On the plus side, with LaThug and Toopinko now out of picture, now would be a great time for Peter Fitzgerald to make a comeback. On the negative side, LaThug's handpicked choice of Andy McKenna is still IL GOP Chairman (after presiding over the disastrous 2006 and 2008 defeats), and McKenna's family has a history of donating to Democrats. McKenna was the very first name LaThug floated when he was looking for a "better" choice to "take out" Peter Fitzgerald in 2003. Shame on the Illinois conservatives who backed LaThug's sock puppet for party chairman.
I know Phil has floated the possiblity of running Congressman Tim Johnson (not to be confused with the Senator from SD) for Illinois Governor in 2010.
This would be a mistake, IMO. Johnson used to be fairly conservative, but in the last few years he's gotten screwy and taken a hard turn to the left. He's way too liberal now. His ACU rating in 2007 was only 60%, which means he voted liberal 40% of the time. He was never like that in the Illinois legislature, because the RINOs were LaHood, Kirk, and Biggert. Some of his votes make no logical sense like his vote against the surge last year (he represents a solid downstate conservative district, and yet he and ultra RINO Mark Kirk were the only Illinois Republicans to oppose the surge). I talked with Congressman Dan Crane, who used to represent in the area (he was defeated after being caught up in that 1983 congressional page scandal) and Crane figures that Johnson has spent too much time at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and wants to be liked by "hip" college kids and the liberal professors down there.
According to the ACU, last year he voted with the Dems on the Minimum Wage Increase, Against the Iraq “surge”, taxpayer funded Union Elections, for increased Amtrak Funding, against Earmark Reform, against Offshore Natural Gas Development, energy policy for regulating lights and appliances, the Housing Trust Fund, and energy policy - automobile mileage mandates. And this article noted:
10th Congress - Dance of the RINOs
The House has just passed H.R. 6, which aims to raise taxes on domestic oil companies (the compelling and insightful argument against which I outlined just hours ago) by a vote of 264-163.
The legislation is utterly atrocious, intellectually dishonest, and capable of inflicting significant damage on our oil industry, on American consumers, and indeed on our dependence on foreign oil.
Worse, 36 Republicans went along for the ride.
This was the 6th and final initiative among the new majority's 6 for 06. Of those 6, 3 have been truly terrible bills that each deserve the "atrocious, dishonest, and damaging" labels. In addition to H.R. 6, the 2 other abominations are H.R. 2 (the minimum wage hike) and H.R. 4 (the prescription price control bill).
With the votes for all 3 now on the board, a dozen Republicans bear the shame of having voted in favor of all three. RINO watchers will find many of the names familiar:
* Rep. Tim Johnson (IL)
So even ultra RINO Mark Kirk didn't vote for all 3, but Johnson did. He seems to have a Walter Jones/Chuck Hagel vibe going the way he's slowly morphed into a huge thorn ijn the side of the GOP after being known as a staunch conservative for years.
I also think he's not gubernatorial material. He's from a safe GOP district, and looks and acts like one of those "angry sitcom dads" who threaten to kill their daughter's dinner date during sweeps week:
I would much rather see Congressman John Shimkus take a stab at running for Senator or Governor, as I've suggested for six years. Sadly, he doesn't seem to have much interest. He's much more conservative than Johnson, he represents Durbin's old seat in the House, and he was the only person to come close to beating Durbin -- I think he got within 2% of taking him out in '92 or '94. His district was merged with another Dem district, and he took out Congressman Phelps, so he now represents two formerly RAT entrenched districts (His district has since been redraw to be much more Republican.) He also seems much more like gubernatorial material to me:
