Reading the pathetic dribble from the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board is a painful exercise even on a good day. But what can you say about a piece that begins with this:
We write human history in red blood and raw courage.
Is this Stephen Crane come back to life? Then look at how they lecture Democrats for daring to support the Democratic candidate for governor in 2006:
Do you remember all those honorable Democratic leaders denouncing Blagojevich's bold hypocrisy? Criticizing his perpetuation of business as usual in Illinois? Telling voters to think seriously about how they invest their votes?
Neither do we.
But before we get too swept away by the flood of indignation, it's worthwhile to look at the Tribune's own recent choices for governor, thoughtfully put together by Michael Miner in 2006:
... Four years ago it endorsed Jim Ryan, though in 1995 the same editorial page had declared that no one involved in the prosecution of Rolando Cruz -- which Ryan led -- "deserves ever again to enjoy a position of public honor or trust." Four years earlier the Tribune endorsed George Ryan for governor, though the "ongoing scandal" in Ryan's secretary of state's office was "deeply troubling" and his Democratic opponent, Glenn Poshard, was "thoughtful, engaging and honest."
The Tribune's lead editorial this Tuesday was headlined "George Ryan, convicted felon." It recalled the 1994 catastrophe, when six of the children of Duane and Janet Willis died in a highway accident caused by a steel bracket falling off the dilapidated rig of "illicit" trucker Ricardo Guzman. It recalled Ryan's angry insistence that Guzman had been legally licensed by Ryan's secretary of state's office. And it recalled election day 1998, when Ryan was elected governor "on the strength of that lie."
Alongside the editorial was a cartoon. Six tombstones bore the names of the Willis children, and from one came word, "He's guilty. Pass it on . . ."
But when a pro-Poshard ad in 1998 tried to link Ryan with those deaths, the Tribune editorial page cried out, "Blame him for those deaths? This is about as cruel as politics can get." It told Poshard "to examine his conscience."
Do you think they'll climb down from their seat of righteous indignation and reflect on their own behavior for a change?
Neither do we.
