Schmidt won’t go; will GOP push her?

In some ways, the behavior of state Sen. Suzi Schmidt, R-Lake Villa, doesn’t surprise me in the least. Anyone who has the desire to hold elective office has to have a certain amount of ego and a sense that their presence matters.

SCHMIDT: She won't go!

So the fact that Schmidt – who became more than just another anonymous freshman state legislator when it became known she tried to use her influence to discourage Lake County sheriff’s department officials from seriously investigating her husband’s claims that she was abusing him – is now saying she has no intentions of resigning her post is to be expected.

IN FACT, I suspect that Schmidt probably thinks she’s making a tough, principled, ethical stand by refusing to give in to people who she wants to think are trying to turn her personal life into an issue against her.

Which means she has the ability to live her life in a fantasy world of her own making – just like many other government officials.

So I’m not writing this commentary out of any sense that Schmidt needs to be criticized. I suspect if she ever reads this, she’ll be quick to trash me.

My concern in this whole affair is Schmidt’s Republican colleagues – who are now in a position of having to defend someone who (deep down) they wish would wither away into political nothingness.

THE DISCLOSURES ABOUT Schmidt came up last month. Lake County sheriff’s police, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, made public the content of the calls Schmidt made to police dispatchers on three occasions in recent months when police had to respond to the Schmidt residence.

The one call that amused people was one from her husband who said his wife had locked him out of their house on Christmas Day, which means it was winter and he didn’t have a jacket on. He probably was cold.

The call that offended people was Schmidt herself calling the dispatchers and telling them they shouldn’t bother to respond to any calls at her house made by her husband. She also made mention of the fact that, for the 10 years leading up to this year, Schmidt was the chairman of the Lake County Board.

The far north suburbs’ answer to Toni Preckwinkle.

EXCEPT THAT I can’t envision Preckwinkle ever telling Cook County sheriff’s police they should ignore 9-1-1 emergency calls. Or trying to flash her title as a way of intimidating police into ignoring complaints.

Now as it turns out, police haven’t charged anybody with anything in connection with any of these calls to the Schmidt home. These domestic disputes didn’t rise to the level of crimes.

But when the calls came out and the initial public reaction wasn’t offense that the information became public, Schmidt began getting pressure to resign her post.

After all, she had only been a legislator since January. Had Schmidt just left, it is likely that she would have been forgotten so quickly on the Statehouse Scene that there would have been no lingering ill-will toward her.

MAYBE SHE COULD have gone back to the county scene, where (if she really was as important a person as she believes she was) she could have won some sort of government post – unless she were to decide that a future life would be better spent outside of electoral politics.

Privately, GOP leadership said they were prepared to give Schmidt the weekend to decide for herself what to do (which really meant that she should realize she should just walk away).

But it just ain’t gonna happen that way.

For Schmidt on Wednesday made it known that not only is she not resigning, she also plans to seek re-election. She’s gambling on the fact that she represents an area where the Republican Party is solid, and that there likely isn’t any other GOPer with the desire to be an anonymous state senator.

LAST WEEK, STATE Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont, called the revelations about Schmidt, “extremely troubling,” and said that public officials, “are held to a higher standard.”

Now, Radogno is defending Schmidt, saying she, “has acknowledged that her actions were wrong and has asked for the forgiveness of her constituents.”

This could be a case where Republican leadership is publicly saying nice things to avoid a brawl, while privately will do everything they can to undermine her re-election chances.

Then again, maybe it isn’t.

WHICH MEANS WE’LL really have to wait until late this year to see if anybody decides to challenge Schmidt for the Republican nomination for her far north suburban state Senate seat.

That’s when we’ll learn whether or not Radogno and Schmidt’s Republican defenders these days have any political sincerity, or if they’re just engaging in the typical trash-talk of a campaign season – defending their own, regardless of how bad they behave.

Which, to me, is more offensive than anything Schmidt is alleged to have done.

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What should we think of Cohen?

It is the story with sordid angles for all – people of a more progressive mindset can get all worked up about the fact that the apparent Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor was alleged to have committed domestic violence against a woman.

For those inclined to downplay such talk, the woman supposedly had arrests for prostitution. Even the word "steroids" comes up.

SO WHAT SHOULD we think of the man involved in this story who someday could be in place to become governor of Illinois – in the event something unfortunate were to happen to Pat Quinn, should he succeed in winning the Nov. 2 general election against what appears to be the GOP ticket of Brady and Plummer.

Some people are now getting all worked up over the thought that Cohen will “drag” down the Democratic ticket come November. I have even seen one commentator imply that Cohen is a 21st Century equivalent of Janice Hart and Mark Fairchild, the followers of Lyndon LaRouche who managed to get the Dem nominations for secretary of state and lieutenant governor back in 1986.

Of course, most of the people engaging in this type of rhetoric are the types who are eagerly looking for something, anything, that can be used to take down the Democratic Party ticket. Forgive me if I think their bias is just a little too big to be trusted.

For one thing, Cohen is not Fairchild or Hart, who were followers of an un-American extremist. If anything, Cohen is something that usually appeals to more conservative Republicans – a business owner who claims his political inexperience is his great advantage.

WHAT I BELIEVE will be important in determining whether or not this Cohen rhetoric sticks is how Cohen behaves today and in the next few days. I don’t have a clue if Cohen or his people will ever read this, but my suggestion would be for them to be incredibly honest.

It could mean a potentially humiliating few days, perhaps up to a week, for Cohen. But if he handles himself right, this could become the issue that is so long forgotten by Election Day in November that most people will have a hard time remembering it ever occurred.

If he bumbles about, then he creates the situation where Republicans can portray him as the pawnbroker woman-beater for the next nine months. They’re going to try to do that anyway, but Cohen’s reaction will determine whether we should listen to the partisan GOP or disregard their campaign rhetoric (which is usually a good idea to do with any campaign’s rhetoric – it’s all an exaggeration).

Part of the reason I am inclined to think this way is not because I sympathize with Cohen all that much or am somehow anxious to ignore the very real problem in our society of domestic abuse, particularly against women.

IT’S JUST THAT none of this is new. For Quinn to now say that Cohen should reject the nomination he appears to have won makes Quinn look foolish (and weak, if Cohen decides to be stubborn and refuse to "resign").

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown is now able to boast about how he wrote about this months ago, only to have people ignore it then because they wanted to believe that a “no-name” political dreamer like Cohen could not possibly defeat the many state senators who ran for the Democratic nomination to be governor-in-waiting.

What they didn’t account for was the fact that Cohen is a business owner (the family has a pawn shop, and Cohen himself has expanded the interests to include the environmentally-friendly cleaning supplies company that he likes to brag about, along with a few rental properties) with enough money that he provided about 98 percent of the funds that paid for his campaign.

It’s the power of television.

ALL THOSE ADVERTISING spots made the name “Scott Lee Cohen” more recognizable to the average voter in Tuesday’s primary, compared to those who actually follow legislative activity and know who people like Art Turner, Mike Boland, Terry Link or Rickey Hendon actually are.

So it shouldn’t be a shock that he got that 26 percent of the vote, which was enough to win.

But like I wrote, this allegation (which supposedly took place in 2005 but did not result in a criminal conviction because charges were dropped when the “girlfriend” didn’t bother to pursue the case) was known and written about somewhat.

He may not have featured the fact in one of his primary season campaign ads, but Cohen hasn’t exactly tried to cover this up. Officially, he tells reporter-types that he thinks it will not be an issue.

IT WILL ONLY become an issue if he bungles it up. This is one case where a political prospect should be eager for the details to come out. If he seems to be letting it all out, most people will get bored with the story.

It is the potential for trying to hide, or diminish, what happened back then that could be used against him. It’s like Nixon – the coverup is what killed his presidency. So what are we going to be able to think of the Cohen campaign?

Is he a woman-beater (who supposedly held a knife to her throat, according to some reports but which Cohen himself denies)? Or is he the small business owner whom some people actually preferred BECAUSE he does not have a lengthy career as an elected official?

We’re watching Scott in the coming days to try to get an answer to those questions.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: Some people on Thursday seemed eager to credit the Chicago Tribune with telling us (http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2010/02/new-questions-in-2005-arrest-of-democratic-lieutenant-governor-nominee-.html) the tale of Scott Lee Cohen. But the Chicago Sun-Times had its share (http://www.suntimes.com/news/elections/2029016,scott-cohen-arrest-020410.article) of reporting on the issue, both now and (http://www.suntimes.com/news/brown/2029178,CST-NWS-brown04.article) in the past.

The first time I ever heard of Cohen’s campaign was on Labor Day of last year when I was doing some work (http://nwitimes.com/news/local/illinois/article_a06e9c9f-5cca-5be6-a0d0-ac5f3571db08.html) for an area newspaper and a local (for that publication) person made it clear that he was a Cohen backer.