By Steve Rhodes
Wow, things were kind of touch-and-go there for a few days, I thought I was having an aneurysm, if that’s a thing you can “have.”
I think I’m okay now, relatively speaking, I mean, I’ve been having issues for awhile now, including weird head stuff, and then one day I thought that nasty flu had finally caught up with me, but after sleeping most of Monday afternoon I magically returned to something approaching normal. My kind of normal, not everyone else’s.
So let me try to jump back on the horse now and begin to catch up, especially with our local primaries. First, Bruce Rauner.
It’s really something when a governor has garnered such a reputation for lying that he earns a headline expressing surprise when he actually tells the truth.
Other recent news (not opposing campaign) headlines:
* Another Bruce Rauner Fairy Tale.
* ‘Un-Edited’ Blagojevich Tape Is Actually Heavily Edited In Rauner Ad.
* 3 Years Later, Rauner Tells Similar Incomplete Story.
* Rauner Falsely Claims Yet Again That He Introduced Three Balanced Budgets.
(This oft-repeated claim earned a Pants on Fire rating from PolitiFact Illinois.)
* And that ad claiming that primary opponent Jeanne Ives is Michael Madigan’s favorite Republican? Heisted from the Tribune’s Eric Zorn:
“The governor is in full Pinocchio mode,” wrote Crain’s columnist Greg Hinz, calling one particular spot “the most inaccurate ad” of this campaign season.
Opinion editor Jim Slusher of the Daily Herald called that same claim “utterly laughable” and “perhaps the most ludicrous of the accusations being posited this campaign cycle.”
“Hyperbole and exaggeration are commonplace in political ads, but this . . . struck us as not just over the top but over the moon,” wrote PolitiFact Illinois in an extended examination of the gobs of mud Rauner is hurling at Ives. They “turn credibility and rational argument inside out. That is why we give them our lowest possible credibility rating, Pants on Fire!”
None of this should come as a surprise to anyone. In October 2014, I wrote this:
Rauner has made so many fantastical claims that it’s hard to pick one as more easily disproven as another. As I’ve said before, Rauner is running a deeply disingenuous campaign almost wholly based on falsehoods gilded by the art of evasion, spin and reversal.
That wasn’t just hyperbole; it was based on fact. I also bashed Pat Quinn plenty back then, and deservedly so, but largely for reasons that had little to do with truthiness.
The record on Rauner has been well-documented, if not sufficiently reinforced. Go read what I wrote then for the laundry list that had accumulated before Rauner had even won the election, and marvel at where we are at now.
And don’t forget the intervening deceits that show Rauner’s habit of falsity isn’t just a campaign tic. Since he got elected, it’s been much the same – false claims of meetings with legislative leaders, of mystery Democrats who have expressed their support to him in secret, lying to a Cardinal, and even more consequentially, bungling the state’s response to a Legionnaire’s disease outbreak at a Veteran’s Home and subsequently dissembling about it.
The pattern is clear, and people are who they are. Bruce Rauner has revealed himself. No matter what else one may think about him, the absolute truth is that he’s a serial liar.
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The editorial endorsements of Rauner basically say he’s a failure and we don’t like him, but holy shit Jeanne Ives is nuts. That’s about right, but another option for newspapers would be to skip endorsing in that race altogether.
After all, if honesty is the most bedrock principle of journalism, how can a news organization stand behind a liar?
Then you’re not better than congressional Republicans standing by Donald Trump instead of carving their own path.
Personally, I’d rather have an honest officeholder whose positions I disagree with than a dishonest officeholder whose positions I agree with. Why? Because an honest person can be engaged honestly, and that’s what democracy depends on. If it didn’t, none of us would be in journalism, because what’s the point if we didn’t believe the truth mattered most? A dishonest officeholder may hold positions you agree with today, but what about tomorrow? And what is the long-term effect of the erosion of trust in the system? We’re seeing what it is.
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It’s a bit of a cliche to say that a political person has behaved so badly they have made another reprehensible person seem sympathetic, but I can’t be the only one who indeed finds Jeanne Ives reprehensible yet hopes against hope that she can pull off the upset. The danger is that she actually wins office – remember all those Democrats hoping Trump would win the GOP nomination so they could whip him in the general election. On the other hand, she might be a less elusive opponent as governor and more amenable to cutting deals with legislators, who knows.
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Not that I support any of the Democrats. They’re horrible too. But comparatively, I have my preferences. I’ll write about those in the coming days.
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Back to Rauner, this item on Rich Miller’s Capitol Fax blog struck me:
Rauner Says He’s Been An NRA Member “For Many Years,” Claims Politics Played No Role In Veto
The governor was asked this morning on WJPF: “Aren’t you a member of the NRA?” His response . . .
“I am. I am. I have been for many years.”
I have been looking around Google for a while now and I don’t think he’s ever admitted to that before. Not saying he hasn’t said it. I just don’t remember it and can’t find it.
I searched the archives of the Tribune and Sun-Times this morning and came up empty.
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See also:
* Bruce Rauner’s Secret Government.
* “He doesn’t know where the baloney comes from. Which is baloney.”
* Item 2: When Does Rauner Get The Trump Treatment?
* Beachwood Election Guide 2014: “[Y]ou are not to vote for Bruce Rauner. Take it from fellow Republicans Jim Edgar and Kirk Dillard (and Bill Brady). The man has just run the most disingenuous campaign this side of Obama ’08 and Emanuel ’10 and must not be rewarded for it.”
(Substitute link for Edgar because the Sun-Times links in this item are, predictably, dead. How right was that guy?)
* Oh, there’s also this “Pants on Fire!” about his “evolving immigrant narrative.”
And this list is not exhaustive, believe me.
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Well, I was going to catch up with all the candidates today but it’s already 1 p.m., so I’ll post this and get to work on the rest of them.
In the meantime, here’s some other awesome Beachwood content since I last posted on Thursday:
The Beachwood Radio Interview Hour #3: Hoodoo Voodoo With Professor Pear Tree
Smoking in the bathroom, hanging out with trouble-making friends, drinking beer and calling in a bomb scare. Oh, and graduating high school at 16 and going on to become a religion scholar. Meet DePaul’s Lisa Poirier.
(I don’t know if I like that headline. I kinda don’t. Suggestions?)
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RECALL! Heartland Catfish
Nuggets, shanks and Texas Roadhouse splits.
(These were shipped to Illinois, people.)
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’63 Boycott
“In 1963, 250,000 students boycotted the Chicago Public Schools to protest racial segregation. ’63 Boycott connects the forgotten story of one of the largest northern civil rights demonstrations to contemporary issues around race, education and youth activism.”
(I feel like this post could have been stronger. I was just doing the best I could in recent days.)
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The Soul Of America’s Media
There ain’t much of one, people.
(I’m not that thrilled with this post because it could have been a lot better, but hopefully you get my point.)
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The Beachwood Radio Sports Hour #191: Ramblers ‘R’ Us
Repping Chicago. Plus: Embarrables; Qbit; Schweinsteiger!; Kyle Fuller Is Transitionally It; The White Sox’ $26 Million Man; The Happster; and a Cubs Web Special.
See also: SportsMonday: Loyola Living The Dream.
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A Plea: Do What Katherine Gun Did
A hero whose name you should know.
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County Fairs Urge Rauner To Release Funding
“Local county fairs provide both measurable economic benefits and immeasurable community benefits to Central and Southern Illinois communities.”
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Flint Town
“An alarming portrait of cops, politics and a reeling city.”
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Free Press Sues The FCC For Dramatic Reversal Of Media Ownership Limits That Pave Way For Media Mergers
“The filing comes as the FCC is weighing the Sinclair Broadcast Group’s proposed takeover of Tribune Media, which would give Sinclair a broadcast reach far in excess of congressional and FCC limits on national and local media ownership.”
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The Beachwood Tronc Line: Unclamp.
Posted on March 14, 2018