When thousands of southern Illinois residents reached into their mailboxes last week, they pulled out an ÿimportant union messageÿ from the Illinois AFL-CIO that urged a vote for Democrat Rod Blagojevich for governor and depicted his Republican opponent by photo and by name as troubled incumbent Gov. George Ryan.þþTo Jim Ryan, Blagojevich's real Republican opponent on Tuesday, it was a ÿdirty trickÿ and another attempt by Democrats to link him to the state's vastly unpopular governor. To the AFL-CIO honchos it was an ÿhonest mistakeÿ made by an out-of-state printer.þþÿI suppose the Jim Ryan campaign won't believe that,ÿ said state AFL-CIO spokeswoman Beth Spencer.þþBut as another cynicism-filled election season comes to a close, a better question is, ÿWho would believe it?ÿþþPolitical campaigns always begin with candidates who use lyrical rhetoric to discuss hot-button issues, trying to latch onto the higher aspirations of the voters they are trying to reach.þþThey end, however, with the candidates toiling somewhere near the lower reaches of the human spectrum. Their feckless charges and wild accusations are hurled with such abandon that it leaves a weary public with nowhere to turn.þþFortunately, these are the final hours of campaigns that have bottom-fed off the fiery traffic deaths of six children, a woman tossed into a fire set by her husband, a man sentenced to death for a crime he didn't commit and allegations that taxpayer contracts were steered for campaign kickbacks.þþRemember that these are all candidates who are trying to sell themselves to voters as ÿagents of changeÿ after years of sleaze and corruption. But with criminology, rather than ideology, the overriding theme in this campaign, the real agents for change may belong to the FBI.þþFederal investigators are already probing the campaign conduct of the staff of the two men who now lead the Democrats and Republicans in the Illinois House. Another team of agents is looking into the police union endorsements of a candidate for attorney general.þþThe specter of law enforcement hasn't deterred the campaigns from engaging in the non-criminal form of political perjury in their attacks, with candidates charging their opponents with the kind of ÿlying,ÿ ÿcheap shot,ÿ ÿbelow-the-belt,ÿ ÿinflated resumeÿ and ÿmisdemeanor lawyerÿ responses that prove so informative for voters.þþThe politicians defend this as an attempt to point out the character flaws of their opponents. But with the inappropriateness of some of the charges that they have raised and the lengths to which they have gone to savage their opposition's record, integrity, character and political heritage, it says much about their own character as well.þþParental advisoryþþThe clutter of wretched rhetoric became so ridiculous that an odd-ball, egotistical has-been, running a third-party candidacy and craving any attention he could get--aired radio ads so disgusting that radio stations felt obligated to run a parental advisory out of concern to their younger listeners.þþSo much for character.þþBut amid this torrent of objectionable advertising and rhetoric, don't go pining for the old days. Negative campaigning has long been a cherished part of the nation's political history.þþWhen PBS ran its biography series ÿThe American Presidentÿ in the 2000 election, it noted how John Adams' forces accused Thomas Jefferson of being a ÿcowardÿ; how Andrew Jackson labeled John Quincy Adams ÿthe Pimpÿ; how political enemies depicted Abraham Lincoln as ÿHonest Apeÿ; and how Grover Cleveland was the ÿfather of a bastard.ÿþþWhile it might seem that campaigns haven't come very far, this year's election has featured a twist. Rather than just featuring the candidates beating up on each other, the negative tenor took on a new tone when the candidates found themselves being attacked by the leaders of their own political party.þþLike the elderly uncle whom everyone knows to avoid at family reunions, George Ryan has unabashedly chewed out non-relation Jim Ryan and other members of the Republican ticket for focusing too much on the scandals that hounded him away from seeking re-election.þþAlways in an advice-giving mood, the Republican governor said in September that the Republican candidate for governor has ÿbeen a lousy candidateÿ and that ÿif he hasn't distinguished himself now, he probably never will.ÿþþBut Democrats haven't fared any better.þþOn an August day at the State Fair that was meant for celebration, Blagojevich entered a Springfield hotel lobby crowded with a generation of Democrats hungry for victory and state jobs and was immediately confronted by reporters who wanted to know what ÿindiscretionsÿ he had committed.þþThe questions were prompted by the comments of Speaker-Chairman-Ward Boss Madigan, himself feeling underappreciated when Blagojevich berated him for ÿarroganceÿ in steering taxpayer funds to a college classmate's livestock show.þþÿI don't plan to be critical of other Democrats,ÿ Michael Madigan said in carefully parsing his words. ÿI don't plan to be critical of Blagojevich. I could talk about some of his indiscretions, but I don't plan to do that because I plan to be a strong party chair and work to bring all the Democrats together.ÿþþPerhaps the only thing more objectionable than Madigan dropping the unspecified ÿindiscretionsÿ allegation and walking away was the way Republicans promptly tried to pick it up and run with it.þþPouring gas on speculationþþIn one of the more reprehensible moments of the campaign, state Republican Chairman Gary MacDougal--he of the job nobody wanted--held a news conference to pour gas on any wild speculation about Blagojevich and to encourage the media to continue ÿdigging around.ÿþþÿPeople come forward to me with information as to what these indiscretions might be. It's beyond Clintonesque,ÿ MacDougal said with no knowledge of what he was talking about except to try to stroke his already substantial ego while engaging in unsubstantiated gossip tainted with sexual innuendo.þþMacDougal, a member of the board of United Parcel Service, apparently learned nothing from the company's brown-uniformed employees about how to make credible deliveries.þþIndeed, credibility--an intangible quotient each candidate hopes to portray to win over voters--has been a reluctant participant in the political debate.þþIt's ridiculous for Lisa Madigan to assert that she would ÿabsolutelyÿ be the Democratic nominee for attorney general without her dad's help. She is the daughter of the almighty and powerful Michael Madigan, speaker of the Illinois House, chairman of the state Democratic Party and patronage-dispensing 13th Ward Democratic committeeman.þþAnd it's just as ridiculous for her opponent, DuPage County State's Atty. Joe Birkett to maintain that he played a ÿminimalÿ role in the attempt to send Rolando Cruz to Death Row for a third time for a murder he didn't commit. Birkett has bragged that he felt ÿvery comfortable taking on this caseÿ and led its preparation for months until he stepped aside and the manufactured evidence against Cruz ultimately crumbled and led to a finding of innocence.þþMoreover, it's either political pandering or stupidity that has Blagojevich and Ryan trying to convince voters that a $2.5 billion gap in the state's budget for next fiscal year can be made up solely by cutting bureaucratic ÿwaste and mismanagementÿ and not raising taxes. And it's a further insult to the voters to insist that, on top of those cuts, each candidate can ÿreprioritizeÿ hundreds of millions of dollars in spending to fulfill their campaign promises.þþThe campaigns got this way because this lowest-common-denominator form of campaigning, on the airwaves or through news conferences, is what voters have grown to expect. Polls show they don't believe in campaign promises, they don't believe taxes won't be raised and they think each is as guilty as the other of tossing mud.þþPolitics has become short-attention-span theater for the few who bother to cast a vote, with the special interests that buy the candidates' way into public office the only ones who really care. That's why the state's organization of unionized workers can get away with putting the wrong Republican candidate for governor on a mailing.þþUnfortunately, the dirty little secret of governance is that Election Day is the only day that the public, rather than the special interests, has a vote.þ
Source: Chicago Tribune
