bribes, organized crime, graft, selling of Senate Seats and nobody cares.. Kind of ironic that it’s Blago’s seat which is being sold to the highest bidder now, eh? But I digress…
In 2008, the country was sick of George Bush, sick of the wars, sick of the rear-ending they were getting with the financial meltdown, and we voted in a relatively unknown, un-vetted, unqualified community rabble-rouser named Barack Obama. People in Illinois who are able to string two sentences together knew who David Axelrod, Valerie Jarrett, Rahm Emmanuel, and Alice Palmer were, and when Barack Obama was elected President, there was a big “you ain’t seen nothing yet” being muttered across the Land ‘O Lincoln.
They knew what was coming to DC: Illinois-style villains, criminals, hucksters and hustlers. Nothing off-limits or off the table. Full-blown lies and corruption the likes of which the rest of the country apparently wasn’t ready for. In Illinois, it’s a political culture that’s been in place for more than 100 years. And all of a sudden, Bob Woodward has been threatened? Wait – what? The Watergate guy? Half of the great and mighty Nixon-slayer team? Isn’t he a hero to Democrats and hippies everywhere? How can this be? There must be a misunderstanding – won’t this backfire on Barack Obama? What are you, high? The last time Barack Obama experienced any backfire was from the old van the Choom Gang used to roll in…
This is, after all, an administration who when Americans are murdered in Bengazi, they throw a filmmaker in prison and move on, for crying out loud. They’re laughing over the prospect that the incomparable Bob Woodward is making these funny noises. You think they need Bob Woodward on their side? He’s more useful as an example to all other “journalists” who might think about veering off the program for a minute. As we speak, Bob Woodward is being re-cast as an irrelevant old hack by the Chicago thug squad – with plenty of assists and interference run from the leg-tinglers in the major media. On a side note, I understand Carl Bernstein got an email from the White House saying, “Keep up the good work” – but I digress…
One more example from this week for illustration:
Why on earth would you begin letting locked-up illegal immigrants go free just because of possible cutbacks in the federal budget? Ask someone from Illinois and they’ll tell you with a shrug about how back in the day, Chicago’s large immigrant population made it simple for corrupt political machineries to nurture power. Ethnic groups and different classes were pitted against one another and influenced with patronage and lotsa, lotsa cash. For their trouble, the Irish got this, the Italians got that, the Germans got the other thing…
Is any of this sounding familiar? Welcome to Illinois, rest of the country.
