Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Will we get equivalent of Trump's “lock her up” from Rauner about Madigan?

Is Gov. Rauner's re-election bid … 
Anybody with any degree of sense realizes that Gov. Bruce Rauner is full of it, so to speak, when he implies that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, is engaged in criminal activities.

For if the governor really had the goods on Madigan, he’d be contacting the proper authorities in a position to do something; rather than wasting his venom on campaign tactics. He’d be pushing for something to happen prior to the Nov. 6 Election Day!
… going to try to treat Madigan … 

INSTEAD, WE’RE GETTING the rancid rhetoric as the campaign cycle heats up. We’re already getting tastes of it now, and it will continue to ramp up once we get past the Labor Day holiday.

For Rauner, who last week went on the attack during an interview with a radio station in Southern Illinois, engaged in similar trash talk during an appearance in the Chicago suburbs on Monday.

The “line” that gets all the attention?

“Clearly, he’s been doing unethical things. I hope he’s been doing something illegal, and I hope he gets prosecuted.” With Rauner speaking of the man who is approaching the half-century mark of service in the Illinois General Assembly.
… similar to all the 'lock her up' trash talk … 

THIS IS GOING to be the theme from here on through Election Day. Almost as though Rauner is trying to give us the political sequel to all the “Lock Her Up” trash talk and chants that the Donald Trump presidential campaign gave us in 2016.

To the point where, even though Trump quickly backed away from such talk following his election, there are still many of his backers whose only complaint about The Donald is that Hillary Clinton didn’t immediately face criminal indictment upon his election.

Rauner seems to want to get voters all riled up at the prospect of Madigan getting the traditional “Oxford education” (a stint at the federal correctional center in Oxford, Wis.) as a tactic to spur on voters and boost the turnout.
… Trump dished out to Hillary?

Perhaps it’s because Rauner has little to nothing in the way of accomplishments for himself that he thinks this is the only way he can win – particularly since Rauner’s record as governor includes several acts that have offended the ideologues he’d normally be counting on for support.

“PROSECUTE MADIGAN!” IS a phrase we’re likely to hear over and over again. And not just from Rauner himself about the House Speaker, who also doubles as the Illinois Democratic chairman.

For it is on Tuesday that Illinois attorney general candidate Erika Harold is coming out with her first statewide television campaign spot – one that highlights the notion of Madigan’s “corruption” (and even shows her standing out front of the offices used by Madigan’s law firm – the one that makes its money off tax law and allegedly getting its clients tax breaks that wind up costing the rest of the state more money).
Harold is running against Kwame Raoul, the state senator from the Hyde Park neighborhood whom Harold labeled in her ad as a man whose top financial donor is Madigan himself. Of course, Madigan is a top donor for many legislative candidates – since Madigan is a legislative leader.

I also find it ironic that Harold would have the nerve to complain about Raoul’s “top donor” since her top donor is the governor himself. This very spot we’re going to be inundated with in coming days is likely only available because of that $1 million contribution to Harold that Rauner made mention of last week.

THE ONE HE’S making because he wants a state attorney general who will “prosecute” Madigan – even though Harold would not really have any such authority to do IF she actually wins.
MENDOZA: Had the nerve to win in '16

It’s probably just a matter of time before Illinois comptroller candidate Darlene Senger comes up with her own spots tying incumbent Comptroller Susana Mendoza to “corruption and “Madigan!!!”

Mendoza did, after all, have the nerve to defeat Leslie Munger for the position back when it was up for grabs in a 2016 special election, thereby knocking off Rauner's lone GOP ally. How dare she!?!

Which is why Rauner is all by his lonesome these days within the state government structure – surrounded by Democrats eager to Dump Bruce! and put an end to the notion that being a Democratic partisan is, in and of itself, a criminal act!

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