Posted on 06/06/2008 9:27:15 AM PDT by JulianaJohnson
On the opening day of the Illinois Republican Party's quadrennial state convention in Decatur, please standby for this special message for Illinois Republicans: Hoping your political opponents get indicted is not an electoral strategy.
The combination of euphoria and self-righteous indignation streaming out of GOP politicos on the occasion of Tony Rezko's conviction on public corruption charges this week is predictable if not well thought out.
Considering he was elected Governor by running against that which has become the hallmark of his administration, it is natural for Republicans to delight in the possibility that Rod Blagojevich may soon be joining George Ryan for spirited games of Parcheesi courtesy of federal prosecutors.
Yet, while the media treats Gov. Blagojevich as a human pi'ata, Republicans should resist the temptation to take their gratuitous whacks and instead use this as an opportunity to come clean.
The fact is that a high-ranking Republican party official was mentioned throughout the Rezko trial and the government's star witness against Rezko was a longtime, major donor to Republican candidates.
Instead of banal finger-wagging and scorn-filled platitudes, Republicans should recognize that a little contrition could go along way.
Illinoisans have been waiting for someone--anyone--for more than a decade since our state careened into the wilderness to acknowledge responsibility for wrongdoing.
This weekend, at their convention, Republican leaders should issue an open letter to Illinois voters on behalf of the collective party that says something like this,
We do not celebrate the Tony Rezko verdict and the corruption that persists in state government now any more than we did under a Republican Governor.
We understand that Republicans bear responsibility for some of the wrongdoing that has undermined your trust and faith in state government.
We apologize for those times when Republican officials have failed to live up to the standards or abide by the principles that we have set forth to define our party. We will not excuse or tolerate bad actors within our party the way we did in the past.
We were once a party consumed with handing out the spoils of power. That approach led to excesses, but we are no longer that party. Instead, we are a party dedicated to system change in fundamental policy areas like education.
We have returned to our roots as a party based on extending enfranchisement to the disenfranchised and expanding available opportunities for all.
We respectfully ask that you inform your judgment on our party and our party's standard bearers based on who we are today, not who we were in the past.
Such an acknowledgement would in itself be evidence that Illinois Republicans have matured to the point where they have learned from the party's recent past and are ready to move confidently forward.
The party can then get to the business of defining its constituency and declaring the policy battles to be waged on behalf of that constituency.
This weekend, Illinois Republicans have a choice: they can continue to be the party of schadenfreude or they can be a party that provides true electoral competition.
Attention IL GOP:
1. There are more BTUs in the coal sitting in southern Illinois than in all of the oil in Saudi Arabia.
2. Illinois is centrally located in the US.
Can you guys hear me? Hello? Hello?
Blog is going to jail?
If Patrick Fitzgerald wasn’t a Dimmocrat dupe, Blago would’ve been on trial with Tony Rezko. And Mr. B Hussein Obama.
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