EXTRA: We're focused on No. 16. But what would Lincoln (really) think?

Perhaps it is appropriate that Illinois is the 16^th governmental entity in the United States to pass into law a measure that permits gay couples the same option to be in a legal marriage as anyone else.

Pols wish they were Lincoln, but would he want them?

For Abraham Lincoln – the public official whom many political people like to emulate themselves after – was the 16^th president of our nation.

AND GOV. PAT Quinn couldn’t help but try to bring some Lincolnesque atmosphere into play when he performed the ceremonies that made the law effective in Illinois – come June 1.

Quinn had a desk that once belonged to Lincoln set up for him at the UIC Forum, and he used it to actually sign the bill into law.

Supposedly, Lincoln used the desk when he wrote one of his inaugural addresses. Perhaps people can fantasize that he used it while writing the Gettysburg Address whose memory we have been celebrating in recent weeks.

It’s probably a cheap piece of furniture that meant little to Lincoln personally. But it isn’t unusual for politicians from Illinois to try trotting out Lincoln artifacts in hopes it gives them more credibility.

I RECALL WHEN then-Secretary of State George Ryan conducted a drawing in 1991 (that wound up giving the Republican Party’s operatives control over the redistrict process for that decade). Ryan came up with a glass bowl that supposedly once belonged to Lincoln.

Perhaps it was once a bowl containing some pieces of fruit in the Lincoln home living room. But it gained an aura not otherwise worthy of 1840s glassware.

Other politicians have produced stove-pipe hats that supposedly were once worn by Lincoln – hoping it would bolster the significance of their actions.

QUINN: Wanted Lincoln-esque aura

So Quinn dredging up a Lincoln desk? We should have expected it.

THAT DOESN’T MEAN, however, that we should think of Wednesday’s actions as being all that more important. It had enough significance that we followed in the path of Iowa and Minnesota – but seem to be far ahead of Indiana when it comes to the gay marriage issue.

In the latter state, the conservative ideologues are determined to take a stance on behalf of Hoosierdom – they’re pushing for an amendment to the Indiana state Constitution that would specify marriages for gay couples would NOT be legitimate.

Based on the reporting coming out of Indianapolis, it seems like the GOP leaders wish this issue would go away. They’re not about to do anything to follow in the lead of Illinois – and may well be the last Midwestern U.S. state to get with the program on this issue.

But will they be dragged all the way the other way?

IT WOULD REINFORCE the belief I have (as a result of personal observation throughout the years) that there are those within the GOP who are ashamed that their political party was once commonly known as the “Party of Lincoln.”

Yet I also think that when Democratic Party operatives try to spew talk that if Lincoln were alive today, he’d be a Dem! Even though I found it interesting to hear Newton Minow Wednesday on the "Chicago Tonight" program that John F. Kennedy himself wanted to visit Lincoln's Springfield home the first time he ever visited the capital city in 1956.

A Dem tie? That may be too much of a stretch. Yet I can’t help but think he’d be appalled on some level on the idea that the political party he helped to create (Lincoln was the first Republican ever elected president) has gone so far the opposite direction.

KENNEDY: Respected the Lincoln mood

Would he be shaking his head in shame? Would he feel empathy for gay people that he appeared to feel for black people – even if there is rhetorical evidence he considered them too different to ever fit in with the masses of this nation?

IT MAKES ME wonder. Lincoln in his lifetime was a member of the Whig Party who converted to Republicanism. The idea of political change was in him – even if the Dems on Wednesday tried to play off his image as being one of them.

Could he well be the leader of a legitimate third party if he were around in the 21^st Century? One that would show the Tea Party types to be a batch of dinks too wrapped up in themselves to acknowledge the greater good?

  -30-

EDITOR'S NOTE: I'm not sure I really think Wednesday's bill-signing ceremony was "historic" in nature. But the Catholic ritual of exorcism that took place in Springfield, Ill., would be considered comical -- if not for the fact that it feeds into the hateful beliefs that ought to be exorcised from our society.
 

Do we really need ‘Anchorman 2?’

Could somebody explain the phenomenon of “Ron Burgundy” to me? Really!


Will it be worth excessive hype?

Burgundy, of course, was the character played by actor Will Ferrell in the now-decade-old film “Anchorman.”

WHERE HE WAS the tacky, no-class, pompous news anchor beloved by all of San Diego (until he told them to commit a certain sexual act with themselves) back in the 1970s. The 2004 film was a comedy (what else could Ferrell do?) and it took its shots at the cheesiness of ‘70’s pop culture.

All in all, it was a good laugh back then. Whenever I happen to be flipping through television channels and happen to stumble across it, I usually stop and watch a few minutes.

Particularly if it’s at the point of the news anchor gang fight!

I’m not sure what is more ludicrous – actor Steve Carrell’s character killing a man by suddenly throwing a trident or the other news person’s weapon of choice; lighting himself on fire.

OR PERHAPS IT is the sight (and sound) of actor Ben Stiller playing the anchor for Spanish-language news.

But it definitely is a piece, in and of itself. It’s not something that begs out for a sequel – because one could easily take the humor from the original film (best consumed in small doses) and blow it out into something bordering on the grotesque.

That is what seems to be happening now. After nearly a decade, we’re going to get “Anchorman 2” come Dec. 20. Maybe Hollywood producers envision us all going out to the theater on Christmas Day after we’ve opened our gifts and eaten our holiday feasts so we can get a chuckle at the self-absorbed, not-too-bright jazz flute-playing Burgundy.

Who will be Anchorman 2's 'Harry Doyle?'

They certainly seem to be anxious to feed us the concept already.

JOCKEY IS PRODUCING special underwear meant to tie in to the film, while Ben & Jerry’s ice cream has come up with a butterscotch-flavored product meant to mock the Burgundy character’s love of scotch – as in the alcoholic drink.

Ferrell is even appearing in television spots for Dodge Durango – where my own gut reaction is that he looks too old (Ferrell himself is 46 these days) to be playing the part of a news anchorman.

Somebody seems determined to market this film – which makes me fear it will be such a clunker. Will these products be living down the shame of being associated with a film sequel that will stinks?

Somebody is probably hoping for the next “Godfather II,” although I wonder if we’re destined to get “Major League II” – which beyond baseball broadcaster Bob Uecker as over-the-top broadcaster “Harry Doyle” isn’t worth watching at all. It may well be the most-pointless sequel ever.

THERE EVEN ARE people who ought to know better trying to tie themselves into the film. A special exhibit at the D.C.-area “Newseum” about the film? Emerson College naming its school of communication for Burgundy?

Even if just for one day, it still sounds odd for an entity supposedly dedicated to reporting something close to resembling the truth to be named for a fictional character!

The over-the-top promotional ties to the film actually have me skeptical. I doubt I’m buying any Jockey underwear in the near future, nor do I feel the need to get the new ice cream flavor (in part because I’m not fond of butterscotch).

And even though I am actually in the market for an automobile, I may avoid Dodge like the plague just because of its association with the film.

WHAT IS SAD is that the subject matter has potential for parody and humor – the sequel takes us to the 1980s when the Burgundy character is allegedly a cable news anchor. CNN in its early days was good for laughs!

Botching this subject would be truly sad.

Preserving them on celluloid?

Although I was intrigued to learn that Bill Kurtis will be involved with the sequel as well – reprising his role as the film’s narrator (while also giving us “the voice” of television so as to give the film some credibility).

It’s just too bad they couldn’t find a way to give us dual narrators – just envision Walter Jacobson alongside Kurtis as they tried to tell us the follow-up to the ludicrous life of Burgundy. That would be worth watching.

  -30- 

EXTRA: Death toll up to 8, recovery efforts will be active for awhile

Between the time I wrote a weather-related commentary and the time you read this, the death toll in Illinois due to Sunday’s severe storms (winds of up to 190 miles per hour, in some places), the death toll climbed to 8 people.

Which is still small, considering how large a swath of Illinois got impacted.

LARGE ENOUGH THAT early Tuesday, Gov. Pat Quinn added added six more counties to the list of those that are now officially state disaster areas. Those include Will County that makes up the far south suburban portion of metro Chicago.

But it doesn’t change the fact that this was primarily a storm that devastated rural Illinois communities, and that we in Chicago ought to feel fortunate that we didn’t get hit harder.

In all as of Tuesday morning, there were 13 counties on the state disaster list – which is a designation that doesn’t mean much in itself. But in order to qualify as a federal disaster area (which is what provides all the outside aid to help rebuild), the state must first make a declaration.

“While the recovery will be long and hard, we will work in the coming days, weeks and months to assist these communities and help the people who live there rebuild their lives,” Quinn said, in a prepared statement.

IT WILL BE just a matter of days (possibly by week’s end when we stop getting bombarded every news cycle with the same images of devastation from places like Washington (which seems to be the favorite for TV news crews, possibly because Peoria isn’t that far away). But places like Gifford, Diamond and New Minden (also downstate Illinois communities) also got whacked pretty hard.

Not that anybody with a civic conscience ought to be headed there. Because the reality is that anybody who thinks they can help out with the relief effort would really be doing nothing more than getting in the way of the cleanup crews. People who think they can seriously help ought to contact the Red Cross, or Washington city government at (309) 563-4035 to let the locals know of their availability.

They should be aware of the reality that while the news coverage will soon move on, the need for relief will be ongoing for months as people try to rebuild the lives for themselves that they suddenly lost in a few seconds on Sunday.

  -30-

We should feel fortunate we were spared brunt of Sunday's storms!

“Washington” is in the national news these days – as in the downstate community where the locals think Peoria is the nearby big city.

The harsh storms that cut their way through Illinois and spread into the Chicago area on Sunday seem to have done the most damage in central Illinois. Those of us urbanites got to watch television footage Monday morning of destruction throughout the rural community, and some of it bore a strong resemblance to the wreckage of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.

THERE DOESN’T SEEM to be much of a death toll. But there are now many families who are now homeless – and there’s a chance that at least a few of them will never fully recover from their losses.

“Nov. 17, 2013” will go down as a historic date in that community’s story, and we’ll have to see in coming months how well Washington, Ill., manages to rebuild itself.

I bring this up because I wonder how many people here got hit with some heavy rain and strong winds and are now going to go on and on and on about how badly they were hit by Sunday’s storms. There’s going to be a lot of “trauma talk” from people who are going to want to compare their “losses” to what other people suffered from.

We were fortunate.

THE ONLY CHICAGO-located color of any significance related to Sunday’s storms was that the brunt of it hit the city proper right around the time that the Chicago Bears were preparing to play the Baltimore Ravens.

Fans had to take cover under the stands at Soldier Field, and the game itself was delayed a couple of hours. Soggy and shuddering fans got a few stories tell that they will remember much longer than the 23-20 final score – or even the fact that the Bears, themselves, won!

But it would have taken a direct tornado touchdown (as opposed to a football one) on the playing surface itself (sending those upper decks flying off into Lake Michigan, or maybe crashing into the Willis Tower) for THAT to have been more significant than the destruction in rural Illinois.

The Chicago Tribune on Monday reported a death toll of six people across the state, with some 21 tornado touchdowns across the state.

NOT TO DETRACT too much from the people who suffered serious loss. But we should consider that most of us were very fortunate, and that we live in a place where the major devastation (the fire of 1871) occurred nearly a century-and-a-half ago.

In my own case, I was in suburban Tinley Park with my brother around mid-day, which was the point in time when the brunt of the storm soared over my head.

That isn’t too far (just one community over) from the tornado touchdown in suburban Frankfort. And I have to confess that for about 10 minutes, the sky got uglier than usual and I had to wonder if something could possibly happen outside.

Yet, the storm managed to pass over me, and within a half hour there was light again in the sky and the only evidence that anything had occurred were the leaves and branches that were blown about the street – making more of a mess than usual!

MY THOUGHTS ABOUT Sunday center around how fortunate I was NOT to have to suffer. It is a feeling we all ought to be thinking these days, even while Gov. Pat Quinn spent his Monday touring assorted sites that WERE hit by the storms.

That, and doing our part to use a rake to clean up the mess on our property.

Because just leaving it there and counting on some future storm to wash the debris away? That’s even lazier than those people whose houses already have their Christmas holiday decorations up because they never bothered to take them down last year!

  -30-

How much of today’s political rhetoric will someday be apologized for as silly?

It will be 150 years this week since Abraham Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address – his brief speech at the battlefield-turned-cemetery that helped to put the Civil War into a high, moral context – rather than just a bloodbath.

Significance not immediately realized

Yet there were those who disparaged Lincoln during his lifetime. He truly was a person who could never have comprehended the glory with which his image is now draped, based on anything that happened during his lifetime.

EARLIER THIS MONTH, the Harrisburg Patriot-News newspaper in Pennsylvania went so far as to apologize for what its predecessor (the Patriot & Union newspaper) wrote about the speech when it occurred.

The Patriot-News “regrets the error” that the Patriot & Union wrote that Lincoln made “silly remarks” that were motivated by partisan politics.

“Our predecessors, perhaps under the influence of partisanship, or of strong drink, as was common in the profession at the time,” were mistaken in their coverage, the 21^st Century take of the Harrisburg-based newspaper wrote.

Now I’m not about to say whether or not a reporter-type of the past was intoxicated (anything’s possible). Nor am I going to rant about how this correction was self-serving and did nothing more than to get a local paper some national attention.

Reason for recent presidential criticism

BUT WHEN I learned of this editorial, it couldn’t help but make me think of our modern-day situation. One in which our current president gets all the abuse the ideologues think he is worthy of, and where anyone who doesn’t share in their rancid rhetoric gets decried as somehow being “un-American.”

And with the fact that the Affordable Care Act’s implementation isn’t going smoothly, there are those who are willing to pile on to the president as well.

It should not be any surprise that the president’s approval rating isn’t all that high these days (40 percent approval rating, according to the Gallup Organization, with 53 percent disapproving of Obama’s performance).

There’s also a recent Gallup poll that says only 28 percent of people questioned think Obama will be remembered as an “outstanding” or “above average” president, with 31 percent saying he’ll be “average” and 40 percent saying he’ll be remembered as “below average/poor.” That's far from the worst -- both Presidents Bush are thought of less-highly, as are former presidents Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon.

An impression from JFK's own time

THAT STUDY FOUND that John F. Kennedy (who this week will have been deceased for 50 years – too many morbid “anniversaries” in coming days) is regarded the most-highly in history amongst recent presidents.

Although I can recall many studies throughout the years that show Kennedy’s legacy approval rating, so to speak, bouncing up-and-down depending on the circumstances.

My point being that these things are flexible. They’re alterable. Nothing is carved in stone.

I wonder what it will be like when much of the rhetoric we hear and read about Obama these days will sound ridiculously dated, or just ridiculous.

WE PROBABLY SHOULD remember that much of the trash-talk Lincoln faced was just as over-the-top as what Obama gets these days – particularly from the ranks of trash-talk radio that seeks to make money by appealing to their Tea Party-type listeners.

Apology owed, although not likely to ever come

It has been eight years since I visited the Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Ill., and my most vivid memory was of the exhibit devoted to the nasty rhetoric. Literally getting to read the libelous stories and commentary and hearing some of the slurs read aloud.

There are a lot more publications than the Patriot-News that probably owe Lincoln’s legacy an apology. How many publications are going to have their future incarnations issuing apologies to Obama (probably long after he’s departed this Earth) for the things they wrote, or allowed to be said without challenging them?

Will they be able to get away with just an apology – that will come across as self-serving in the future as the one Lincoln got earlier this month?

  -30-

Can we exorcise the Exorcist? Gay marriage opposition borders on silly

I fully expect there will be protesters outside the UIC Forum on Wednesday when Gov. Pat Quinn uses the University of Illinois at Chicago arena to stage a huge-scale rally of people who watch him as he signs into law the measure that makes Illinois the 16^th U.S. state to allow gay couples to marry.

The site of the upcoming gay marriage celebration

 

But it seems the real level of disgust will be expressed at the churches that want to believe their opposition is really about compassion.

I CAN’T EVEN really get too worked up over the Catholic church’s actions, which amount to the bishop for Springfield, Ill., saying he’s going to have a special prayer service at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in the capital city to coincide with Quinn’s overly-elaborate bill-signing ceremony.

Formally, it is a “prayer of supplication and exorcism” for same-gender couples who try to marry in Illinois.

The latter word is what is stoking the fire. Bishop Thomas John Paprocki is going to have an “exorcism!!!” He’s trying to demonize the issue – literally.

We’re getting a lot of bad jokes being spewed (like the pea soup that passed for vomit) about the 1973 film featuring a teenaged Linda Blair as the Satan-infested Regan MacNeil.

The Springfield-based center of the opposition

 

IT IS GOING to allow all people to overhype the significance. Then again, having him say he’s going to pray for people would sound kind of blasé.

Because it shouldn’t be shocking at all that church officials are not going to just wither away in their opposition. The Catholic church has people who remain vehemently opposed to the concept of abortion being treated as a legitimate medical procedure – even though the Supreme Court of the United States resolved this issue the same year that Blair’s head rotated a complete 360 degrees on the silver screen (and continues to do so on DVD every day since).

The film we're hearing too much about!

Heck, it should be noted that one of the few black caucus members in the Illinois House of Representatives who voted “no” on the issue – state Rep. Mary Flowers, D-Chicago – made a point of saying she thought God would always object to such marriages, no matter what state government did on the issue.

There are those who cite the fact that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, paraphrased Pope Francis when he expressed his own belief that the law should not interfere with gay couples.

WHILE PAPROCKI, EARLIER this week, cited a written statement from 2010 by the then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio when the issue was contemplated in Argentina.

In part, he wrote, “The life of so many children who will be discriminated beforehand due to the lack of human maturity that God willed them to have with a father and a mother is in jeopardy.”

QUINN: A hero, AND a villain?

Which, to me, comes across as wanting to side with the bully who wants to pick on people who aren’t exactly like themselves. It’s good that the Pope has experienced a change of heart, of sorts.

Now if only people like Paprocki could experience the same. And it’s not like Paprocki is isolated from the realities of Chicago. He is a native of our fine city, a one-time pastor at St. Michael Church in the South Chicago neighborhood and St. Constance parish on the Northwest Side, in addition to having held several administrative posts within the Chicago Catholic Archdiocese – before going to Springfield in 2010.

THEN AGAIN, I’M very aware there are more than a fair share of Chicagoans who aren’t enthused about what is happening on this issue. It may be a regional split in Illinois, but it’s not a perfect urban vs. rural split.

MADIGAN: Too powerful to threaten?

There are two points in the aftermath of the legislative approval for gay marriage that does approve me. When the General Assembly acted earlier this month, it was reported that Illinois was the 15^th state to do so.

Yet because Quinn did not immediately sign the measure into law, officials in Hawaii were able to slip by and pass a gay marriage law into effect. We, in Illinois, can now chant, “We’re Number 16!”

Then, there is the fact that some people have reacted by suggesting that Pat Quinn be ex-communicated from the Catholic Church for expressing constant support for the issue.

BEING KICKED OUT of the church is the worst thing that could happen to some people. Yet it amuses me to know that NO ONE has had the nerve to suggest publicly that Madigan, also a Catholic, be ex-communicated.

These people may say publicly that they place their faith in the lord, our God. Yet perhaps they comprehend all too clearly what Madigan could do to them politically if they dare attack him!

Keep that in mind as the allegedly-religious pray for OUR souls in protest of Illinois advancing with the times. We should pray for them that they develop a true sense of compassion.

  -30-

It’s good to be the King! Rauner willing to fully use his financial advantages

It always amuses me when political observers think they can reform the electoral process by putting restrictions on the amount of money campaigns have to operate.

RAUNER: Emptying his wallet

Because the reality is that there are always those candidates who have sufficient funds on their own who won’t have to worry about exceeding the limits. It’s the people who don’t have a lot of funds who want the limits – so as to keep everybody down on their financial level.

THEY’RE THE ONES who see a problem. Yes, money can be an issue. But it isn’t something that really can be controlled in a campaign situation.

This became evident in the Republican primary for governor in next year’s election cycle.

Because Bruce Rauner, the Rahm Emanuel friend with money of his own, went ahead and gave his campaign a $500,000 infusion of his own funds – bolstering the total to $749,000 that he has spent on himself so far.

The Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times both pointed out the significance of this particular contribution – pointing out that the Republican candidates had an agreement amongst themselves that they would not put more than $250,000 of their own money into campaigns.

AS THOUGH THEY’D be willing to rely on the money that they received in private contributions from supporters who were making donations supposedly out of the goodness of their hearts and a desire to see a particular individual prevail in both March and November of 2014.

With Rauner exceeding the limit, all the other campaigns seeking the chance to challenge Pat Quinn a year from now can now forget all about any self-imposed limits on using any wealth they have on their own to try to “buy” the primary election.

The Tribune also reported that the Rauner campaign is about to start a new wave of broadcast spots that will appear on television stations all over the state. The other campaigns are going to be compelled to keep up.

Some in both parties fear an Emanuel/Rauner alliance

If they can!

WHAT MAY HAPPEN (which I’m sure is what Rauner hopes happens) is that he will have so much money in his campaign coffers that the other campaigns won’t be able to keep up.

Because the reality is that it is still early in the election cycle. Campaigns haven’t officially even secured their spots on the March primary ballot.

Rauner is hoping that a blast of ads touting his name every time someone views television – to the point where everyone will know the “Bruce Rauner” name. Even if they don’t know anything about him, they’ll know the name to the point where it may just trigger a response and they cast ballots for him, just because!

There are some people who cast votes for such knee-jerk reasons. In a four-way race just like this GOP primary is promising to be, that could be just enough votes for him to win.

RAUNER WANTS SUCH a large lead early on, before most people pay any serious attention to the candidates, that he will become the favorite.

It doesn’t always work. Blair Hull tried to use his money in a similar strategy in the 2004 election cycle for a U.S. Senate seat, only to have sordid details concerning his divorce blow him away.

I don’t know that Rauner has anything comparable in his background. But he’s going to try to use his sudden infusion of campaign cash to try to put himself into the lead so that it would take something equally devastating to knock him out of the running.

QUINN: Facing a financial challenge?

Because Rauner is still the guy whose political aspirations arouse suspicions amongst many Republican rank-and-file members because of his ties to Emanuel.

THEY PROBABLY FEAR things will get a little too cozy with him as governor and Emanuel as mayor. Some of these people are the ones who want a governor who will stand up to the desires of City Hall.

Of course, if those people pick someone too strident as the Republican nominee it would arouse the anger of the urban vote – which could well decide to turn out in such force that we would get a return of Pat Quinn as governor – and Dean Vallas as the crazed political brother who makes Billy Carter seem subdued by comparison.

  -30-