At least we won’t have to hear that insipid football jingle anymore

On this day that President Barack Obama is having the 1985 Chicago Bears make their appearance at the White House (minus the deceased Walter Payton, the not feeling up to it William Perry and the politically hostile Dan Hampton), I can’t help but think of another football-related moment involving the president.

His own way got him in trouble



It’s sort of football-related, as it was country singer Hank Williams, Jr., managing to offend the populace by making his comment that seeing Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, playing golf together was an absurd sight.

HOW ABSURD? “IT’D be like Hitler playing golf with Netanyahu,” was what came out of Williams’ mouth just over a week ago.

He first tried to explain what he meant, then finally apologized (for implying that Obama fell into the “Hitler” end of that analogy). But now he has people thinking he’s a pea-brain, and ESPN is deleting his “Are you ready for some football?” slogan from the beginning of their NFL Monday Night Football broadcasts.

Which might not sound like much. But it was a high-profile moment that for many people was what he was best known for (that, and being the son of the real Hank Williams).

Are they really such ...



In listening to Williams try to explain himself initially without apologizing, he said that he was merely trying to express the absurdity of seeing two public officials who are so diametrically opposed to each other behave in public like they’re the best of golfing buddies.

WHICH MAY BE a legitimate thought to have.

But as I see this, what is offensive here is the idea that some people want to believe electoral politics is some sort of blood sport that requires the president and the House speaker to be enemies of the highest order, all because they choose to have different letters (the “D” for Obama, the “R” for Boehner) following their names.



... unlikely counterparts?

If our government were truly conducting itself in a proper manner, we’d be expecting those high-ranking officials to work together. If anything, the real question about the sight of Obama and Boehner playing golf ought to be, “Where in the (excessively hot and miserable place for sinners) was Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.?

Instead, we’re acting as though there ought to be animosity between the government leaders, and that somehow cooperation is a bad thing.

AND BY RESORTING to a comparison of the duly-elected leader of our nation to the leader of Nazi-era Germany, it seems clear that what is really being said is that Boehner is the one who should be avoiding all advances toward cooperation – no matter how serious the problems of our nation become.

It reminds me of the old City Council mentality of a quarter-of-a-century ago – the days of “Council Wars” when the opposition to then-Mayor Harold Washington was so intense that they were knee-jerk voting against anything he wanted.

No matter how much something was needed to keep the city going, they voted “no,” and would privately admit that a couple of years of a failing city might be a good thing in the long run if it persuaded people to blame Harold and dump him from office.

Of course, it didn’t work that way, and the fact is that we now are fairly unanimous in seeing the vapidity of such logic. Which is what I think we’re going to feel a few decades from now when we look back on the Obama years.

HANK WILLIAMS, JR., comparing Obama to Hitler is so absurd as to be laughable. I can’t really get offended by it. But hearing that it is somehow our duty to oppose the president?

That is a concept I can truly be offended by, particularly since Obama’s biggest offense among his most solid supporters is that he has been the guy who has gone too far in trying to reach a common ground with his opposition (one that is determined to see him fail).

It also makes me laugh to see these ideologues aligning themselves (in this analogy) with the Israeli prime minister. How many of the country music fans who listen  to Williams and his father would have had their own qualms of backing someone who is Jewish under any circumstances?

All in all, this situation provides for some bizarre circumstances that show just how absurd our partisan political ties have become. Perhaps the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur could be extended to all of us so that we could spend tonight and Saturday atoning for some of our more nonsensical attitudes.

AND AS FOR Obama himself? He can indulge himself in some football fantasies by having the Bears over for a visit.

With former coach Mike Ditka and former quarterback Jim McMahon among those who say they will attend, Obama can relive those days of the mid-1980s not because of the hostile rhetoric against Harold Washington but for the unanimous love the Bears created (the sounds of fans barking like dogs still echoes in my brain) by actually winning a Super Bowl title.

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EXTRA: Call Nolan Ryan for react!

That was my second thought to learning that one-time third baseman Robin Ventura was the new field manager of the Chicago White Sox.

My first was to believe that this was somehow a gag, and that someone was going to wind up looking incredibly stupid for reporting it as fact.

NEEDLESS TO SAY, I’m not overwhelmed by the choice, and not just because Ventura has never managed or coached baseball at any level professionally.

At least when Ozzie Guillen was hired some eight years ago, it could be said he had been a coach at the major league level and had had a chance to gain more experience beyond his years playing for (and being one of the few stars on) the White Sox, and Tony LaRussa had been a minor league manager when the White Sox made him a rookie major league manager back in 1979.

Anybody who was all upset back then with the hiring of Ozzie ought to be outraged at this hiring. Then again, I always suspected that at least some of the Ozzie opposition was dedicated to the fact that he didn’t speak English with a southern drawl.

But that is neither here nor there. We’re now moving on, which is what it seems the White Sox are doing.

I ALWAYS THOUGHT that with Guillen as manager and Greg Walker and Harold Baines as coaches, the White Sox field leadership had a heavy sense of those teams of the 1980s. All you would have had to do was make Richard Dotson or Lamar Hoyt a pitching coach, and it would have been complete.

Now that we’re having Ventura as manager, with some speculation that Frank Thomas will become a hitting coach for the team, the White Sox field leadership is moving into the 1990s and those teams that weren’t any more successful on the field than they were in the ‘80s (a lone division title in each decade).

Insofar as Baines is concerned, he wore a White Sox uniform in the ‘80s, the ‘90s and the ‘00s. So my guess is that his job is safe, even when the day comes that Ventura is replaced by someone from the last decade.

Field Manager Jose Valentin, anyone? Or maybe Joe Crede!

IN THE SENSE that the White Sox are trying to promote the image of an organization that remembers its past, it is a good move. It is one of the things I always thought the New York Yankees did right.

But I can’t help but think that the first (and only) image that most people will have of Ventura’s career was of that moment he charged the pitcher’s mound in Arlington, Texas – only to have Nolan Ryan smack him about a bit.

And for the record, I always thought the bad part of that moment was that Ventura didn’t get a solid punch in of his own – since I always thought Ryan provoked that particular moment!

But Ventura didn’t. Is that the image we really want to be replayed over and over when people think of the White Sox? I’m not so sure it is preferable to Ozzie the mouth, who will be a more entertaining character in Miami than Robin will be at 35^th Street and Bill Veeck Drive.

YET THERE IS a part of me that thinks the White Sox could have done worse.

Just think of the video that would be replayed on stadium scoreboards all across the country had Kenny Williams on Thursday announced that he was naming as the new manager one-time, all-around utility infielder Steve Lyons?

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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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Being cautious? Or careless?

There are times when I’m not sure whether to think that our government officials are being cautious and protective of the tax dollars they’re spending – or if their unwillingness to rush into something is just evidence that they don’t have a clue as to what they’re talking about.

That was definitely the impression I gained Tuesday from watching the Cook County Board in action.

THE ISSUE OF the moment was approving an item that would have allowed the county to seek bids for, “the purchase of uniforms and clothing for various county departments.”

When I first read that on an agenda, my gut reaction was to wonder, “What departments?!?”

So it was with a jolt of excitement that I heard county board member Deborah Sims start off debate on this issue by asking the very blunt, and straightforward, question.

“What departments are we talking about?”

GEE. A GOVERNMENT official wanting to have a clue as to what is going on. In fact, a government official refusing to just cast a knee-jerk vote in favor of something – even though it really was just a procedural step in the whole purchasing process.

But before you start using e-mail to send me all your horror stories about Sims and her past government actions, this commentary isn’t about to become a piece praising the county board member from the Far South Side and surrounding suburbs.

In fact, it’s not a piece that will make anyone happy – except for maybe the malcontents who like to complain about government and get their joy from watching our public officials screw things up.

I don’t, because I realize it ultimately harms our interests and reflects badly upon us. After all, we voted for Sims and all the other members of the Cook County Board. Her gaffes are our gaffes.

WHAT ENSUED IN response to Sims’ question was a back-and-forth in which the bureaucrats who handle government purchases for the county government tried to avoid giving a direct answer.

“Various departments” was the initial response. Upon some pushing by Sims, one such department was identified as the sheriff’s police.

Which led to some confusion since the sheriff’s deputies and other law enforcement personnel are required to purchase their own uniforms – with eventual reimbursement for their expenses, provided they don’t get carried away with their sartorial demands.

After much more squabbling, it eventually came out that what was being considered here were those deliberately-hideous jump suits that inmates at the Cook County Jail and other facilities are required to wear so that they stand out in a crowd of people.

WHAT THIS IS about is seeking bids from companies to sell the county the khaki clothing that inmates must wear.

But county purchasing agent Maria de Lourdes Coss said, “we do not want to limit it,” because there’s also the chance that they may include bids for uniforms worn by the civilian personnel who work for the sheriff – such as the janitorial staff.

It was a lot of squabbling over what should have been a very straightforward issue. We do, after all, have to clothe those inmates while they are in the custody of the county. It’s one of those dreaded, but very necessary, expenses.

And Sims was legitimate in her indignation upon finally being given a straight answer, saying of the written description provided to county officials, “this doesn’t tell us anything,” adding later, “you’re not telling us who these departments are.”

AGREEING WITH HER was county board member Robert Steele, who said, “we want to be quite aware of what we’re voting on.”

In fact, Sims at one point tried to postpone a vote on this measure (which is just about seeking the bids, it’s not about actually awarding a contract) until a future meeting.

Yet that is where Sims goes from being the good-government aggressive-type to being the official who probably didn’t have a clue what she was being told.

Because when she was finally given the explanation, she ultimately voted for the measure to seek bids – even though she admits she’s still upset about the lack of details provided.

“I THINK THEY should give us a better explanation, but this will suffice for today,” she said in backing the measure. Was this just a backing-down to cover up her confusion? It sure seems that way.

So in the end, the routine measure got a routine vote of support – everybody said “aye.” If anybody opposed this measure – which seeks bids for a one-year contract to sell the county inmate uniforms, with three one-year renewal options – they kept it to themselves.

Which in the end means this was county business, as usual.

That may be the real key to comprehending the way government at any level operates. Something does not have to be illegal in order to be bad. Sometimes, it’s the most innocuous moments that are the most cheesy in character.

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Will Cellini trial get the short shrift?

Federal officials began the process Monday of picking a jury for the trial of Springfield business executive William Cellini, yet I wonder how many people have any sense of whom he is.

CELLINI: Boss behind the bosses?



Because thus far, his trial is turning out to be the circumstance that is causing other trials to be delayed.

FIRST, THAT OF former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. And now, Tony Rezko. U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve on Monday delayed the sentencing of the man who was supposed to be capable of taking down the political careers of  Blagojevich, Rahm Emanuel and Barack Obama.

So we’ll have to wait until November to find out what eventually will happen to Rezko – who in the end didn’t have much of an effect on Rahm and Barack. And Milorod seems to have gone down to legal defeat without any input from Antoin.

All of these political people are the “big names” who are overshadowing Cellini. I’m sure there are many people who are observing this whole situation and thinking that Cellini is some sort of afterthought.

Which is a mistake!

WHENEVER PEOPLE ASK me who Bill Cellini is, or why is he significant, I always use the overly-simplistic explanation of telling them that Cellini is the guy who has the ability to tell the elected officials what it is they will do with their political positions.

Because on paper, he doesn’t come across as much. He used to hold positions in state government (the first director ever of the Illinois Department of Transportation) back in the days with Richard Ogilvie was Illinois governor.

OGILVIE: Gave Celllini his only post



In recent years, he has been the treasurer of the Sangamon County Republican Party. Which means he’s not in charge of the GOP in Springfield and its surrounding rural towns.

But he’s the guy who controls the money and has the institutional memory. As a result, he’s the guy that the party chairmen usually turn to when they need “advice” about what to do.

AND BECAUSE HE’S a prominent Republican in the Illinois capital city, the state legislators and other officials turn to him. Even the Democrats. Because Cellini isn’t somebody who feels the need to play ideological politics – which is why the biggest Cellini critics these days (the ones most eager to see him carted off to prison) are the ideologues.

The ones who scream “RINO” and complain that Cellini isn’t a real Republican because he’s willing to work with Democrats in state government when they manage to get themselves elected to political positions. Because they don’t want to accept the idea that people of the two major political parties (along with those of other ideological persuasions) really do have to work together if we’re to accomplish anything as a society.

This is the guy who wound up helping Rod Blagojevich to raise the money he needed in order to beat Jim Ryan in 2002 and annihilate Judy Baar Topinka in 2006. That Cellini-raised money was the reason she could never truly rebut all the nonsense rhetoric Blagojevich spewed during that campaign.

As for Jim, perhaps the reason Cellini was willing to back Blagojevich was because the Ryan campaign of ’02 was based too strongly on the concept of “It’s my turn,” rather than offering any vision for Illinois.

IT ALSO RELATES to the actions that federal prosecutors say amount to criminal behavior. For the trial that likely will take up the bulk of the month of October says that Cellini’s behavior in getting contributions from a would-be Hollywood producer amount to extortion. The old shake-down.

BLAGOJEVICH: Cellini-raised cash

Of course, there are those who are skeptical of these charges, saying that they are closely related to actions for which other people were already acquitted. Hence, there are some who think Cellini could be the lone individual in this latest federal investigation of state government corruption who could be found “not guilty.”

And I’m sure if that happens, there will be those people who will argue that it was Cellini’s cunning and cleverness that somehow managed to allow him to elude a criminal conviction.

Or maybe it just means that his behavior was business, and not criminal. And that the only thing he might be “guilty” of is associating with sordid individuals.

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Does Payton knowledge change Super Bowl Shuffle memory? Not one bit!

Depending on where in the country you live (some people are going to be deluded into thinking that either the Philadelphia Phillies or the Buffalo Bills are more important), Walter Payton is once again on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine.

No, he hasn’t done anything new. He hasn’t done anything, period. To riff on Chevy Chase for a moment, Walter Payton is still dead.

IT’S JUST THAT there’s a new book being published – one that purports to be the definitive biography on the one-time star running back of the Chicago Bears. And one that tells us that Payton abused drugs, experienced mood swings later in life that had him contemplating suicide and was less-than-faithful toward wife Connie during their marriage.

Now all of this stuff may be true. Not that I care much. For I didn’t know Walter Payton as a person. Nor did many of the people who are now getting all outraged and claiming that it is somehow disrespectful to report on Payton’s failings as a human being.

They want the illusion maintained that Payton the person was somehow as gifted as Payton the athlete. Which in the case of 99 percent of professional athletes is a serious miscalculation.

I’d argue that it doesn’t really matter. In fact, we’re probably better off realizing that the people on the playing field of the various games we enjoy watching for our entertainment are really just human beings like you and me.

BEING CAPABLE OF throwing a curve ball with a sharp break on a reliable business or being able to stuff a basketball into the hoop isn’t what makes one a preferable excuse for a human being.

It isn’t even the discipline that it takes for one to develop such athletic skills through constant (and single-minded) practice throughout the years. If anything, you could argue that it is a flaw that a person didn’t use such dedication to develop some skill that could better benefit humanity.

My point is that Walter Payton was a ballplayer. For those of us who didn’t know him personally, that’s all he was. Why we should feel compelled to make him into more than that probably says more about our flaws than Walter’s.

So those people who want to “spit” on Jeff Pearlman (or commit more severe bodily attacks) because he would dare to take down “Saint Walter” are being absurd. When Mike Ditka said he would plant a hocker on Pearlman if he ever saw him again, all he did was showed that Ozzie Guillen is far from being the biggest ball of hot air to ever be involved with Chicago sports.

NOW BEFORE ANYBODY starts saying that I’m not appreciating what Walter Payton meant to Chicago, I’d argue that I really do. I was in junior high school when Payton was a rookie out of Jackson State University, was in college back when the Bears won their only Super Bowl title with Payton and was in the early years of my time as a reporter-type person in Chicago when he finally quit playing.

I’d say the only reason Michael Jordan gets a bigger rep than Payton is those six NBA titles, compared to only one NFL title for Walter.

But do our memories of what happened on the turf at Soldier Field really get impacted because of what we know about Walter as a person? I’m not downplaying the significance of abuse of prescription drugs (the death of Michael Jackson easily shows us what can go wrong).

Although with all the battering that a professional football player takes during his career, I’d be amazed if Payton was NOT taking some form of pills to cope with the pain.

AND AS FOR the part about infidelity, he’d hardly be the first professional athlete to cope with life on the road by cheating. I’d argue that is an issue for his wife to deal with in whatever way she is most comfortable doing (and my understanding is that Connie and Walter came to some sort of forgiveness just before he died in 1999).

It doesn’t change the recollections I have every time I hear the “Super Bowl Shuffle” and think of that one Bears team that actually managed to “win the whole thing” during the past half-century.

If anything, I’m more offended by Payton’s one-time teammate, Dan Hampton, saying he plans to blow off the ’85 Bears visit to the White House on Friday, in part because he doesn’t approve of President Barack Obama’s politics.

Which means he just politicized an event that could easily have been about fluff – a sin bigger in my book than acknowledging athletes as mere people.

BESIDES, BASED ON the excerpts of Pearlman’s book, I have to admit to getting my biggest kick out of something other than the so-called salacious stuff.

For it seems the post-football Payton had an appetite that could have put William Perry to shame. “Pilgrimages” to Bob Evans for eggs and bacon (with side orders of sausage) and taking advantage of a card offered to him by a Wendy’s corporate executive for free food.

“Let’s just say they knew him at the Wendy’s drive-thru,” Pearlman quoted someone as saying. “He loved those free burgers.”

Be honest. Isn’t at least a part of you wondering how many patties (single, double or triple) Walter had on his burger, along with what toppings?

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Carol Moseley Braun: A cautionary tale

From the old days

There are times I wonder what the conservative ideologues have in mind for Barack Obama when it comes to a legacy.

After all, the man had the unmitigated gall (in their mini-minds) to win a term as president. So I’m sure they’re going to do everything they can to spin his life A.P. (that’s “after president”) into some dismal tale of failure.

WHICH MEANS THEY’D probably like to turn him into Carol Moseley Braun, who is back in the news these days because her campaign operation that tried to get her elected mayor didn’t bother to do the final paperwork to close itself out.

Although she lost badly on Feb. 22, her campaign was required to file papers with the Illinois State Board of Elections in mid-April. She did, admitting to raising $323,000 and spending $315,000.

There were no breakdowns of her expenditures, as required by law. Although she was permitted to file those documents (of any expenditures over $150) during the summer months.

We’re now into autumn, and we’re still waiting. Her campaign hasn’t filed, although Moseley Braun is telling certain reporter-type people that the problem is the fault of her former campaign treasurer (and long-time supporter) Billie Paige.

THE FORMER U.S. senator from Illinois used the words “elderly” and “overwhelmed” to describe Paige, although there are those who say the 75-year-old Paige is anything but when it comes to her physical and mental condition.

I haven’t seen Paige in years, so I can’t say first-hand what shape she’s in. But considering that Paige quit her post after filing the disclosure in mid-April, I’d say the Moseley Braun people had quite a bit of time to figure out that they needed to get someone in to finish up the paperwork.

For those who want to say that it’s just paperwork and shouldn’t matter, I’d argue that it’s these kinds of nit-picking details that have all the potential in the world to blow up into a major catastrophe.

Then again, such inattention to detail seems to be part of the Moseley Braun makeup. I recall her ’92 campaign for U.S. Senate when it became public knowledge that there were questions about the way she handled her mother’s finances, particularly some rural property she owned, at a time when her mother was getting into Medicaid.

SUCH FINANCIAL HELP with medical expenses is for the indigent and the federal government really does like a person to show they have no assets whatsoever before they start picking up the bills for medications and doctor visits.

I recall Moseley Braun sounding astounded that anyone would think her mother would have to sell off assets before being able to qualify. So I have no problem believing that she’s probably equally astounded today at the idea that she should have to file more documentation of a campaign that has been over and done with for seven months – and never went anywhere of significance while it existed.

I did get my chuckle from the Chicago Tribune, which on Friday used its website to do a cheap, quickie rewrite of the reporting on this issue done by Carol Marin for WMAQ-TV and the Chicago Sun-Times.

They threw in a line saying that failure to fully disclose details related to campaign finance can result in fines, and even a potential ban on being able to run for government office in the future.

MY UNDERSTANDING IS that Moseley-Braun’s “income” in recent years has been minimal, largely from some attempts to create her own business that haven’t really gone anywhere. When was the last time you saw any products manufactured by “Ambassador Organics?”

This was a woman who was running for mayor of Chicago because she needed a regular paycheck.

I can’t envision that they’d get much of anything from her in the way of fines. Perhaps they’d ensure that she will spend the rest of her life in debt. But there reaches a point when we have to ask, “What’s the Point?”

And as for the idea of a ban on being able to run for office, I’d argue that was already given to her when she came in dead last among the “so-called” major candidates for mayor, and where even the fringe candidates such as Patricia Van Pelt-Watkins showed more class while campaigning.

SHE’S NOT ABOUT to get elected to anything. And she probably can’t get the finances to run even a long-shot campaign for the most-minor of political posts.

It has been 19 years since the night she managed to beat her various Democratic primary opponents, then go on to actually win that seat in the U.S. Senate – where she will forevermore have that historic designation as the “first black woman” to serve in that legislative chamber.

But there are too many ideologues who were offended by her presence back then, and who are now all too gleeful as to her current circumstances. Whether you believe she brought much of this on herself or not, she ought to be a cautionary tale for many politicians – not just Obama – as to how NOT to behave.

Although I remain convinced there are those who will go out of their way in future years to try to make his A.P. life nothing more than a Moseley Braun sequel.

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