Better than Larry King: Prof. Scott on TV and Streaming

"Public Affairs," is featuring Lindy Scott, Democratic 6th CD Democratic Primary Candidate, this week in 35 Chicago Metro suburbs on Comcast Cable. Professor Scott is running against two female candidates, Cegelis and Duckworth, in the primary for the right to take on Republican State Senator Peter Roskam, who is unopposed in his primary. The open seat is being created by Cong. Henry Hyde's [R-Addison] decision not to seek re-election this fall, after serving his District for 32 years.

In 25 North Shore, North and Northwest suburbs, the show is on tonight in its regular Tuesday night time slot: 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Ch. 19 or 35, as indicated, below.

In 10 North Shore suburbs, the show airs in its regular airing slot at 8:30 pm on M, W, and F on Comcast Cable Ch. 19, as indicated, below.

The show with Professor Scott is also available as a video podcast currently at the Public Affairs Cinema Complex, along with a dozen other shows, which are currently airing there, e.g., Joe Birkett,Republican Primary Lt. Gov. Candidate;Forrest Claypool, Cook County Board Member and candidate for County Board PresidentCong. Bean [D-Barrington], Cong. Schakowsky [D-Evanston] , 8th CD Republican candidates McSweeney and Churchill, Team Gidwitz-Rauschenberger, Dem. Gov. candidate Edwin Eisendrath, 6th CD Dem. candidates Cegelis and Scott; also airing as an audio podcast are shows with U. S. Senator Barack Obama and 7th CD Dem. Candidate Jim Ascot [See here].

The Lindy Scott show will also air throughout the City of Chicago this coming Monday night, March 6 at 8:30 pm on CANTV, Cable Ch. 21.
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Lindy Scott, Democratic 6th CD Democratic Primary Candidate and a resident of Wheaton debates and discusses with Show Host and Executive Legal Recruiter Jeff Berkowitz more than a dozen domestic, foreign and social public policy issues. Professor Scott discusses what he views as the relative lack of familiarity by candidate Duckworth of suburbs, in general, and of the suburbs and villages in the 6th CD. Lindy Scott discusses what he views as some of the weaknesses in the Christine Cegelis political organization and some of the strengths in his political organization for this year's campaigns. Rumors that Duckworth's voting record in both general and primary elections is spotty were also discussed.
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The episode of Public Affairs featuring Lindy Scott,Democratic 6th CD Democratic Primary Candidate,airs tonight at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 19 in Buffalo Grove, Elk Grove Village, Hoffman Estates, parts of Inverness, Lincolnwood, Morton Grove, Niles, Northfield, Palatine, Rolling Meadows and Wilmette

And at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 35 in Arlington Heights, Bartlett, Glenview, Golf, Des Plaines, Hanover Park, Mt. Prospect, Northbrook, Park Ridge, Prospect Heights, Schaumburg, Skokie, Streamwood and Wheeling.

And Monday, Wednesday and Friday night at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 19 in Bannockburn, Deerfield, Ft. Sheridan, Glencoe, Highland Park, Highwood, Kenilworth, Lincolnshire, Riverwoods and Winnetka.
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Our show with Lindy Scott, Democratic 6th CD Democratic Primary Candidate, was recorded on Feb. 19, 2006 and is airing on the Suburban edition of Public Affairs this week [week of Feb. 27] and on the City of Chicago edition of Public Affairs on Monday night, March 6 at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21. See, above, for a detailed, regular suburban airing schedule for Public Affairs
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Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
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WTTW’s Bias: Blago, Judy, Obama, Ds and the Combine

So, there you are sports fans, Carol Marin and her fair and balanced panel of slightly left of center panelists have anointed Judy the Winner, and no need to mention Republican gubernatorial candidates Oberweis, Gidwitz or Brady. We don’t want you to worry your pretty little heads with names of Republicans.
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Carol Marin: …the only debate that they agreed to was to sit down with the Tribune Editorial Board. We can’t get them together here, so how was that debate?

Bruce Dold: …I wish they were doing more joint appearances…First thing we asked [Democratic Gubernatorial Primary candidate] Ed Eisendrath was where is your campaign—why should we take this seriously if we don’t see you on TV…the Governor was really pretty good when talking about his budget, talking about pre-school education, talking about health care, but you also have this BIZARRE situation in the room where his campaign spokesman is sitting behind him, Doug Scofield, who also happens to be a prominent lobbyist and the Governor when you get him on the questions of pay to play and all that is FAR LESS CONVINCING than on health care and education… [Emphasis added]
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Talking about BIZARRE situations, we have the Chicago Tonight discussion of this evening of what is hot on the local political scene.

Now, I think Bruce Dold [Editor, Chicago Tribune Editorial Page] is a reasonably fair guy, with biases like all of us, and probably leans right of center on economic issues, but not so on social issues. Paul Green, Roosevelt University Professor, is also quite fair, and probably leans left of center, notwithstanding his claim to be the “White line down the middle of the road.” Bob Crawford, former WBBM-AM Radio Political Editor, I would guess leans slightly left of center, but it is a guess and Bob is probably the fairest of them all.

Marin, on the hand, is an out and out lefty. I mean, she probably even chews on her left side, sleeps on her left side and gestures with her left hand. Nothing wrong with that, but no one should pretend she is fair and balanced. Not when, for example, she tosses into her columns occasional, random far left shots at the Bush administration. And, I don't think she took too many far right shots at the Clinton Administration. So, you have a lefty host and a slightly left of center panel. What kind of political analysis do you get? Well, yes, a left biased one. But, in light of the high quality nature of the panelists, it is surprising that you got at least some, bizarre opinions, descriptions and analyses, as discussed below.

For starters, Dold and Marin make it sound [See, above] like you can’t get a “debate,” in the Governor’s race because you have two candidates who are difficult to get together. And, of course, nothing could be further from the truth. You have only one candidate, Blago, who won’t even consider a joint appearance, let alone a debate. So, why are Dold and Marin talking that way. God only knows. And, why aren’t Green and Crawford saying something about that? God only knows. And, how can they speak of a closed, private edit Board meeting as a "gubernatorial debate." This is how Blago likes to describe it. But, WTTW?

And there is this from Marin: “You know we mourn the lack of debate, I mean I do, and here we have [a Marin cutesy laugh]-- we were talking before we went on the air that we may be among only the handful of people who even care about this [Gubernatorial] race.” Well, that is a nice condescending attitude that Marin has toward her viewers, the great unwashed. Not atypical among lefties.

Great, maybe Carol can persuade WTTW to expand its “Check, Please,” series and Carol can host those as well. What a smug group of “intellectuals,” they are at WTTW, Chicago’s “Public TV.”

And, Dold says the Governor is “pretty good,” on education, health care, etc? Perhaps we need a few more debates to sharpen up Bruce Dold on some of the questions that might at least be raised regarding the Governor’s programs in these areas. Pretty good? What was he thinking?

And, of course, Green and Crawford are pretty much silent on Governor Blagojevich being “pretty good on the issues.” Crawford takes after Eisendrath for not putting up a strong campaign, but he gives the docile media and Blago’s Democratic critics, who are afraid to say or do anything in support of challenger Edwin Eisendrath, a pass.

And Marin’s contribution is to point out how much better Blago’s expensive TV ads are than those of Eisendrath. Great, Carol. This is why WTTW brought you on? To compare ads? That and to interview sports figures?

Then, when they turn to the Republicans, everyone is careful not to mention any Republican Guv candidates, other than Judy Baar, with Green outlining how far ahead Topinka is. Dold’s contribution is to bring up the myth, as fact, that Jim Ryan lost the general election because of the tough primary and then Marin asks if the Republicans therefore shouldn’t be careful not to be too tough on Judy. Good, Carol. Let’s toe the Andy McKenna GOP establishment line of no criticism by the candidates of each other.

Crawford tells us how wonderful Judy is as a candidate, and that she is the second coming of Jim Edgar and therefore she will be a formidable candidate in November. Professor Green, to his credit, rains on the Judy parade by pointing out that Judy is dead meat if the conservatives stay home in November. Dold and Marin remain silent on the point.

Then the group turns to Stroger-Claypool, which they do recognize as an important and perhaps very close race for the Democratic nomination for president of the Cook County Board. Dold certainly gets the importance of Claypool and the importance of bringing democracy to Cook County. Unfortunately, he can’t get himself to bring the name of a Republican, Peraica, to his lips, in terms of asking if Tony could give Stroger a run, if Claypool loses but softens Stroger up for the general election. All the others are silent on the issue as well.

Green, enamored, as always with the love of his life, Democrats, says, “I think the race that really is- where you [Dold] just endorsed today-- the 6th Cong. Dist. with Tammy Duckworth, Cegelis and Scott.”

Marin, decides she will risk being stricken by lightning and says the name of two Republicans, and she interrupts Green’s discussion of the 6th CD by saying, “For Henry Hyde’s seat, where Pete Roskam is going to be the..” [as an aside, the only public personalities I have heard call Senator Roskam “Pete,” would be Major Tammy Duckworth and now Carol Marin—must be a Democratic thing, intended to marginalize Senator Peter Roskam, which BTW is what some people are known to call him]
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Paul Green:…look at the fact that the two hotly contested races for Congress in Illinois are the 6th and the 8th

Bruce Dold: we had all three of those candidates [must be a reference to 6th , since there are technically 6 candidates in 8th CD] in, too and they were all very good candidates.

Paul Green: Were they cordial or did they go after each other?

Bruce Dold: No, they were very cordial, extremely cordial. [Odd thing is that at the WBEZ Chicago Public Radio debate of those three, Cegelis almost bit the heads off of Duckworth and Scott. And, at Craig Dellimore’s WBBM Radio’s At Issue, they didn’t seem so cordial, either. Must be the calming effect of the Tribune editorial board].
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So, I guess the 8th CD Republican Primary doesn’t warrant a discussion or God Forbid, a mention by the panel or the host of the names of the three major Republican candidates, even though Dold’s editorial page endorsed Republican David McSweeney today, over the two other major candidates, Kathy Salvi and Rep. Churchill.
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So, there you are sports fans, Carol Marin and her fair and balanced panel of slightly left of center panelists have anointed Judy the Winner, and no need to mention Republican gubernatorial candidates Oberweis, Gidwitz or Brady. We don’t want you to worry your pretty little heads with names of Republicans. But, kudos to Paul Green for sneaking by the WTTW censors that conservative Republicans could matter if they pout in November and don’t support Judy Christ, I mean Baar Topinka.

And, as to Congressional races, the 6th and 8th are perhaps of interest, but WTTW won’t discuss the 8th CD contested primary because those candidates are Republicans and when is the last time anybody on WTTW thought Republicans were of interest? 1956?

And, of course, no mention on Chicago Tonight of the challengers to Democrat freshman Cong. Dan Lipinski, who as Senator Rauschenberger is fond of saying, was swapped into his seat by his Dad, Cong. Bill Lipinski, who was Mr. Transporation and thus a favorite of the pro- Big Time Transportation spending Chicago Tribune. And, no mention that the Tribune just endorsed Swappee Dan this morning with no mention of Congressman Dan Lipinski’s peculiar habit of being registered to vote in Illinois for 15 years, or so, when he had held a full time job out of state much of that time and lived outside of Illinois for all of those years.

Further, Swappee Dan either didn’t vote in 2002 or he can’t remember if he voted, depending on who asks the question and when they do so. Oddly, one of the journalists asking the questions of Swappee Dan Lipinski a few weeks ago was Carol Marin. But, tonight she forgot all about it. After all, why should she confront, or horrors, challenge her guest, Bruce Dold, with that mess.

But, Carol did mention Hyde, as the outgoing Congressman in the 6th CD, so she gets one point for that. And, “Pete,” Roskam will be glad to hear he got a half mention from Carol? Right, Pete?

Of course, it would be in poor taste to mention the heavy handed way in which DCCC Chairman Emanuel and Senators Obama and Durbin have intervened and flexed their political muscles in the 6th CD. And, of course, we wouldn’t want to highlight any substantive differences of the candidates in the Democratic Primary, e.g., parental notice and the War, because our viewers, who are barely interested in politics, would have no interest in public policy.

And, finally, they all give Senator Obama a pass for not picking between Machine Stroger and reformer Claypool, even though Obama is supposed to be Mr. Clean and Mr. Reformer.

Now, why would Sen. Obama stay neutral between Stroger and Claypool, and yet go to the extreme of doing ads for Tammy Duckworth in the 6th CD and Alexi Giannoulias in the Contested Democratic Primary for Treasurer. Oops, there I go again. This could explain why I am not on WTTW. I have absolutely no social graces and tact when it comes to asking such questions.

Well, sports fans, that should be enough politics and public policy for Chicago Tonight for at least another six months. Tomorrow night, more sports. A look at the fascinating sports of curling, cuddling and women's mud wrestling. And, now, back to you, Phil.
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Chicago Tonight airs every weekday evening from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm on WTTW, one of the two Chicago Public TV stations in the Chicago Metro area, and it repeats at Midnight [usually] and at 1:30 am and 4:30 am.
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Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
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Trumping "The Apprentice,": Joe Birkett on TV and Streaming

Jeff Berkowitz: But, she [Judy Baar Topinka] would not; she would not sign a pro-life bill that passed.

Joe Birkett, Topinka's Lt. Gov. Running Mate and DuPage County State’s Attorney: Sure, she would.
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"Public Affairs," with Joe Birkett [R], Topinka's Lt. Gov. Running Mate and DuPage County State's Attorney, is airing throughout the City of Chicago tonight at 8:30 pm on CANTV, Cable Ch. 21.

The show is also available as a video podcast at the Public Affairs Cinema Complex with about a dozen other shows [See here], including this week's suburban edition of "Public Affairs," with 6th Cong. Dist. Dem. Primary Candidate Lindy Scott.

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This week's suburban edition of "Public Affairs," features 6th Cong. Dist. Dem. Primary Candidate Professor Lindy Scott. Scott, an Evangelical, teaches at Wheaton College, and applies his moral philosophy to deciding public policy issues. Prof. Scott discusses the issues in the 6th CD Democratic Primary and his two opponents, including a discussion of opponent Cegelis-- who canceled her scheduled appearance on the show-- and the level and quality of her campaign organization, and her performance in 2004; and a discussion of opponent Major Duckworth, who has declined to appear on our show-- and whether she has been voting in national elections and whether she has taken consistent positions on CAFTA and the War.
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Republican Lt. Gov. Candidate Joe Birkett debates and discusses with Show Host and Executive Legal Recruiter Jeff Berkowitz more than a dozen state economic and social issues, including abortion, education, campaign contributions from state contractors, Bill Cellini, taxes, spending, capital punishment, who to blame for Alan Keyes, reform and much, much more.
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A partial transcript of tonight's show is included, below:
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Jeff Berkowitz: Social issues. You’ve been known as a social conservative. Some say that that’s why you’re there, to bring the social conservatives over to Judy [Baar Topinka], but they say, “How can it be?” Look, she’s marching in the “gay rights” parade; would you march in the gay rights parade?

DuPage County State’s Attorney Joe Birkett: No, but the fact is-

Jeff Berkowitz: She’s pro-choice, essentially. You’re pro-life. How do you square these things?

State’s Attorney Joe Birkett: Judy supports my effort to the Illinois Supreme Court to-

Jeff Berkowitz: The parental notice issue.

Joe Birkett: To overturn, yeah.

Berkowitz: But, she [Judy Baar Topinka] would not; she would not sign a pro-life bill that passed.

State’s Attorney Joe Birkett: Sure, she would.

Jeff Berkowitz: If there were a ban on abortion-- if the Supreme Court changed it [overturned Roe v. Wade] so that the issue was returned to the states and the Illinois legislature changed and they were able to have a law banning abortion, excepting the life of the mother, or excepting the life and in cases of rape and incest, as you believe, she wouldn’t sign that bill. You know that. And, you agree with me. She wouldn’t sign that bill. You’re here to speak for her, so would she sign that bill?

State’s Attorney Joe Birkett: Let me just tell you this. We hope we get to that point, where we have that debate.

Jeff Berkowitz: But, if you do-

DuPage County State’s Attorney Joe Birkett: But, that is something that’s not going to happen in the next couple of years. If we got to that circumstance, I would use everything in my power to lobby Judy to sign the bill.

Jeff Berkowitz: Should we lift the moratorium on capital punishment? [tonight’s show ends, but the conversation continued], would you recommend that.

State’s Attorney Joe Birkett: Not only would I recommend it, I said it years ago. And, I was right. You know I was right. Everybody out there knows I was right. That was a political tool. Everybody agreed. I agreed. I wrote a lot of the reform- [conversation ends].
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Joe Birkett[R], Topinka's Lt. Gov. Running Mate and DuPage County State's Attorney, recorded on February 12, 2006 and as is airing on the City of Chicago edition of Public Affairs tonight, Feb. 27 at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21.
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Transcript draft prepared by Amy Allen, who also does research for “Public Affairs,” and has her own political blog [See here].
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Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
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Oberweis, 43%; Topinka, 32%; Gidwitz 25%. Maybe.

Jim Oberweis, entrepreneur and candidate for Governor in the Republican Primary, is our featured guest in this Sunday’s taping of Public Affairs at 1:00 pm. If you have suggested questions or topics that you would like to see covered with Oberweis this Sunday, please email your thoughts to this blog [See, below]. There will be no attribution, unless you request it.

The Chicago Tribune, in its most recent poll, placed Oberweis in second place to State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, with a lot of ground to make up, as Oberweis was trailing Topinka 38% to 17%. Ron Gidwitz moved past Senator Brady in that poll, garnering 11% to Brady’s 8 %. [BTW, Andy Martin, who was inexplicably invited by Chicago Public Radio to participate in its Republican Gubernatorial Primary debate this past Monday, is not a credible candidate and is nowhere to be found in the polls].

The Tribune numbers are puzzling, indeed, in the sense that although there are various differences between the candidates, and there is more to life than the liberal-moderate/conservative divide, the aggregation of the vote total for the liberal-moderates-- Topinka and Gidwitz—49 %, is almost twice that of the conservatives—Oberweis and Brady—25 %.

This, of course, is far different from the conventional wisdom that the Illinois GOP is much more conservative than moderate or liberal [especially in the primary], leading us to ask is the conventional wisdom wrong, or is the Tribune poll wrong. The answer is probably a little of one and a lot of the other.

For one, it is not easy to poll likely Republican Primary voters, meaning that the Tribune poll may have included too many Republicans who are neither activist nor likely to vote. On the other hand, the Tribune poll indicated that those who viewed themselves as conservatives were splitting their vote in large part between Jim Oberweis and Judy Baar Topinka. Jim Oberweis thinks that this simply reflects an electorate yet to be informed, through ads, who is who. That’s the optimistic view for Jim.

The pessimistic view is how can Oberweis expect to educate conservatives during the next month that he is closer than Judy Baar Topinka to their views when he has done so little toward that end in two runs for the U. S. Senate nomination and during his run for Governor over the last year, assuming the above poll numbers are accurate. On the other hand, Topinka has only been in the race, in a sense, for the last eight weeks, so maybe Oberweis has “just begun to fight,” to recycle an old phrase. And, maybe the voters are just beginning to learn who the true Judy Baar Topinka is. Maybe. Moreover, under this theory, the more the voters really know Judy, the worse it is for her.

Further, maybe you have to take this argument one last step. It was said first by former Senator Pat O’Malley, and now by many others that the true schism in the Illinois GOP is not between Pro-Lifers and Pro-Choicers, but between Reformers and Non-reformers. If so, then Gidwitz and Oberweis, as reformers, are fellow travelers. On the other hand, Topinka’s mentor and guru behind her campaign, former two term Governor Jim Edgar, doesn’t buy that distinction, so neither can Judy. Thus, Topinka-Birkett become saddled with the Non-reformer image, not a good label to wear in a year of Reform.

Therefore, if Gidwitz spends another ten million dollars on ads promoting himself and reform, and bashing Judy as the non-reformer, he can move himself up to say, 22%, with most of that additional vote coming from the moderate base of the GOP, held in large part by Topinka, not the conservatives who are with Oberweis and Brady—those folks might like Gidwitz’s new reform mantra, but they find Gidwitz [won’t make a pledge not to raise taxes, wants to expand education spending] hard to swallow, even with Rauschenberger’s soft conservatism added on, as Gidwitz’s Lt. Gov. running mate.

Brady, if he is really a sincere conservative, will see the writing on the wall, will not want to be known as the spoiler, and will drop out soon—transferring his followers to Oberweis. Anything less will fuel the rumors that Brady is working for the Edgar Establishment, and is staying in to help Judy by draining downstate conservative votes from Oberweis.

Joe Birkett, under the above scenario, has little impact in terms of bringing conservatives to Topinka. Too much of a culture clash on that ticket, with conservatives having to swallow Judy both as a liberal moderate, and as a non-reformer.

So, let’s look at the numbers, after Brady drops out, and after a distribution of the 26%, or so, undecided in the Tribune poll, which breaks heavily pro-reform:

Oberweis, 43%; Topinka, 32%; Gidwitz 25%

Please take note that although votes for a conservative candidate are still the minority, under the above scenario, 43% to 57%, reform candidates [Oberweis and Gidwitz] outperform the non-reform candidate [Topinka], 2 to 1. In short, a modified Reagan Revolution comes to Illinois, albeit somewhat late. And, of course, the conservatives and reformers would happily quote 7th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Frank Easterbrook, “Wisdom come lately is better than wisdom not come at all.” [BTW, Judge Easterbrook and his 7th Circuit colleague, Judge Posner, are the two Economics Twins on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, both of whom came to the Court from the faculty of and still teach at the University of Chicago Law School].

It could happen. Maybe.
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Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
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George Ryan and Carol Marin’s World

State Legislator [who didn't vote George's way]: Hello

George Ryan: Listen, you bastard. Send me back the $10,000 I gave you.
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Carol Marin was strutting her stuff this evening at the position she has held now for about two months as the Queen Bee on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight, at least for the first fifteen minutes or so of the program on Mondays and Wednesdays. This is kind of what passes for public policy and politics on Chicago Tonight these days.

Because Carol’s bent and expertise are really not politics [even though the Chicago Sun-Times holds her out as the replacement for the late, political columnist Steve Neal], Marin tends to do the court scene, the crime scene and the sports scene on Chicago Tonight. Her debut interview on Chicago Tonight was with Chicago Police superintendent Phil Cline, another was with a panel about the recently apprehended Joey the Clown Lombardo, two nights ago it was a discussion of the antics of Olympic Speedskater Shani Davis and tonight— a panel discussion of the news that George Ryan won’t testify in his own defense and what does it mean for the likely jury verdict in the George Ryan trial.

It was kind of a pedestrian discussion, except for Phil Rogers’ comments, as he is one of the best news people in the City.

But, there was this:
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Phil Rogers:…I can tell you, he wanted to take the stand.

Carol Marin: And that’s what we always heard, that he wanted…he’s a great politician, he [George Ryan] knows how to work a crowd, he was ready to convince the jury.
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George Ryan sweet talk the Jury? I don’t think so. Maybe Carol is older than I thought and older than she looks. Maybe she remembers a younger, better politician George Ryan than I ever saw. Because the George Ryan I remember running for Governor, or even Secretary of State, was no charmer of the common man or the common woman, or any regular voter, for that matter.

After all, for the last five months, we have been hearing in large part how the Secretary of State’s office was run essentially as a racketeering influenced corrupt political organization [RICO] under George, and how that office was used to transform the power of the state into money for George and his cronies and votes for George.

So, if George was a “great politician,” as Marin puts it, it was because he was a master of backroom deals and tossing the taxpayers and others’ money around—and translating those tosses into votes [Carol, talk to Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn about how George beat Pat in 1994: it sure wasn’t from George knowing how to “work a crowd,” better than Pat].

Yes, George Ryan could work a crowd. A crowd of pols, that is. So, when he gave the State of the State or the State of the Budget, there was pork for everybody, Democrats and Republicans, and George would kiss them all, as long as they would kiss George’s backside and remember who gave them the goodies when it was payback time. And, the cameras would roll and show George at the State of the State and State of the Budget being cheered on by all the pols who played ball with George. No one was more popular with the pols than George, but that ain’t “working a crowd.” More like rotund George working the Rotunda, doing his quid pro quos.

For example, the teachers’ unions loved George, but not because he knew how to work a crowd of common people or jurors. No, George knew how to work the crowd of teachers’ union bosses, they knew how to get him votes and George re-paid them when elected by putting one of theirs outside his office and giving her free reign over matters near and dear to teachers’ unions, e.g., money for teachers. George Ryan-- Work a crowd, Carol? Not the crowd we usually have in mind when we use that phrase.

Oh yeah, George knew how to get his money’s worth. And, it wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t charming and it wasn’t the kind of politics that wins over a jury. For example, one legislator has told me that George sent him a $10,000 check for one of his campaigns. When the legislator voted no on a piece of legislation that George Ryan wanted but the legislator thought was not good public policy, he got a phone call the morning after the vote and according to the legislator, it went something like this:
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State Legislator [who didn't vote George's way]: Hello

George Ryan: Listen, you bastard. Send me back the $10,000 I gave you.
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And, no, Carol, George Ryan wasn’t kidding. Of course, he wanted his money back, a deal is a deal. Work a crowd? Sweet talk the Jury? Not really, Carol. George was better at “working you over.”

But, it isn’t just Sun-Times columnist and Chicago Tonight hostess with the mostess Carol Marin who thinks of George Ryan as a successful, charming, loveable pol. One of Marin’s Sun-Times sister colleagues wrote recently:

Some say Ryan could win over jurors just as he did voters in four statewide elections, with his grandfatherly smile and a booming, baritone voice that can come across as firm and insistent, leading some to believe he truly believes what he's saying.

They can say that, but I don’t think there are many who think George got his votes by persuading voters that it was Grandpa George who would be running the show.

One, in most races, the election is between two pols, you only have to “appear,” a little better than the other pol.

Two, as Marin’s Sun-Times colleague noted:

… [George] Ryan has publicly shown an explosive anger. In his final days in the governor's office, his public approval rating having plummeted, he became outright belligerent with the media and sometimes took verbal shots at other politicians.
In one news conference, he pulled aside a reporter and shouted a profanity at him because Ryan thought he wrote an unfair story.

There you go, that’s the George Ryan we know so well.

George Ryan, a great politician, Carol? I don’t think so.
But, remember, It was only six months ago that Carol was giving Grandpa George some daughterly advice, “cop a plea to spare the Republican Party and your family some pain.” And, that was way before Carol Marin became Queen Bee at WTTW.

I wrote [See here]:

Carol, Carol: George Ryan can’t cop a plea. Try him, if you must. Convict him, if you must. Put him in jail for the rest of his life, if you must. Indeed, crucify him, if you must. But, he has his legacy. Senator Dick Durbin, his fellow Democrats and the mainstream media have seen to that. Yes, the media may turn on him over the next few weeks. But will Professor Larry Marshall, from Palo Alto, turn on George? Will Senator Durbin, while trying to defeat Supreme Court nominee Roberts [the man who Durbin thinks will undo Blackmun’s Roe] come back from Washington, DC to turn on George? I don’t think so. A deal is a deal.

Indeed, will you Carol? Will you turn on George?

And guess what. George didn’t cop a plea-- as I said he wouldn’t. And, George won’t testify. As Dirty Harry said, “A good man know his limitations.”
And, Carol Marin didn’t turn on George Ryan. Not last year. Not this year. Not ever. A deal is a deal. It’s Chicago. It’s Illinois.

Carol Marin, take a good look at George Ryan. As I told you six months ago, George is really a Democrat. But, not a very nice one. The Dems may not want him in their party, but the Republicans tell me they have no choice. George Ryan can never go back to the Republican Party. They won’t have him. It is not just the corruption. Although, that’s pretty bad. It is also the evolution, as Democrats put it with affection, to describe George Ryan flipping, after his 1998 election to Goverrnor, on virtually every public policy position, to a Democratic Position. So, what’s left for George, so to speak? Well, only the Democratic Party.

It’s so nice to bring people together. Looks like I can work a crowd, too.
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Chicago Tonight airs each weekday evening from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm in the Chicago Metro area on Ch. 11. The program is re-run at 12:00 am, 1:30 am and 4:30 am.
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Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
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Better than the Winter Olympics, Birkett on TV / Web

"Public Affairs," is featuring Joe Birkett,Republican Primary Lt. Gov. Candidate and DuPage County State's Attorney, this week in 35 Chicago Metro suburbs on Comcast Cable. State's Attorney Birkett is running for Lt. Gov. on a ticket with Gubernatorial candidate and State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka

In 25 North Shore, North and Northwest suburbs, the show is on tonight in its regular Tuesday night time slot: 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Ch. 19 or 35, as indicated, below.

In 10 North Shore suburbs, the show airs in its regular airing slot at 8:30 pm on M, W, and F on Comcast Cable Ch. 19, as indicated, below.

The show with Birkett is also available as a video podcast currently at the Public Affairs Cinema Complex, along with a dozen other shows, which are currently airing there, e.g., Lindy Scott, 6th Cong. District Dem. Primary Candidate; Forrest Claypool, Cook County Board Member and candidate for County Board PresidentCong. Bean [D-Barrington], Cong. Schakowsky [D- Evanston] , 8th CD Republican candidates McSweeney and Churchill, Team Gidwitz-Rauschenberger, Dem. Gov. candidate Edwin Eisendrath, 6th CD Dem. candidates Cegelis and Scott; also airing as an audio podcast are shows with U. S. Senator Barack Obama and 7th CD Dem. Candidate Jim Ascot [See here].

The Birkett show will also air throughout the City of Chicago this coming Monday night, February 27 at 8:30 pm on CANTV, Cable Ch. 21.
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Lt. Gov. Candidate Joe Birkett [R-Wheaton] debates and discusses with Show Host and Executive Legal Recruiter Jeff Berkowitz more than fifteen state legislative fiscal, economic and social issues and much, much more.
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The episode of Public Affairs featuring State's Attorney and Lt. Gov. Republican Primary Candidate Joe Birkett airs tonight at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 19 in Buffalo Grove, Elk Grove Village, Hoffman Estates, parts of Inverness, Lincolnwood, Morton Grove, Niles, Northfield, Palatine, Rolling Meadows and Wilmette

And at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 35 in Arlington Heights, Bartlett, Glenview, Golf, Des Plaines, Hanover Park, Mt. Prospect, Northbrook, Park Ridge, Prospect Heights, Schaumburg, Skokie, Streamwood and Wheeling.

And Monday, Wednesday and Friday night at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 19 in Bannockburn, Deerfield, Ft. Sheridan, Glencoe, Highland Park, Highwood, Kenilworth, Lincolnshire, Riverwoods and Winnetka.
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Our show with Republican Lt. Gov. Candidate Joe Birkett was recorded on Feb. 12, 2006 and is airing on the Suburban edition of Public Affairs this week [week of Feb. 20] and on the City of Chicago edition of Public Affairs on Monday night, Feb. 27 at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21. See, above, for a detailed, regular suburban airing schedule for Public Affairs
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Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
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Better than the Winter Olympics: Rauschenberger on TV/Web

Watch here to see Republican Lt. Gov. candidates Birkett and Rauschenberger interviewed separately by Berkowitz. Our show with Sen. Rauschenberger will also air tonight through-out the City of Chicago at 8:30 pm on CANTV, Cable Ch. 21 [The City edition of Public Affairs]. See here and here for partial transcripts of the show with Rauschenberger.
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And another partial transcript of the show with Lt.Gov. Republican Primary Candidate Steve Rauschenberger is included, below:

Sen. Rauschenberger: Elect me and hold me accountable. I mean you have seen the work I have done.

Jeff Berkowitz: Elect you as Lt. Gov. and the quality of education will improve?

Sen. Rauschenberger: I am going to try. I am going to try or they are going to break me.

Jeff Berkowitz: Basically, what you are going to do is get everybody in the room and bang heads.

Sen. Rauschenberger: Right, and we’re going to make them justify or consolidate.

Jeff Berkowitz: But, you do support vouchers; but you don’t think you could get them through.

Sen. Rauschenberger: Absolutely. Vouchers ought to be one of the elements of choices for parents. I mean, we can’t pass it in this General Assembly; We’re not going to pass it with Democrats from Chicago running the place. But, today, we have a choice system. But, you have to be rich enough to buy a house in the school district you want to. The poor kids in Chicago and the other parts of the state have no choice. But, I support the Catholic system. I support the private education system. I think home schooling is an important part of the educational system.
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Sen. Rauschenberger: …you ask tougher questions that most of the [other] media guys do—

Jeff Berkowitz: Tough questions? Me? These have been all softballs; now we are going to ask some really hard ones: But, seriously, this Burnham Management thing with Gidwitz? You know what is [going on] in Joliet, he [Gidwitz] is being call a slumlord, down there. Slum landlord. Peter Fitzgerald is upset with [Gidwitz]. Fitzgerald supported you [for Governor]. Has he now withdrawn his support? Former U. S. Senator Peter Fitzgerald? Because, come on, he can’t abide what Ron Gidwitz has done there.

Sen. Rauschenberger: Peter is still supporting me. And, we sent Peter the information about the problem down in Joliet. We had a meeting to [the show ends].
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Topinka at Bat, KJ on Deck: Ethical Pay to Play?

Jeff Berkowitz: Judy, don’t you have a role, as [State] Treasurer, in the [state] pension boards? And, didn’t Bob Kjellander place some folks close to the pension boards and, it is purported, he got three to four million dollars for doing that. So, don’t you have a problem with Bob Kjellander-- with what he did with the pension boards?

Judy Baar Topinka: Right now, Bob Kjellander [RNC Illinois Committeeman and buddy of Karl Rove] has done nothing that is illegal, according to the law. That is why you have to... ************************************************
Judy Baar Topinka: I think the boys had enough time to beat up on me behind my back [Topinka had not joined, initially, the press conference that immediately followed today’s WBEZ 91.5 FM Radio, Chicago Public Radio debate among the Republican Gubernatorial candidates; the other four candidates [Jim Oberweis,Sen. Brady, Ron Gidwitz and Andy Martin] had a collective press conference for about 10 minutes and then broke while asking for, demanding and waiting for Topinka to join them, which she did about twenty minutes after the debate concluded], so I figured I would come out here and we agreed right from the beginning that I would be answering questions with the media, but I think we’ve already had the debate. And, that is what is involved, so if you have any questions, I would be happy to answer any.

NBC-5 News’ Dick Kay: One thing that we are curious about is obviously you released your ethics reform proposals yesterday. All of them [the other candidates] disagree with you. Ron Gidwitz has called you a hypocrite, saying you have been taking money from banking interests for 12 years, and suddenly you are Judy come lately and you want to stop doing what you have been doing for 12 years.

Topinka: Hardly. For 12 years, we have bid all of our projects. Everything is publicly bid, so that we get the lowest possible price and the best possible value which I think even if we take this up to the Governor’s office—Now you are getting some value for your dollar. You don’t have no bid contracts. You are not hiding anything. Everything has been put forward… They have got to say something. When Ron [Gidwitz] has paid $6000 to a bunch of fancy handlers, and he can’t move his numbers, he has got to come at me. The same with Jim [Oberweis]. They are not moving. They’ve got to go after me. I am the front runner. I expect to get all sorts of abuse.

Dick Kay: But, taking money from banking interests, whether they are bid or not, the previous Treasurer [Democrat and now Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn] didn’t.

Topinka: We’ve taken money from banking interests. Some have gotten business with us, some have not. Some have given me money and lost business. So, it’s really been a very open process. As long as we’ve publicly bid everything, I think we cover all the bases.

Jeff Berkowitz: Judy, if you have change orders, if you have what’s called lowest responsible bidders—as you know, simply having competitive bidding doesn’t take the conflict out of the process. What’s your response to that?

Topinka: And, in case there is just any, any question, we are just not going to take any money from them. But, again, it has been a very open process and again, I think it is what you in the press are looking for to see how we do business, who[m] we do business with and when you look at my ethics reform package…I think they ought to…endorse it because it does the job.

Dick Kay: Judy, are banks bidding on contracts. Are banks submitting proposals? Or, are [they] simply talking about interest rates and things like that. I didn’t know that in professional services that they had to bid contracts.

Topinka: …They bid on our business outright. You are talking about artistic and professional services which is a completely different thing.

Dick Kay: Banks are not professional services, financial counsel?

Topinka: They just bid outright as businesses. There you have a public bidding process. Where you get into artistic services, you are talking about someone who is doing an artwork for the state. They might be unique and that’s why there is always a little loosening in that area. But, we are trying to tighten that up, as well.
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CBS-2 News' Mike Flannery: Judy, how would you handle the—the generically, not just for Party persons, but these so called finders’ fees. You know, the teachers retirement fund.

Topinka: There should be no finders fees. There is no need for anyone to have a lobbyist to walk them through the door. Bob Kjellander has come into our office once, lobbying for business. And it was basically business that had been there before I got there. And, they lost the business because they did not give an appropriate bid. Again, the bidding process makes it happen. So, he is zero for zero in our office.

Jeff Berkowitz: Judy, don’t you have a role, as [State] Treasurer, in the [state] pension boards? And, didn’t Bob Kjellander place some folks close to the pension boards and, it is purported, he got three to four million dollars for doing that. So, don’t you have a problem with Bob Kjellander-- with what he did with the pension boards?

Topinka: Right now, Bob Kjellander has done nothing that is illegal, according to the law. That is why you have to change the law to get at this and make sure not only Bob Kjellander is covered but all others now and in the future.

Jeff Berkowitz: But, has he [Bob Kjellander, Illinois’ National Republican Committeeman] done something unethical, because there is a difference sometimes between ethics and the law.

Topinka: I think there is the perception that is a problem. It becomes a distraction. And, as a result I think that our ethics package takes care of that, but it is and foremost a distraction.

Jeff Berkowitz: Did he do something unethical? Kjellander?

Topinka: Look, he is in compliance with the law. He has not been charged with anything?

Dick Kay: Aren’t his records on this deal, though, a part of a federal investigation? Aren’t these—investigation into the teachers’ pension fund and the way that was handled. Isn’t that a part of the federal investigation?

Topinka: I don’t know. If they’ve called him in, they’ve called him in. I don’t talk to Mr. Kjellander on a regular basis. I don’t know what he is doing. He is not involved in my campaign. He has not been involved in my campaign. He gives me no advice. Nor does he make recommendations. I think we take care of it in our ethics thing. I am going to take one more question and then I have to go.

Berkowitz: Do you have trouble with the—

Topinka: No, I am going to take one more question.

Kay: Some of your critics have said, $25,000, come on, why don’t you just ban campaign contributions from state contractors, period?

Topinka: I would like to but unfortunately I am not a millionaire. And, to stay competitive and to allow normal, everyday, middle class people to be able to participate in the political process, to be able to do what I am doing-running for political office, when I am running against gentlemen who have a lot more money than I will ever have in my whole life. ..it would take a far greater way of dealing with this…I have to be able to compete.

Kay: And, that means taking money from state contractors?

Topinka: As long as we are talking $25,000 or more [I won’t take it]. I think you have to have a floor.

Kay: Have you taken it currently [from contractors] with more than $25,000 in state business.

Topinka: I would have to look. I would have to look. Because I don’t keep track of that. All right, I think I have answered all the questions I am going to answer; we have had the debate.

Jeff Berkowitz: Are you troubled by the $809,000 fee that Bob Kjellander received [from Bear Stearns]?

Judy Baar Topinka: Topinka gets up and leaves the press conference. Eric Robinson [Communications Director for Topinka] says: Thank you. Thank you.

Jim Oberweis, who had been sitting throughout the debate and press conference to Judy Baar Topinka’s literal right : I think that is a no [from Judy].
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Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
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Rauschenberger- Birkett, a virtual debate; Judy/Andy

Revised significantly at 6:00 pm on Saturday

Tough Week? Worried? Heavy Saturday night date? Well, then, take the pick-up. And if that doesn’t work, then--

Take a load off Fanny
Take a load for Free
Take a load off Fanny
And (and) (and) you can put the Load right on me. [From the Band's Weight and the Easy Rider soundtrack of a few whiles ago]

Still feeling down? Then I have just the thing for you. A virtual debate among the two major Lt. Gov. Candidates: DuPage County State’s Attorney Joe Birkett, leading in the most recent Chicago Tribune Poll, with 27%; and State Senator Steve Rauschenberger, with 20%.

Of course, conservatives are drooling, thinking either of those two guys or Oberweis or Brady could have been the Conservative nominee, going one on two in what they think would have been an easy race against moderates Judy Baar Topinka and/or Ron Gidwitz. Instead, Birkett and Rauschenberger settled for second fiddle, draining votes from either of the remaining conservatives' choice, and the remaining two conservatives are likely to cut each other up, allowing Judy and maybe even Ron to win. Further, although Oberweis has high name recognition, he apparently is not known by many Illinois Conservative Republicans to be conservative, and thus is losing much of that vote to the likes of Judy Baar Topinka. It is no wonder conservatives are grumpy all day and have trouble getting through the night, these days.

Watch here to see Republican Lt. Gov. candidates Birkett and Rauschenberger interviewed separately by Berkowitz. Rauschenberger will also air this coming Monday night through-out the City of Chicago at 8:30 pm on CANTV, Cable Ch. 21 [The City edition of Public Affairs]. See here and here for partial transcripts of the show with Rauschenberger.

Joe Birkett, who won the Golden Gloves and who tells us he is a counterpuncher, will also air this coming week on the suburban edition of “Public Affairs." The Suburban Public Affairs airing schedule is as follows:

The suburban edition of "Public Affairs," is regularly broadcast every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 19 in Bannockburn, Deerfield, Ft. Sheridan, Glencoe, Highland Park, Highwood, Kenilworth, Lincolnshire, Riverwoods and Winnetka.

The suburban edition also is broadcast every Tuesday night at 8:30 p.m. on Comcast Cable Channel 19 in Buffalo Grove, Elk Grove Village, Hoffman Estates, Lincolnwood, Morton Grove, Niles, Northfield, (parts of) Inverness, Palatine, Rolling Meadows and Wilmette and every Tuesday night at 8:30 p.m. on Comcast Cable Channel 35 in Arlington Heights, Bartlett, Glenview, Golf, Des Plaines, Hanover Park, Mt. Prospect, Northbrook, Park Ridge, Prospect Heights, Schaumburg, Skokie, Streamwood and Wheeling.
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Speaking of counterpunchers, the guy who is looking punchy this week, and he didn’t even get hit, is State GOP Chairman Andy McKenna, Jr. Ron Gidwitz's mildly negative ads drew fire from Team Topinka-Birkett. Team Topinka-Birkett whined all over the city, including to Chairman and Chief Flak Catcher McKenna and Chairman Mckenna took the bait and whined to anybody who would listen. The State GOP and/or friends apparently leaked a Letter, around town to such notable Democratic/moderate Republican leaning media as Rich Miller of Capitolfax, from Andy to Ron asking him essentially to pull his ad and to Cease and Desist the negative stuff.

Here is what Andy thought: he could respond to Gov Candidate Judy Baar Topinka crying on his shoulder by deciding a political ad is deceptive or inaccurate and he could ask Guv Candidate Ron Gidwitz to withdraw it or edit it, and Ron would do so?

Now, why would Ron do that? Because he didn’t want Andy to frown at him? Because the "moral authority," of Illinois’ RNC member Bob Kjellander, the Combine's patron saint, would be brought to bear on Ron Gidwitz? Because the Republican State Central Committee would frown at Ron? Is there any answer to this question that makes any sense? I mean, really what in the world could Chairman Andy do to or for Ron? The answer that comes to mind is nothing, zero, nada, zip.

Wouldn’t it be easier to calculate the number of angels who can dance on the head of a pin than to come up with an explanation that could make Andy’s behavior seem sensible? What power does Andy have? None, zero, nada, zip. Yes, there are a number of rich friends of Andy who continue to donate to the State GOP and show up as they did earlier this week for the State GOP Loop gala honoring the outgoing Cong. Hyde and helping to fill the State GOP coffers. But, Ron has his own rich friends and a more extensive civic, business circle of donors than Andy's, who Ron used to corral for the State GOP when he was helping Chairman Judy and who he now corrals for Team Gidwitz-Rauschenberger, or Team Gidberger, for short.

Now, what is Andy going to do about the next negative ad from Ron or Jim Oberweis. Why, he will huff and he will puff, and he will blow that mean Mr. Gidwitz down. You have to wonder. Is this really the way Andy’s dad’s company got to the top? Huffing and puffing all that paper?

Team Gidwitz-Rauschenberger shrugged. A really bad week for Andy McKenna? I’d say so. Here is a hint, Andy. If you don't have the power, don't get suckered into a fool's errand.

And, Chicago Week in Review, acting as Public TV's collective mouthpiece for Illinois and especially Chicago Democrats-- and moderate Republicans, portrayed all the whining by Andy as a sensible act to save Judy, which they view as the same as saving the Republican Party. After all, as that crew sees it, only Judy Baar Topinka can and should win the Primary, so why allow anybody to challenge the "moderate," wing of the Republican party. In usual fashion, Jim Oberweis and Sen. Brady weren't even mentioned by the Chicago Week in Review panel-- and the only reason that Gidwitz was mentioned was to blame him for needlessly and inappropriately harming WTTW's beloved moderate and liberal Republicans.

A really bad week for fairness and balance on WTTW? I'd say so. Indeed, compounding the above unbalanced reporting, the moderator of Chicago Week of Review, Joel Weisman, and Lilia Chacon, Fox Chicago News, were about to blame, last night, the recent Cook County jailbreak on a Cook County Sheriff's employee trying to help that "Republican candidate for Cook County Sheriff, Richard Remus," before ABC-7 News' ace political reporter, Andy Shaw saved them from that gross mistake by pointing out Remus is a Democrat, and of course nobody from the CWIR panel could or would come up with the name of the actual, slated Republican Candidate for Cook County Sheriff, Peter Garza.

I mean, really, how could we expect anybody at WTTW to know who Peter Garza is? Quick, call Carol Marin, maybe she knows.

You see, if you are a political spectator, this wasn’t such a bad week. Lots of humor from the actions of the State GOP, and then more humor in the reporting on same by WTTW, which continues to think it can cover the whole political spectrum by starting in the center and moving to the left.

You have to be smiling already, And, you haven’t even watched the Rauschenberger and Birkett shows, yet.
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Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
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Rauschenberger on TV/Web: Blagojevich likened to George Ryan

Sen. Steve Rauschenberger:...I never imagined five years ago that you would see a Governor, like Rod Blagojevich, put a For Sale sign in front of the Governor’s mansion in Springfield and essentially do open business.
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"Public Affairs," is featuring Republican Primary Lt. Gov. Candidate and State Senator Steve Rauschenberger this week in 35 Chicago Metro suburbs on Comcast Cable. Senator Rauschenberger is running for Lt. Gov. on a ticket with Gubernatorial candidate Ron Gidwitz. See here for more details about the "Public Affairs," suburban and City of Chicago airing schedule.

The show will also be available as a video podcast within the next few days at the Public Affairs Cinema Complex, along with a dozen other shows, which are currently airing there, e.g., Cong. Bean, Cong. Schakowsky, 8th CD Republican candidates McSweeney and Churchill, Team Gidwitz-Rauschenberger, Dem. Gov. candidate Edwin Eisendrath, 6th CD Dem. candidates Cegelis and Scott; also airing as an audio podcast are shows with U. S. Senator Barack Obama; Forrest Claypool,Candidate for Cook County Board President,7th CD Dem. Candidate Jim Ascot and Team Topinka-Birkett[See here].
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A partial transcript of the show is included, below.
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Jeff Berkowitz: Is he [Gidwitz] just proposing transparency [in terms of campaign finance reform]?

Sen. Steve Rauschenberger: Transparency, faster reporting, a pledge not to raise money [for the first two years of a Gidwidz-Rauschenberger administration]. I mean, we are trying to live up to that. That’s not easy but I think it is critical because we have to find a way to restore trust.

Jeff Berkowitz: In terms of your views, would that be sufficient? If all the campaign contributions that were accepted were posted on the candidate’s or officeholder’s website within 24 hours [As Gidwitz is now doing]. So, everybody could see from where the money was coming: Who gave it and how much. Would that be sufficient? No limits on contributions. Just transparency.

Sen. Steve Rauschenberger: I don’t know. Let me tell you why. I have been on this show a lot and I have been in public office for 14 years. Five years ago, I never imagined that what was going on in the [George] Ryan administration was going on. I never imagined five years ago that you would see a Governor, like Rod Blagojevich, put a For Sale sign in front of the Governor’s mansion in Springfield and essentially do open business.

Jeff Berkowitz: So, you may favor some limits [on campaign contributions]—is that what you are saying, because of what is going on.

Sen. Steve Rauschenberger: Yes, I don’t know. Whatever we have to do, we’ve got to break this cycle. I don’t think statutes are the best way to do it. I mean, as soon as you pass a law, the bad guys work on how to get around it. But, we’ve got to do something. I mean, we can’t pass on to our kids a system as corrupt as we have.
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Republican Lt. Gov. Candidate Steve Rauschenberger, recorded on Feb. 5, 2006 and as is airing on the Suburban edition of Public Affairs this week [week of Feb. 13] and on the City of Chicago edition of Public Affairs on Monday night, Feb. 20 at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21.
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Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
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Kathy Salvi: Time for ads, but not for true debates?

Kathy Salvi, one of the three major candidates in the 8th Cong. Dist. Republican Primary, has just started running a nice, soft introductory ad, telling voters who she is- a woman of faith, a person who balances family and business. [Watch here].

Salvi neglects to tell voters that her “business,” is that of being a trial lawyer, and that she opposes caps on non-economic trial damage awards, which implicitly cap trial lawyer fees. Such legislative caps in medical malpractice cases passed the Illinois Legislature last year, with the overwhelming support of business groups as their major reform effort, and the legislation was signed by Governor Blagojevich. The business and Republican support for "Caps," was also joined by a number of Democrats [including, at least implicitly, House Speaker Mike Madigan] who did not want to incur the wrath of voters who were upset by "doctors leaving the state," but the “trial lawyers," remained strong in their opposition to the legislative caps.

An additional perspective on Kathy Salvi can be obtained by watching a 30 minute interview on our show, taped in early October, 2005, [Watch here] [At the end of the show, Salvi discusses tort reform and "Caps."]

Since that appearance, we have extended numerous invitations to candidate Salvi to return to the show, including an opportunity to debate her major opponents: investment banker David McSweeney [Watch new ad here] and State Rep. Robert Churchill [See campaign site here]. However, Ms. Salvi has either been unavailable or “too busy,” to face our questioning again, or to debate her opponents on our show.

8th Cong. Dist. Republican Primary Candidate David McSweeney, on the other hand, has found the time to face tough questioning on “Public Affairs,” in five appearances on our show. 8th Cong. Dist. Republican Primary Candidate Robert Churchill found the time to face tough questioning on “Public Affairs,” in three appearances on our show. And, one of those appearances by McSweeney and Churchill included a debate and discussion between the two on our show [Watch here,McSweeney-Churchill, Dec. 21], something Salvi has skirted.

We don't endorse candidates. But, we do endorse the notion that democracy is served by having office-holders and candidates who are willing to subject themselves to tough questioning, like that we dish out on our show, frequently, and with enthusiasm and candor.
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Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
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Lt. Gov. candidate/ Sen. Rauschenberger on TV/Web

Jeff Berkowitz: What do you do? Do you bring gravitas to this? Are you Ron Gidwitz’ Dick Cheney? Is that what you are?

State Sen. Steve Rauschenberger: I don’t have a heart condition. [And, Rauschenberger doesn't shoot people-- well, maybe verbally, but no birdshot].
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"Public Affairs," is featuring Republican Primary Lt. Gov. Candidate and State Senator Steve Rauschenberger this week in 35 Chicago Metro suburbs on Comcast Cable. Senator Rauschenberger is running for Lt. Gov. on a ticket with Gubernatorial candidate Ron Gidwitz.

In 25 North Shore, North and Northwest suburbs, the show is on tonight in its regular Tuesday night time slot: 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Ch. 19 or 35, as indicated, below.

In 10 North Shore suburbs, the show airs in its regular airing slot at 8:30 pm on M, W, and F on Comcast Cable Ch. 19, as indicated, below.

The show will also be available as a video podcast within the next few days at the Public Affairs Cinema Complex, along with a dozen other shows, which are currently airing there, e.g., Cong. Bean, Cong. Schakowsky, 8th CD Republican candidates McSweeney and Churchill, Team Gidwitz-Rauschenberger, Dem. Gov. candidate Edwin Eisendrath, 6th CD Dem. candidates Cegelis and Scott; also airing as an audio podcast are shows with U. S. Senator Barack Obama and 7th CD Dem. Candidate Jim Ascot [See here].

The show will also air throughout the City of Chicago this coming Monday night, February 20 at 8:30 pm on CANTV, Cable Ch. 21.
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Lt. Gov. Republican Primary candidate and State Senator Steve Rauschenberger debates and discusses with Show Host and Executive Legal Recruiter Jeff Berkowitz more than a dozen state legislative fiscal, economic and social issues and much, much more.
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The episode of Public Affairs featuring State Senator and Lt. Gov. Republican Primary Candidate Steve Rauschenberger airs tonight at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 19 in Buffalo Grove, Elk Grove Village, Hoffman Estates, parts of Inverness, Lincolnwood, Morton Grove, Niles, Northfield, Palatine, Rolling Meadows and Wilmette

And at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 35 in Arlington Heights, Bartlett, Glenview, Golf, Des Plaines, Hanover Park, Mt. Prospect, Northbrook, Park Ridge, Prospect Heights, Schaumburg, Skokie, Streamwood and Wheeling.

And Monday, Wednesday and Friday night at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 19 in Bannockburn, Deerfield, Ft. Sheridan, Glencoe, Highland Park, Highwood, Kenilworth, Lincolnshire, Riverwoods and Winnetka.
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A partial transcript of the show is included, below.
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Jeff Berkowitz: What do you do? Do you bring gravitas to this? Are you Ron Gidwitz’ Dick Cheney? Is that what you are?

State Sen. Steve Rauschenberger: I don’t have a heart condition. [And, he doesn't shoot people-- well, maybe verbally, but no pellets].

Berkowitz: Come on, people said Cheney had the experience and he was solid and he would help Bush take care of things.. .you are going to sort of take care of things, be that guy [who] makes sure Gidwitz stays on the [straight] and narrow?

Sen. Steve Rauschenberger: Yes, but kind of, but in a different way because Ron is older than I am, rather than younger, as Bush and Cheney are. Ron really has executive experience that I would envy…can you imagine what it would be like to be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company [Helene Curtis, a kissing cousin of Max Factor?].

Berkowitz: But, you know he inherited that position…you think he would have been President of that Company if his name had not been Gidwitz?

Sen. Steve Rauschenberger: Listen, I don’t know. He took it from a nice, small company and made the Fortune 500.

Berkowitz: But, he was the boss’ son. You understand that.

Sen. Steve Rauschenberger: But, he had an opportunity. I was the son of the guy who owned Rauschenberger Furniture.

Berkowitz: Which went out of business, basically, right?

Sen. Steve Rauschenberger: Well, I closed the stores.

Berkowitz: So, you’re saying it’s possible—in your case, it didn’t work out so well. You would say there are other factors, not related to Steve Rauschenberger. Is that the point?

Sen. Steve Rauschenberger: No, that’s not the point at all. I am saying Ron Gidwitz has got executive experience. I bring a real strong grounding in state agencies and state budgets and state process and you know, I can provide the kind of support that a governor is going to need to get his legislative agenda through and to understand what he can and can’t do in his first few years.
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Republican Lt. Gov. Candidate Steve Rauschenberger, recorded on Feb. 5, 2006 and as is airing on the Suburban edition of Public Affairs this week [week of Feb. 13] and on the City of Chicago edition of Public Affairs on Monday night, Feb. 20 at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21. See, above, for a detailed, regular suburban airing schedule for Public Affairs
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Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
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Better than the Winter Olympics: Cong. Bean on TV/Video-Streaming

Jeff Berkowitz: Same thing with the marginal rates? Would you support making those [tax cuts] permanent, as well?

Congresswoman Bean: We’d have to see what we are talking about.
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"Public Affairs," with with first term Congresswoman Melissa Bean [D-Barrington, 8th Cong. Dist] , is airing throughout the City of Chicago tonight at 8:30 pm on CANTV, Cable Ch. 21.

The show is also available as a video podcast at the Public Affairs Cinema Complex with about a dozen other shows [See here].

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This week's suburban edition of "Public Affairs," features State Senator Steve Rauschenberger. Rauschenberger is the running mate of gubernatorial candidate Ron Gidwitz, and Steve is running against three other candidates for Lt. Governor in the Republican primary. You won'twant to miss the show, as Steve is quite a personality, having said, "When you take a guy whose hair is on fire [Steve] and another guy who is a bit stiff [Ron] and average them out, it's Okay."
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Congresswoman Melissa Bean, 8th CD, debates and discusses with Show Host and Executive Legal Recruiter Jeff Berkowitz more than a dozen domestic and foreign policy issues, including the appropriate courses of action in Iraq and Iran; CAFTA, free trade and labor unions; education and No Child Left Behind, spending, taxes, guns warrantless phone taps and intercepts, and much, much more.
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A partial transcript of tonight's show is included, below:
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Congresswoman Bean: …We did get an opportunity to extend the [tax] cuts that were specific to the capital gains and dividends, which I did support because that really affects my district. Many people are invested in the market and that was important to them, and particularly seniors who depend on those dividends as part of their income along with social security.
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Jeff Berkowitz: And, if it came up in making it longer, permanent, that is having no specific date [for the cuts to terminate], would you support just making it permanent, not having a cut-off? Not a sunset.

Congresswoman Bean: For the Cap Gains?

Jeff Berkowitz: For the Cap Gains, yes.

Congresswoman Bean: I have supported that because I do find it stimulative. Certain cuts make sense and are stimulative.

Jeff Berkowitz: Same thing with the marginal rates? Would you support making those [tax cuts] permanent, as well?

Congresswoman Bean: We’d have to see what we are talking about.

Jeff Berkowitz: Well, I mean, you know what tax cuts passed. They lowered the marginal rates of taxation.

Congresswoman Bean: There were three, four different versions of tax cuts that have passed. Where I have been really focused is on the small business cuts. As I have talked to the small business community, there were many small business provisions that were originally going to be part of some of those tax cuts that didn’t happen. There was the accelerated depreciation schedule which did come and that was helpful. But, there is certainly more we can do for relief, you know, relative to health care costs and other costs for the small business community that I would like to see. As far as marginal rates, it really depends on where we’re at and where those cuts are going to be relative to different incomes and whether we can afford to do them.
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Congresswoman Melissa Bean [D-Barrington, 8th Cong. Dist.] , recorded on January 29, 2006 and as is airing on the City of Chicago edition of Public Affairs tonight, Feb. 13 at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21. See, below, for a detailed, suburban airing schedule for Public Affairs
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Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
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Cong. Dan Lipinski, under fire and his opponent, John Sullivan, fires away, on Cable TV and the Web.

Portions of Jeff Berkowitz's interviews, airing on the The Illinois Channel [See here], deal with several issues making news in the race for the 3rd Congressional District seat, now held by Congressman Dan Lipinski [D-Chicago]. Congressman Lipinski is seeking re-election for the first time, but is being challenged in the Democratic Primary by John Sullivan [D- Chicago], a Cook County Assistant State's Attorney who is on leave from that office.

Sullivan has recently called for an investigation of whether Congressman Lipinski voted [or whether someone voted for him] in Illinois elections while he lived out of state, including a period of time while he lived in Tennessee. In this week's program about these issues, airing on the Illinois Channel, you will first hear a portion of Jeff Berkowitz's December 19, 2004 interview with Congressman Lipinski, conducted by Berkowitz shortly after Lipinski was elected to Congress. Secondly, you will hear an interview with candidate John Sullivan [conducted on February 1, 2006] regarding his allegations about apparent irregularities and inconsistencies in Lipinski's voting , statements about voting, voting law and the voting records.

Did Cong. Dan Lipinski [D-Chicago; 3rd Cong. Dist.] vote in Illinois, while living out of state, for a variety of time periods, including in 2002-4?. If yes, was that legal? If Dan Lipinski did not vote anywhere in 2002, as he told Jeff Berkowitz on Public Affairs, did someone else vote in Lipinski’s name in Illinois, as the voter records would seem to suggest. Do those issues or similar issues regarding potential “ghost voting,” by Cong. Dan Lapinski loom large as we approach the March 21, 2006 Primary election day?

Go here and click the pictures of Berkowitz, Sullivan and Lipinski to watch this show on your computer. Go here to ascertain where and when, across the state of Illinois, the two hour Illinois Channel block of programming airs on cable; the Lipinski-Sullivan segment will come on about 50 minutes into the start of the two hour block of programming.
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Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
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“Public Affairs,” goes national with Cong. Bean and Novak

Revisions made and links added at 2:00 am [CST] on Monday.

Robert Novak cited “Public Affairs,” in his nationally syndicated column, which appeared today in the Chicago Sun-Times and quite a few other newspapers across the country. [See Novak column and See, below].

The Novak referenced episode of Public Affairs, which aired in the suburbs last week and has been airing as a video podcast [See here] for about a week, features Congresswoman Bean [D-Barrington, 8th Cong. Dist.]. The Public Affairs episode with Cong. Melissa Bean airs tomorrow [Monday] night at 8:30 pm through-out the City of Chicago on CANTV, Cable Ch. 21.

For a partial transcipt of the conversation between Berkowitz and Cong. Bean on CAFTA [see here] and to watch or listen to the show on your computer [go here]. And, see here for a summary of some of the other topics discussed on the show with first term Cong. Bean, a discussion of the candidates running in the Republican Primary for the right to take on Congresswoman Bean and a discussion of how Cong. Bean came to represent the 8th CD.

To see what the 8th CD Republican Primary frontrunner and free trader, investment banker David McSweeney, has to say about Congresswoman Bean, the Teamsters and CAFTA, go here. And, to watch McSweeney discuss these and other issues, go here, to the show labelled David McSweeney, recorded Dec. 11, 2005.

The Illinois 8th CD includes chunks of northwestern suburban Cook County [35%] and more rural McHenry County [15%], and has its largest chunk of population in Lake County [50%]. Most of the Lake County and Cook County portion of the 8th CD would be considered to ba a part of the Chicago Metro area.
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Congresswoman vs. Teamsters

Chuck Harple, national political director of the Teamsters, asserts that freshman Rep. Melissa Bean [D-Barrington, 8th Cong. Dist.] was not telling the truth in her latest TV interview when she denied pledging to him that she would oppose the Central American Free Trade Agreement.

Jeff Berkowitz, interviewing Bean on Jan. 29 on Chicago public access, asked about this column [See here, Miscounting Bean] published that day quoting an unnamed Teamsters official as saying Bean had broke[n] [a] hard promise to oppose the trade pact. "I have no idea what you're talking about," she replied.

Berkowitz then said Harple had told him what the unnamed source had told me. She replied: "I'd have to talk to Chuck. I don't know what he's referencing. I don't recall any conversation like that with him." When I contacted Harple, he agreed to be identified as my original source as well as Berkowitz's. "I stand by what I said," he told me, adding that "in a representative government, telling the truth is of the greatest importance." [Emphasis Supplied].

Robert Novak, Writing in the Chicago Sun-Times and many other newspapers across the Country, February 12, 2006
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Since it took 35 years for the Democrats to unseat Cong. Phil Crane and win the 8th CD, DCCC Chairman Rahm Emanuel will be fighting hard to retain it. On the other hand, Cong. Emanuel [D-Chicago, 5 CD] now has a candidate, Major L. Tammy Duckworth, who he thinks can give him a "pick-up," in the open seat in the nearby 6th CD, which retiring Republican Cong. Henry Hyde held for the last 32 years. And, a big funder honoring Cong. Hyde will be held in Chicago tomorrow [Monday] night.

Emanuel has enlisted, for his efforts in the 6th CD contested Democratic Primary, the fund raising ability of his long time friend, junior Senator Barack Obama and the Democratic No. 2 in the Senate, Whip and Senior Senator from Illinois, Dick Durbin, to help him in the 6th CD, and both Illinois Senators will help Rahm in the 8th CD general election, as well.

Also helping Emanuel in the 6th CD Primary, and perhaps in the 8th CD General, will be national media guru and long time friend of Emanuel, David Alelrod, who helped Barack Obama win easily what was thought to have been a tough Democratic seven candidate primary in 2004, setting Obama up for his National Democratic Convention keynote speech in July, 2004, which may have set him on the Road to the Presidency.

However, some think Rahm may be spreading himself a bit too thin, and with his intervention [some say invasion] in the 6th CD Primary, Emanuel may win the battle with Iraqi War Veteran and double amputee Duckworth, but lose the War in the General Election, having upset the netroot supporters of Duckworth's opponents, hardworking Christine Cegelis, who came within 12 points of beating Hyde in 2004 and Professor Lindy Scott, an unusually articulate candidate who is an evangelical former member of the clergy and currently professor at the Evangelical Wheaton College. [Go here to Watch both Cegelis and Scott debate the issues; Maj. Duckworth declined to join in this fray].

Also, by diverting some of his resources from the 8th to the 6th CD, Chairman Emanuel could be jeopardiziing the retention of first term Cong. Bean's 8th CD seat. On the other hand, the former Daley fund raiser and senior President Bill Clinton aide, Rahm Emanuel, didn't get where he is by not taking calculated risks, and winning much more often than he loses.
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Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
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Mark Shields [PBS]: Muslim Riots, it's all Bush's Fault?

MARK SHIELDS: …A sense [among] some Muslims that since the United States invasion and occupation of Iraq, that there's been a demonizing of their faith…
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MARK SHIELDS: …legitimate grievance about double standards. I mean, we oppose any nuclear ambitions for any Muslim state. And yet we never mentioned the fact that Israel has nuclear capacity and that is just totally ignored.
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The above is rather striking and it says something about the problems of the Democratic Party attempting to re-gain the White House, and to lesser extent, the problems that party has in re-gaining a majority in the House and Senate.

As is well known and conceded by Democrats, fighting terrorism and terrorists, and perhaps more broadly national security and national defense, are still big-time issues for Republicans. And, you don’t have to be a constitutional scholar to know that the presidency is in significant part, especially these days, about being Commander-in-Chief.

So, if the public at large feels much more comfortable with Republican leadership in fighting terrorism, they will have a strong tendency to support a Republican for President. And, the Democrats can have a lot of issues going the other way, and this will still be the case. The great majority of Americans still feel: if you are dead at the hands of a terrorist, it doesn’t help much to have a new and improved health care or educational system. [Further, the burden is on the Democrats to persuade the country that they can deliver on their promises to improve education and health care, in a cost effective way ]

Boys and girls, the terrorism threat isn’t a concern that is created by Bush’s top confidant and adviser, Karl Rove. This is just the way the country feels. Simply put, Bush, Hastert and Frist get it and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid don’t-- and Teddy Kennedy surely doesn’t.

So, you say, what does this have to do with the musings of old time liberal and syndicated columnist- Mark Shields, who weekly shares a soapbox with the somewhat younger and more sophisticated and urbane David Brooks every Friday on PBS’ Newshour with Jim Lehrer [The Newshour airs every weekday evening at 6:00 pm [CST], on WTTW in the Chicago metro area]. While still a conservative, Brooks is more of a center right conservative now that he lunches at the New York Times and serves as that liberal paper’s token conservative—and Brooks serves a similar function at PBS.

Although Shields is not, as far as I know, officially affiliated with the Democratic Party, close enough. And, what is Shields saying? While qualifying his statements a bit [See, below, including the link to the full transcript], Shields suggests rioting and violence by Muslims in response to a political cartoon is in some way attributable to “the demonizing of the Muslim faith,” which, of course, being a good Democrat, Shields suggests results from the “U. S. invasion” of Iraq.

Further, Shields implies, isn’t it awful that Israel might have a nuclear capability and yet we oppose “making things even by giving Iran, say, the nuclear capability.” Well, let me see, Mark, when is the last time Israel suggested Iran or any state, Muslim or otherwise, should be wiped off the face of the earth? Never. But, when is the last time Iran suggested Israel should be wiped off the face of the earth? Oh, I don’t know. Maybe, last week? And perhaps a dozen other times in the last few years? Can Shields see that distinction, and the implications of that distinction for whether the nuclear capability by Israel might be a necessary deterrant to offensive military action by their neighbors? I don’t think so.

Mark Shields, unfortunately for more moderate Democrats, whomever they might be, trying to win a Presidential election, is the face of the Democratic Party. Would you buy a used car from that man? Would you buy a Presidential candidate whom he supports? Would the American electorate nationalize the congressional elections and vote, as Cong. Schakowsky [D-Evanston, 9th CD] would like, to give the Democrats a majority in the U. S. House, if Mark Shields, and his political friends, become the face of the Democratic Party? I don’t think so. Not in a million years.

But, don’t take my word for it. Ask DCCC Chairman and Congressman Rahm Emanuel [D-Chicago, 5th CD]. Do you think you will find the above musings of Shields in anything put out by Rahm Emanuel. I would very much doubt that. One, Rahm would like to have a Democratic Majority in the House and he knows Americans, by and large, don’t agree with Shields. Two, and more to the point, Emanuel doesn’t agree with Shields.

And yet there is Shields on PBS, providing “Democrat and liberal,” balance on The Newshour. Don’t discount that point of view in the Democratic Party. Indeed, Rahm’s problem is that many national Democrats do agree with Shields. Including, no doubt, many who work for PBS, not nearly the balanced institution it pretends to be.

Republicans hope they can ride the likes of Mark Shields to Victory in 2008 yet another time. In the Presidency, in the House and in the Senate. The Democrats may have corruption and the Jack Abramoff issue. But, the Republicans have anti-terrorism and the Mark Shields issue. It all evens out, and then some.
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JIM LEHRER: Here in the non-Muslim world, how do you think the non-Muslim world has been handling this cartoon controversy, Mark?

MARK SHIELDS: Jim, haltingly. I think that what has emerged obviously is the great gulf between our western culture … and what parts of the Muslim world is greater than we I think calculated. … But I think there's also present here something very real, [I mean] the manipulation of the protest, [but] and that is a sense [among] some Muslims that since the United States invasion and occupation of Iraq, that there's been a demonizing of their faith.

JIM LEHRER: And this is just another sign of it?

MARK SHIELDS: And I think this is an indication of how far that feeling has come.

JIM LEHRER: Do you see -- are you as pessimistic as Mark is about seeing a resolution to this? Is this going to go on and on and on?

DAVID BROOKS: Yeah, I really would say it's not even about Iraq; this is about four or five centuries. It's really a group of people, some educated people have who gone back to the 13th Century, some who never left the 13th Century, but basically who have decided that the way we live with this barrage of ideas, the way we live our life trying to improve ourselves, is not the way they want to live their lives. They believe the truth has been revealed and the central epic in history is not progress; it's the conflict between the faithful and the invader, and the infidel and the Jew and the crusader, and that that's essentially the conflict they see and the conflict they long for.
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DAVID BROOKS: The protest in London, the slogans and the signs were "Go to Hell Freedom"-- behead anybody who attacks Islam. [And], the imam in Copenhagen said they believe in freedom, we believe in the prophet, as if the two are totally opposed. You know, I do think it's not a clash of civilizations-- the West versus Islam, but these people who were the fundamentalists have opted totally out of our civilization and, you know, we've been sort of measured in how we respond to them which I think is silly. I mean, they are fundamentally opposed to the way we live; whether we're measured or not is not going to make any difference in their minds.

MARK SHIELDS: …And secondly, I'd say that there is in the part, legitimate grievance about double standards. I mean, we oppose any nuclear ambitions for any Muslim state. And yet we never mentioned the fact that Israel has nuclear capacity and that is just totally ignored. And I think that remains a sticking point and a very sore point-- that [sense] of a double standard that is applied to them-- by no way condoning, justifying, excusing the violence…

DAVID BROOKS: You know, there's political differences, obviously but what's at stake here is so much different. I think that the murder of Pim Fortuyn, the Dutch politician, the gay Dutch politician, who made this point, we can have multiculturalism or we can have pluralism, but we can't have both, with a subset of people that doesn't believe in pluralism that wants to enforce laws on homosexuals, on women. So you [gotta] make this choice and that's the choice Europe is making. I think they're feeling it much more seriously than we are but that's the choice they found they have to make…
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The weekly Shields and Brooks segment, The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, PBS,February 11, 2006. [See here] for a complete transcript.
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Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
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