Wednesday, July 07, 2004

Updated Wednesday, July 7 at 1:00 am

Having worked him over pretty good, with others in the Illinois GOP, Chairman Topinka is still trying to cut up the good looks of Jack Ryan.

Judy Baar Topinka, Cook County Republican Chairman,
continues to throw daggers and punches at Jack Ryan, even though he appears to have left the ring. Previously, they were mostly sucker punches. Now, they are jabs and light punches intended to re-open some unhealed cuts to make sure Jack stays down for the full count.

Some grassroots efforts have started among rank and file Republicans in Illinois to persuade Jack Ryan to re-consider his withdrawal from the Senate race. Apparently, his campaign has not yet filed the appropriate papers to complete the withdrawal from the Senate race. However, I have been unable to get confirmation from any Jack Ryan campaign official that the campaign is thinking about re-considering its withdrawal.

Nevertheless, it appears that Judy Baar would like to make sure that Ryan does not entertain any such thoughts. Watch her jabs, when an opening is provided by Ponce’s neutral questioning. A dagger here, a dagger there, and a dagger, dagger everywhere. The Bloodsport of Illinois Politics.
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Phil Ponce: How many candidates are you vetting?

Judy Baar Topinka: We have got a dozen.

Ponce: A dozen.

Topinka: A dozen...they will be vetted out because as I have said, we all have foibles, this does not necessarily disqualify anybody. But I do want to know who these folks are, I mean I would like to know if anybody took a recent trip to Paris, for instance. [The first dagger]

Ponce [apparently egged on by the Judy Baar reference to Paris]: Do you continue to feel betrayed, misled by Jack Ryan?

Topinka: You know, I am just going to put that behind me and move forward because I think that chapter is closed and I am going to look forward to just one of the candidates coming forward and when you stop to think...[Dagger two: Very deft, that Judy-- first she opens that chapter, then she closes it; talk about controlling personalities]

Ponce: We just heard Bob Sirott report- fundraising for [Democratic Senate Candidate] Barack Obama- four million [dollars] in the last quarter, ten million so far--

Topinka: That's rough, that's rough. I mean it is uphill. But, you know what, too, the guy’s gotten a pass. Barack Obama's gotten a pass. [Governor Rod] Blagojevich has gotten a pass. All of these folks have gotten a pass because the oxygen in the room has been just sucked dry because of the Jack Ryan thing. [Dagger three, Watch how Jude opens that closed chapter ever so easily], it had all of the wonderful Sex, Lies and Videotape that you could possibly put together [Dagger four] and that was the news so as a result now I think you are going to be able to focus on news issues and what that means to the average Illinoisan [Dagger 5, and Jude closes that chapter again]
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State GOP Chairman, State Treasurer and possible 2006 Gubernatorial candidate ( Hat Trick) Judy Baar Topinka, interviewed on Chicago Tonight, July 6, 2004. Judy Baar was on the show purportedly to discuss, with John Kerry for President honcho David Wilhelm, the John Edwards for VP selection-- but Ponce turned the conversation, toward the end of that segment, to the Jack Ryan replacement process and status.

The discussion of the Edwards pick was uninformative and filled with talking points from both guests, although Wilhelm seemed better able to address the points that were raised.. However, if you like to watch good, bloodless knifework in the bloodsport they call Illinois politics, you will want to watch Judy Baar for the last 1 ½ mintues of the the 20 minute, or so, Wilhelm/Topinka segment of Chicago Tonight, which I believe will be re-run tonight, i.e., Wednesday morning at 1:30 am and 4:30 am on Ch.11, WTTW, for those in the Chicago Metro area, but check your local listings or networkchicago.com, to be safe. Wilhelm/Topinka are the first segment of the show. Me, I am going to the medicine cabinet before I watch that again. Good to have plenty of band-aids handy when watching Chairman Topinka at work.
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