Could partisan political “trade-off” be detrimental to Illinois’ future as state?

Does Bost's congressional victory ...

Some might wonder how President Donald Trump can be delusional enough to think his political interests succeeded on Election Day. Yet if one looks at the political maps in a certain way, it becomes apparent.

For it would seem the parts of Illinois that were already Republican are now moreso.

THOSE AREAS MIGHT well be the parts of the state that lie outside the Chicago metropolitan area. But those are often areas that think of themselves as an entity to their own.

… console Republicans for Roskam's loss?

Which means I’m not surprised many of those people are feeling thankful they have so thoroughly chased Democratic Party interests out of their portion of the state. They may think they now have domination of the only portions of Illinois that matter.

Then again, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn a similar sentiment exists within the Chicago area that isn’t all too concerned about these political losses, because they managed to take portions of the outer suburbs that oft were represented by Republicans in the past, but have now swung over to the Dems. Heck, Illinois Republican Chairman Tim Schneider couldn't even win re-election to his post on the Cook County Board!

The bottom line is that Illinois’ congressional delegation come January will consist of 13 Democrats and only 5 Republicans – a two-seat gain for “da Dems.”

Are Underwood and Casten (below) … 

RANDY HULTGREN AND Peter Roskam will be gone, replaced by Lauren Underwood and Sean Casten. Throughout levels of government, the Republican Party became irrelevant throughout the Chicago-area.

Yet for those anxious to wear the Republican-tinged glasses to view things, Tuesday was the night that Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., fought off Democrat Brendan Kelly and Rep. Rodney Davis beat Democrat Betsy Dirksen Londrigan.

Albeit the latter was by a narrow voter margin of 50.51 percent to 49.49 percent.

But Davis is a member of Congress from the Champaign-area representing a swath of central Illinois, while Bost is from around Carbondale and is the lone representative on Capitol Hill of that region of Southern Illinois that thinks of itself as “Egypt.”

… gain, or losses, for Illinois?

THE FACT THAT Roskam and Hultgren will be gone? I’m sure the ideologues will think it was more important to keep Davis and Bost.

Heck, let’s note that when President Donald Trump felt inclined to come to Illinois to campaign on behalf of Republicans in general, he went to Bost’s district for a political “fly-in” rally. The president himself said earlier this week that Roskam’s defeat was because the two-decade political incumbent “didn’t want the embrace” of presidential support.

Although I suspect if Roskam had actively touted himself as a “Trump Man,” he would have had his political clock cleaned by an even bigger margin than the 52.84 percent to 47.16 percent tally he actually lost by.

What caught my eye in looking at the congressional district map for Illinois is that there is one point right down the middle of the state where one could go straight through from the Wisconsin border all the way to where the Mississippi and Ohio rivers converge (a.k.a., Cairo) and never set foot in a Democratic-represented area.

THE SAME WOULD apply if you traveled from the east edge of Illinois around Danville to the far west around Quincy. Nothing but political “red” on the map.

Too easy for Illinoisans to ignore other party

You’d be passing in between the Chicago and Quad-Cities areas, and also skipping over the Illinois portions of the St. Louis area – which, if you think about it, are the portions of Illinois that comprise nearly three-quarters of the state’s population.

Which is how Democrats were able to gain Illinois House seats in suburban portions of Illinois to once-again have a 60 percent “veto-proof” supermajority, while allowing Republicans to feel like they still kept control of the rural parts of the state. We in Illinois may come out of this year’s election cycle thinking our region prevailed, even though we’re progressing to the point of becoming two separate regions. 

Let’s hope Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker wasn’t just paying lip service when he said this week Chicago will “have no more special a role” than other Illinois cities, because having us work together as a state is how we’ll be capable of accomplishing anything of significance in the future for all our benefit.

  -30-

EXTRA: Illinois GOP strategy of “Dump Madigan!” seems to fail again

Illinois House Speaker/state Democratic Chairman Michael Madigan is the big winner of Election Night ’18 – and not just because he got re-elected to his Illinois House seat that is the base for all his political operations.

MADIGAN: Prevailed, big time!

Madigan, after all, was running unopposed for his legislative post representing the residents of Chicago who live in the area surrounding Midway Airport.

SO IT’S NOT like there was a chance he’d go off to defeat and political retirement following a career in Illinois government dating back to 1970 when he was one of many delegates who helped craft the current version of Illinois’ state Constitution.

But Madigan’s name has been dragged through the muck by just about every Republican running for just about every single office. The theme being that every Democrat is nothing more than a political hack who takes his (or her) marching orders from the almighty-and-powerful Illinois House speaker.

The leader in recent years of such strategy is soon-to-be former Gov. Bruce Rauner, who went through his campaign repeatedly blaming Madigan for everything that Rauner was unable to accomplish during his four years as governor.

His rhetoric often went so far over the top as to imply Madigan’s actions were criminal and that an indictment would be forthcoming, if only there were a sense of true justice in the world.

PRITZKER: $171.1 million spent for Springfield move

YET THE RAUNER defeat was so apparent that the governor made his concession call to Democrat J.B. Pritzker (who supposedly is Madigan’s hand-puppet and gay marriage spouse) less than an hour after the polls closed in Illinois. Some information sources didn’t even have preliminary vote tallies to report, yet the insider speculation was such that it wasn’t worth waiting in a sense of desperate hope that something would come up.

The man who was banking on the concept of a corrupt Madigan scaring voters away instead became a complete failure based off his strategy – which really is the same one that Republicans also tried using back in 2010 when Republican Bill Brady was defeated by Democrat Pat Quinn.

Who, by the way, told the Chicago Tribune on Tuesday he was anxious to see Rauner be replaced as governor.

RAOUL: Illinois' attorney general-elect

But like I already wrote, other candidates tried tying their opponents to Madigan, with Republican attorney general hopeful Erika Harold going so far as to say she’d never take orders from the speaker – and implied she’d use the post to conduct the investigations against Madigan that Rauner always fantasized about having done.

YET WITH THE early vote tallies in, Democrat Kwame Raoul held a solid lead, taking majorities in five of the six counties that comprise the Chicago metropolitan area. Only McHenry County seemed to prefer Harold – the one-time Miss America who can now add this defeat to her list of failed political aspirations on her part.

Then again, McHenry is also the lone Chicago-area county that liked the idea of “President Donald Trump” back in the 2016 election cycle. While in Cook County proper, Raoul had some 73 percent of the overall vote early on.

It’s going to take a real mighty blow from downstate Illinois to overcome the solid 64/34 percent lead Raoul is holding across the state over Harold Tuesday night.

There’s also candidates such as incumbent Congress members Randy Hultgren and Peter Roskam, who were lagging behind early on to Democrats Lauren Underwood and Sean Casten respectively. And in the area around Champaign/Urbana, Betsy Dirksen Londrigan had a lead over Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Ill.

WHICH, IF THE Dems prevail in all, would add to the total tally of politicos who would serve as counterweights to the ideological nonsense spewed by Donald Trump.

HAROLD: Another defeat, will she try again?

Casten, in particular, faced a campaign strategy of being labeled as being a mere flip side of the same Madigan political coin. Instead, perhaps it seems many saw him as a potential ally to the man who stood up to the Rauner ideological tactics of the past four years and one who could stand up to anything absurd that Trump would try to do during the next two.

I’m not saying that the electorate of Illinois is all that enthralled by Mike Madigan. I’m aware of polls showing many people think he’s just another political hack. Even though he's now one with even more power -- since it seems his Illinois House majority is even larger now and can enable him to override gubernatorial vetoes single-handedly.

But perhaps one of the lessons we learn from Election ’18 is one that truly would benefit us all – candidates are most likely to prevail if they can sway people as to why we should vote for them. Not just why we should despise the opposition.

  -30-

EXTRA: To listen to malcontents, everybody in line for a butt whuppin’

There’s something I’ve learned from some three decades of watching the electoral process – some people take themselves far too seriously, have nothing but trash to utter and are convinced that the upcoming Election Day is the one in which the opposition will get trashed beyond redemption.

William Kelly seeking aid of Honest Abe; or is he still busy rolling over from the thought of Rod Blagojevich. Photo provided by William Kelly

This election cycle is no different.

TAKE THE “PRAIRIE State Wire,” an ideologue web site that is reporting how the Communist Party USA is coordinating its efforts to undermine everything good and all-American by offering up support to 24 Democrats in order to ensure the Republican Party loses control of the House of Representatives.

Supposedly, one of the 24 is Sean Casten, the Democratic nominee challenging Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill. Gov. Bruce Rauner has been smacking Casten about with rhetoric claiming he’s nothing more than a Michael Madigan lackey.

Now, we’re supposed to believe he’s a “Commie” (or at least a sympathizer). Perhaps as part of a “Make America Great Again” initiative, we’re supposed to pretend it’s the 1950s and the Red Scare is on.

Personally, every person I’ve ever met who seriously was a Communist was literally someone so inept at politics that they’d be incapable of coordinating any effort that would help them win a thing.

Is it really a Communist plot to take down … 

AND MOST OF them were so uninterested in anything establishment, I can’t see any kind of serious effort that would be worth noting.

This is just more of the nonsense-talk coming from people who are struggling to organize themselves into a winning coalition. Perhaps its just time for the 57-year-old Roskam of Wheaton, following 12 years in Congress and 16 years in the Illinois General Assembly, to start thinking of a new line of work.

His nearly three-decades of time in public service could be complete.

Then, there’s William Kelly, who is leader of the Chicago Republican Party largely because the GOP in the Second City is virtually non-existent.

… to take down Peter Roskam?

KELLY SAYS HE is backing Sam McCann for Illinois governor. As in he’s backing the Republican legislator from Southern Illinois who has created his own political party (the Conservative Party) so that McCann can run for governor.

He’s definitely NOT backing incumbent Bruce Rauner for re-election. Among the reasons Kelly gives for not wanting Bruce? It’s because (in part) Rauner supported Rahm Emanuel for Chicago mayor the last election when Kelly had his own political fantasies of being Chicago’s first GOP mayor since William Hale Thompson of the late 1920s.

I do have to admit one thing – the photograph Kelly provides of himself at Abraham Lincoln’s tomb, pledging to “rebuild the Illinois GOP – free of Raunerites” is just so over-the-top!

LINCOLN: Wishing he could be a Whig again?

Although it does make me wonder how appalled Lincoln himself would be to learn that his name and image were being used by such political rubes. Maybe just enough that he’d want to give second thought to a partisan switch himself, or wondering why he ever abandoned the Whig Party in the first place?

  -30-

EXTRA: Presidential birth dates little more than partisan fundraising schemes

12.

 Barack Obama turns 12 on Saturday.

He does, that is, if you follow that quirky means of estimating one’s age by adding up the digits in his actual age (5 + 7) to come up with some youthful sounding number.

SO YES, SATURDAY is the birthday anniversary of that date upon which Stanley Ann Dunham gave birth to her eldest son in Honolulu (I don’t want to hear from the crackpots who persist he was born in Kenya, or Singapore or anywhere else outside the U.S. boundaries).

My e-mails have been flooded in recent days with messages from the Organizing for Action group (the remains of Obama’s old fundraising organization) telling me to sign off on a digital birthday card that will be sent to the man they say is now “Organizer-in-Chief.”

It’s a way of reminding the majority of us who didn’t vote for the current president (and remain disgustingly appalled he could ever win) that there really was once a better time. And that by uniting together, we might be able to undermine The Donald come the Nov. 6 elections (by erasing the Republican congressional majorities that give him strength) and the 2020 general elections when we can vote to remove him from office altogether.

Otherwise, it would be the tackiest of behavior that we’re supposed to celebrate a past president’s birthday. We don’t get similar requests on behalf of Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter.

OBAMA ALSO POPPED into the news this week when he made his own endorsements for Election Day known publicly. There are some 81 people running for various political posts who can say they have the backing of “the Big O!”

Those include a few Illinois races, including that of J.B. Pritzker for governor and Kwame Raoul (the man who replaced Obama as a state senator some 14 years ago) for state Attorney General.

Also, he’s backing three people wishing to run for Congress from Illinois – although the common thread is that Obama is backing the Democrats wishing to challenge Republican incumbents in the House of Representatives.

Only 9.

Obama thinks we’d be better off with Peter Roskam and Mike Bost (both of whom are people who were amongst his state legislative colleagues all those years ago) and Randy Hultgren. Similar to how Republicans would put effort into trying to win congressional seats held by Democrats so as to reduce the partisan numbers.

I DON’T KNOW how many people are going to be swayed by the influence of Obama, who has done one thing right in his post-presidency – he’s kept a low-profile. Otherwise, the people who think that this Age of Trump we’re now in is largely Barack’s fault because he wasn’t aggressive enough in pushing an agenda of his own (Trump has largely been able to erase many of the Obama-era accomplishments) would really be screeching!

Of course, I also noticed the e-mail I received Friday on behalf of one-time Vice President Joe Biden, who wanted us to know he recently had lunch with Barack (and had a ham sandwich). As though he wants us to think he’s still important enough to warrant a presidential campaign come 2020 – even though he’s already 75 and ain’t gettin’ any younger.

A lot of this e-mail traffic is to be expected. They’re probably p-o’ed at me for not giving them a credit card number so as to make it easier for them to charge me money for their campaign fundraising efforts.

Even President Donald Trump is sending out his e-mails – he wants me to send him $1 (or more, if I absolutely feel compelled to do so) to be entered into a sweepstakes. The prize being a chance to eat dinner with the president and a collection of people he says are, “great American patriots.”

14, by 2020.

JUST AS I haven’t felt compelled to sign off on the Obama birthday card, I also think I’m taking a pass on the idea of eating with Trump.

The man who thinks he’s the sweepstakes prize is just a little too full of himself for me to want to spend time with.

Besides, we have a president these days who is a mere 9-year-old (7 + 2, as of June 14) and often behaves as though he lacks even that much maturity.

  -30-

Orientals?!?

It's good to see that Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., is trying to talk down the outburst that got him into rhetorical trouble this week, because I'm still trying to figure out exactly what point he thinks he was trying to make.

What is it about town halls that Bost ...

Bost, it seems, is in the same category as Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., who has come under fire from local constituents of his DuPage County-based district for not really wanting to show up for "town hall" type gatherings.

BOST, WHO REPRESENTS Southern Illinois, tries offering up similar explanations as Roskam as to how such sessions usually turn into shouting matches and don't result in the spread of information.

But Bost managed to come up with colorful-enough coloquialisms to manage to get himself some national attention -- something that Roskam never managed to do for himself.

As Bost put it, "You know the cleansing that the Orientals used to do where you'd put one person out in front and 900 people yell at them? That's not what we need. We need to have meetings with people that are productive."

Huh?

BOST HAS SINCE said he had no malicious intent and "regrets" that his words distracted from the point he was trying to make -- one that I'd actually agree with. Those "town hall" forums rarely are worth anything, because in many cases they're so heavily staged by their organizers to create the impression of a discussion without anything actually being said.

Which, to me, makes it seem like pols such as Roskam and Bost are not competent enough to control their message, so they'd rather stay in circumstances where they could get away with saying nothing.

Perhaps they're merely following that old maxiom; "If you can't say something nice about somebody, don't say anything at all."

I'm sure Bost wants to think of this issue as resolved so we can now move on. But I'm still trying to figure out the point of his imagery -- and not only because I didn't think anybody still used the word "Orientals" instead of "Asians."

... and Roskam seem to despise?

DOES HE REALLY envision himself as having a batch of crazed zealots jabbering away at him in a language he can't comprehend and probably thinks is little more than jibberish?

Bost's aides have since said he was referrring to the moments during the Cultural Revolution of China in which non-Communists were subjected to harassment and intimidation as part of the effort by the Maoist government to erase societal traces of the opposition.

Does this make Bost some sort of ideal model, while his Southern Illinois constituents are the equivalent of the mindless Communists who were trying to brainwash those amongst themselves who hadn't yet fallen for the Cult of Chairman Mao?!?

I'd hate to think Bost thinks that little of the people he represents. It's probably just a poor choice of words from someone who's inclined to exaggerate and over-react to many things. Is he also the guy who yells and screams at the aide who managed to put the wrong mixture of creme and sugar in his coffee?

WE DO KNOW from Bost's days in the Illinois General Assembly that he is capable of outbursts. Remember back to 2011 when he was the state representative from Murphysboro who started shouting, screaming and throwing papers all over the place because he was upset that he was being asked to vote on a plan to overhaul state pensions and was going to have to rely on the analysis provided by Illinois House Republicans, rather than being able to read the bill himself.

"These damn bills that come out of here all the damn time, come out here at the last second," Bost shouted back then. Yes, you can find video of the moment on YouTube, if you care to look it up for yourself.

Bost was able to use the public attention he gained from that moment in Springfield to elevate himself to his present post on Capitol Hill. It may turn out that the nonsensical level of his latest rant will fly over the heads of many would-be voters. Some may even come out publicly and try to defend Bost; claiming any criticism of him is from overly-sensitive individuals.

Is there really something unique about Southern Illinois constituents?

Except, perhaps, for those who now are being compared to Communist zealots, when back last November they were amongst the few people in Illinois who solidly backed Donald J. Trump's presidential aspirations against Hillary Clinton. Any connection?

  -30-

At least Roskam said “no” publicly, before hiding from voter questions behind disconnected phone call

I’m willing to give Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., one bit of credit – he’s not spewing a whole lot of nonsense trying to justify his refusal to appear at public events where he’d be confronted by his constituents.

ROSKAM: Won't appear in public?

Roskam is the member of Congress from Wheaton who represents the bulk of DuPage County in Washington who in recent weeks has been taking heat for the fact he won’t show up at public forums and town hall events.

THE ELGIN-BASED Courier News newspaper reported recently about a recent event in which Roskam took questions from the public even though he wasn’t present – he called in by telephone.

To the people who wanted to hear from their congressman, he was just a voice on the telephone. And technology being what it is, there were glitches. Poor audio, no sound or some people just got hung up on, according to the Courier News.

But Roskam, who I remember having dealings with back in the days when he was a mere state legislator, doing his time in both the Illinois House and state Senate before going off and becoming a “big shot” in Washington, D.C., seems to think this is adequate in terms of meeting with the people who actually voted to send him off to Capitol Hill.

Now having spent the past quarter century of my life covering political geeks, I’m used to them spewing a sense of double-talk, particularly when the blunt truth would be a response something along the lines of, “I don’t want to answer that question.”

IN THIS PARTICULAR call-in forum, someone tried to get Roskam to commit to participating in a public forum against his opponent come the 2018 election cycle. To which Roskam gave an honest answer – “I am not willing to make any commitments in advance of any sort of campaign. So no, in answer to your question.”

Most political people would have engaged in a convoluted line of double-talk that would have rivaled the legendary baseball manager Casey Stengel’s ability to confuse with the spoken word.

Roskam actually came out and said “no.”

'Town hall' forums often are so staged that little 'truth' comes out of them

Which isn’t surprising. It is rare that political people want to challenge an opponent face-to-face. They’d rather spew rhetoric from a distance, usually rhetoric that has been crafted well in advance and is meant to take cheap shots with a tiny bit of truth attached to it.

OF COURSE, NOW Roskam opens himself up to the charges that he’s hiding from his constituents. But I’m sure he feels more comfortable dealing with that line of accusation, rather than the other attacks that political people find themselves under.

STENGEL: Spewing nonsense better than any pol

Insofar as the people who are upset that Roskam won’t take part in “town hall” forums, I actually find myself agreeing with the congressman when he says he thinks the forums are unproductive.

The “town hall” is a format meant to simulate an actual discussion between a candidate and the voters. But too often, it comes off as rehearsed in its own way. Only certain people get called upon to ask questions, if they can be counted on to ask the “right” questions.

It’s phony public discourse. Unless, by chance, someone manages to slip in who wants to challenge. But then it just turns into a fracas. Nothing real is learned. No one is swayed. Roskam would rather not be bothered playing along.

IF ANYTHING, THERE have been times when I, as a reporter-type person, felt used covering such events, because it was thought my presence and my resulting stories offered a sense of legitimacy to such events – even when I’d point out the elements of phoniness that existed.

As for Roskam, he’s now going to have to deal with allegations that he’s dodging his constituents. Although it seems that many pols get hit with that accusation from time to time.

Is beating Duckworth his sole achievement

We’ll have to see how DuPage voters respond. Will this become a real issue come the 2018 election cycle? Or will bigger issues and more serious controversies manage to take the electoral stage?

Will Roskam wind up becoming merely the guy who once beat Tammy Duckworth for his seat, only to see her go on to become the U.S. senator from Illinois? Which sounds as hollow as when his congressional colleague, Bobby Rush, still tries to boast that HE’s the guy who once beat Barack Obama.

  -30-

Where’s mine?!?

You’ve got to love the way some political people are quick on the draw to figure out how one person’s tragedy of a lifetime can work to their benefit.

ROSKAM: The new Whip?

That seems to be the situation these days for Peter Roskam. He’s the one-time state legislator from Wheaton-turned-member of Congress who carries the title of “chief deputy whip” in the Republican congressional caucus.

THAT MAKES HIM a person of some note amongst the Republicans who run the House of Representatives, although not one that’s going to get a lot of national attention.

Yet his situation could change significantly in coming weeks.

For the great story of congressional politics these days is the fact that on Tuesday, Eric Cantor lost his bid for re-election.

Cantor is a member of Congress from Virginia who is majority leader. Which puts him just under House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, in terms of Republican leadership.

YET THE FACT that Cantor is a veteran member of Congress made him suspicious to the ideologues who desire to turn all of government into a conservative ideological operation that does their bidding. Or, more specifically, that goes out of its way to stomp all over those people who disagree with them.

Cantor lost in the Republican primary to a candidate who has the Tea Party types all in support of him and their misguided rhetoric that they think constitutes some sort of revolution.

These things do happen from time to time. Even in Chicago.

 

CANTOR: Soon to be a 'former'

I still recall when the all-powerful House Ways and Means chairman Dan Rostenkowski lost his re-election bid to a no-name Republican who wasn’t even thought much of in Republican circles.

LOCAL VOTERS DON’T always take into account, or really care, about the concept of keeping nationally-ranked officials in their positions of authority.

Anyway, Cantor is gone. He’ll finish up the year, then leave come January.

Although Cantor says he likely will give up his leadership post (thereby becoming just another rank-and-file legislator) sometime next month.

That means there’s going to be a leadership shakeup. And it seems that the “Gentleman from DuPage” wants to be sure his name is in line for a political promotion – although admittedly he’s not being so gauche as to openly campaign for the post.

BOTH THE CHICAGO Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune report that Roskam is refusing to say much of anything publicly about the move.

It would seem that Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., is in line to move up to Cantor’s post, which would make him the second-ranking person to Boehner. With McCarthy currently holding the “whip” position, Roskam could then move up and into it.

It could wind up being in the hands of a former state legislator to be the official who keeps the members of the Republican caucus in line on issues of significance, and also is responsible for making sure GOP congress members are actually in attendance when votes are taken.

It’s a lot of procedural moves. But it is just the kind of post that can go to someone who is a party loyalist. Which could then be used by that official to gain more influence for the causes that they take interest in on behalf of their hometown constituents.

IT WILL BE intriguing to see just how this situation shakes out, and if Roskam is able to work his way up from the guy who only gets noticed in the western suburbs to someone of national repute.

Although the whole concept of local focus versus national when it comes to our members of Congress (whose purpose is to put a local spin on national issues) is a constant balancing act – one that legislators occasionally fail to meet.

Take Cantor, who may have developed a national reputation but I’m sure would gladly give it up Wednesday if it could mean he could keep his House seat!

  -30-

Crass vs. Vapid – Which is worse?

Some observers of the Illinois political scene are trying to make an issue out of Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., for the remark he made recently to a suburban newspaper editorial board that ostensibly compared abortion to the crime of murder.

Yet in my mind, the congressman from Wheaton has to take Second Place (at best) to the owner of a Minnesota-based company that manufactures a portable gun-rack – one meant to fit beside a person’s bed so they can immediately grab their weapon and start shooting if they think they hear someone in the middle of the night wandering around their home.

WHAT MAKES THE Back Up (the name under which the portable rack is marketed, implying that decent people have a main gun rack somewhere else for the prize pieces of their firearms arsenal) offensive?

The Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday that the manufacturer put out a press release this week promoting the product by saying that actress Jennifer Hudson’s mother might possibly still be alive, had she had a Back Up and a weapon in her bedroom.

“Could a Bedside Shotgun Rack Have Saved Jennifer Hudson’s Family from Tragic Death?,” the company’s press release asks.

The company’s president told the Tribune that he used the prominent slaying so soon after it occurred in his marketing effort not to be offensive, but to give people a “hit between the eyes” on the issue of firearms use.

FOR THOSE WHO weren’t paying attention (and it doesn’t matter where in the country one was because the prominence of the star of “Dreamgirls” meant that the fate of her mother, brother and nephew this weekend became a national story), Darnell Donerson and Jason Hudson were found dead on Friday at Donerson’s Englewood neighborhood home.

Police quickly figured out that a 7-year-old boy who was with the two was missing, and that resulted in the weekend-long search that ultimately ended when a Chevy Suburban van was discovered abandoned on the West Side, with the body of Julian King inside.

From various reports, Hudson is the Oscar-winning actress who has had to toughen up this week to cope with the loss of her mother and brother, and wound up having to provide the positive identification that her young nephew was dead.

In short, she is living these days through everybody’s worst nightmare.

AND HOW DO the manufacturers of the Back Up handle the situation?

They drag up her family name and image, and try to morph her mother into the notion of a “pistol packin’ granny” who could have defended herself, had she only been able to get to a gun.

That line of logic is one I often hear from firearms advocates, and it is one I question, since many people when confronted with a crisis are going to have a brief moment of not being able to think straight.

And all it takes for something bad to happen is that one lone moment. Who’s to say that if Hudson did have a firearm on her, that it would not have wound up being used against her?

FROM ALL INDICATIONS, the person who is not quite a suspect but a “person of interest” (in legal lingo) was a former in-law.

His arrival at Donerson’s home might not have been seen as a pleasant experience. But it was not like he broke in suddenly, thereby alerting Hudson’s mother that she was in danger.

There’s a good chance that she didn’t realize how violent the situation could get until it was too late.

I can’t help but notice that prosecutors have not actually charged the in-law, William Balfour, with any crime in connection with the slayings. The only reason he’s still in custody is because he was on parole – which makes his questioning in connection with the triple slayings a violation in itself (so he gets to sit in a cell in a state prison until Chicago police and prosecutors figure out how to handle this situation).

AND WHILE THEY ponder, some people on the outside will try to figure out ways to use the slayings to their advantage. I would expect the firearms advocates to make such a statement, but the idea of using the incident to try to sell a product is just so crass.

It is why I consider it to be the tackiest talk of the week, even moreso than what Roskam said when he subjected himself to an interview with the Pioneer Press chain of weekly newspapers in the north and west suburbs.

Now what he actually said is left to question.

The newspaper, in its attempt to squeeze a whole batch of information into a short story previewing the Congressional fight between Roskam and Democrat Jill Morgenthaler, paraphrased a lot.

SO WHAT ACTUALLY turns up in the newspaper is that Roskam, “asked in the Pioneer Press interview why women can have abortions if rapists cannot be executed.”

The implication being that a woman who is impregnated by someone because of a rape could not have suffered such a severe indignity to her person if the crime of sexual assault is not one for which the death penalty can be applied.

The newspaper later provided a direct quote from Roskam to the Springfield-based Capitol Fax newsletter about Illinois government that makes it appear Peter was trying to take the logic of former Rep. Henry Hyde (a long-time opponent of abortion services being legal) when he said (in part), “a rapist under the court doctrines can’t be put to death. (Hyde) said, why is it that the baby who is the result of that criminal behavior can be put to death?”

Such talk came off as crass when it came from Hyde’s mouth (it implies there are times when a woman’s life has to play second-banana to a potential life that was forced on her. That’s offensive). But now that we’re getting second-generation Hyde, it loses something in translation.

IT’S LIKE WE’RE getting a photocopy of a photocopy of what Hyde sent. Coming from Roskam, it’s not offensive as much as it’s just vapid.

Eventually, such logic is going to be repeated so often by those people who are just determined to think of abortion as a criminal act in and of itself that it will become absurd.

Roskam is not quite absurd, but his comments are taking the debate on abortion in that direction.

And if it comes to a choice between absurd or crass (which is what I think the Hudson gun rack appeal is), I consider crass to be more offensive any day of the week.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: The “Hudson gun rack” ad (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-talk-shotgun-29-oct29,0,264779.story), or “abortion equals murder” (http://thecapitolfaxblog.com/2008/10/27/roskam-perhaps-wonders-aloud-too-much/)? Take your pick.

Chicago an immigrant magnet that also attracts massive political bloviation

It’s no secret that the Chicago population is a mish-mash of ethnicities. Throughout its history, newcomers to the United States have seen the Second City and its surrounding area as a perfect place to begin their lives in a new country.

In fact, I’d argue that Chicago can serve as the immigration issue’s version of a Rorschach test. Let people take a quick look at the Second City, and we can figure out where they stand on the issue.

THE PEOPLE WHO are misguided enough to think our wonderful city on the shores of Lake Michigan has a problem are probably the ones who are most clamoring for a tightening of the immigration laws in this country so as to remove people from within our boundaries.

But many of the people who have made their lives here are the ones who realize the benefits of a continuous influx of newcomers – it helps keep the region (and ultimately the nation) from becoming stale economically and socially.

The fact that even the long-running families of Chicago can trace their lineage back a few generations to immigrants makes them realize these new newcomers are going to make the same adjustments and become a part of our establishment with the passage of time.

City Hall will be the focus next week of problems immigrants face in dealing with law enforcement. The only difference between today's immigrants and the ones who made up Chicago's population back when this century-old postcard was contemporary is that now they speak Spanish or Arabic, rather than Polish or with an Irish brogue.

That is why Chicago has followed the example of certain other places, such as New York, in declaring itself a “Sanctuary City,” a refuge of sorts for immigrants, regardless of whether or not they have a valid visa or all the proper papers.

NOT THAT BEING an “illegal alien” (to use federal government technospeak) is legal in Chicago. It only means that Chicago police and other city officials, should they stumble across information indicating that a person might not have the proper papers, do not make an effort to point them out to federal immigration officials.

City officials act as though the federal government should enforce its own laws, and not expect Chicago government to do it for them. That is a 180-degree difference from the views of people such as Maricopa County (Ariz.) Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who in recent months has led raids searching for people without papers in the Phoenix area that have resulted in many legal residents being harassed because of their ethnic background.

The legal theory behind a “Sanctuary City” policy is that local officials do not fully appreciate all the nuances of immigration law, and should not be making any efforts to enforce federal acts out of fear they may erroneously penalize someone who has legitimate business being in this country.

Such policy is why the City Council is taking it upon itself to conduct its own investigation into whether or not immigrants are being penalized within Chicago’s boundaries.

NOW THE CITY Council, as a local government body, does not have authority to start penalizing the federal government. The special committee hearings to be held next week at City Hall are more of a symbolic gesture – government officials in Chicago want to show they are supportive of the newcomers to the city.

So council members, led by Ald. Danny Solis (brother of Democratic vice presidential candidate chief of staff Patti Solis Doyle), will be taking the time to let dozens of immigrants tell their stories.

They are going to focus on cases where inmates at Cook County Jail were turned over to federal immigration officials once their local cases were disposed of.

In theory, the county sheriff does inform immigration of the inmate’s existence, but there have been some accounts of people without papers at the jail who were held indefinitely at county expense before federal officials could take custody of them – despite rules that require a 48-hour time limit on such additional detention of would-be undocumented immigrants.

THEY ALSO ARE going to study claims of some immigrants who claim Chicago police officers questioned them about their immigration status during traffic stops, and have contacted federal officials in cases where they suspected someone did not have the proper documents to be in the United States.

Chicago police officials have denied such activity – which would be in violation of the ordinance that made the Second City a “Sanctuary City” – ever took place on their part.

But political people will use the hearings as a chance to bloviate on the immigration issue, largely in hopes of showing people they are sympathetic to the concerns of people who have just arrived in this country and are still trying to adapt to the “alien ways” of U.S. culture.

Of course, immigration rights supporters are not the only ones capable of spewing pompous rhetoric when it comes to the issue. The people who think the answer to the problem is building walls along the U.S./Mexico border and engaging in mass deportations also like to hear themselves talk.

TAKE THE CASE of Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., the lawmaker from suburban DuPage County who sees Chicago’s attraction to newcomers as a problem.

After a recent trip to the Arizona/Sonora border region, Roskam told the Daily Herald newspaper that Illinois is to blame for “illegal aliens” for creating an environment in which newcomers feel welcome.

He specifically trashes state government for refusing to allow use of the E-Verify computer program that theoretically allows employers to check if someone is a legitimate resident legally capable of working a job in the United States.

“It creates in them the expectation that if you make it to Illinois, you are home free,” Roskam told the Arlington Heights-based newspaper.

HE IGNORES THE flaws that exist with the E-verify system (which is based off a check of Social Security numbers) that have resulted in legal residents losing jobs, because he’s more interested in making the statement about immigration.

Ultimately, that system’s future is pending in the federal courts, where the Department of Homeland Security (of which immigration is a division) has filed a lawsuit in hopes of getting a court order that would force employers to use the system – flaws and all.

Roskam’s rhetoric is not limited to E-verify. He also proudly cites measures he supports to limit a non-citizen’s ability to get a valid driver’s license or obtain medical care. He even goes so far as to tout measures that would deny U.S. citizenship to people born in this country if their parents were not citizens.

Considering that citizenship is the ultimate accident of birth, the idea of trying to deny that accident is absurd. But absurd rhetoric is comprehendable when one considers that Democrats are putting some funds into trying to knock Roskam out of his congressional post.

HIS OPPONENT IN the Nov. 4 election is a retired Army Reserve colonel who also served as an advisor on public safety and national security issues to Gov. Rod Blagojevich and who supports more sympathetic policies that would allow some of the undocumented immigrants a way to legally remain in the country – despite the goofs who automatically want to label such acts as “amnesty.”

Roskam needs the partisan rhetoric if he’s to appeal to enough social conservatives among the DuPage County electorate to send him back to Washington for another term in Congress.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: Rep. Peter Roskam of Wheaton took a trip to Nogales, Ariz., to see the border (http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=224030&src=1), and all he brought us back was a load of politically partisan rhetoric on the immigration issue.

Equally partisan rhetoric will come from the Chicago City Council next week when they “investigate” (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-il-immigrantrights-h,0,177310.story) abuse of immigrant rights by local law enforcement officials.