Rein of Error

It's no secret Lake County gets her share (and more) of the April showers. And now that Global Warming has been exposed to be a hoax perpetrated by the liberal media, this April looks to be no less waterlogged than any Aprils past. Ensconced, at this moment, at the parental unit's secure location, your LakeCountyEye is testing the seaworthiness of a rigid-hulled inflatable raft acquired off eBay -- for a mere drop-in-the-bucket.

LakeCountyEye Ops of a certain age may recall how in 1979 Jane Bryne rode into Chicago City Hall on a snowstorm. And your LakeCountyEye -- always on the lookout for a good political hack -- has been wondering if the same thaumaturgical trick could be performed with a rainstorm. So while waiting for the basement floodwaters to rise, your LakeCountyEye has been surfing the Internets all afternoon for rain-related political stories. A sampling courtesy the Daily Herald ...

• "We've got to reign in the spending that's going on in Washington," Dold said.
  Congressional hopeful Bob Dold tours Arlington Hts.
  
  
• "I am honored and humbled by Governor Edgar's endorsement," said Coulson. "We need to send a fiscal conservative to Congress with the policy knowledge and legislative experience to reign in runaway federal spending."
  Coulson lands Edgar nod
  
  
• "And 2010 will be an exceedingly hard year. Nonetheless it will be our commitment to reign expenditures in line so that we balance the budget."
  Aurora promises a balanced budget despite shortfall

HawkEyed Operatives might notice that your LakeCountyEye was unable to find any, technically speaking, rain-related political stories. However there were quite a few reign-related hits. (This is a hidden benefit of using a discount, open-source search-engine.)

EagleEyed Operatives might notice that none of the pols quoted in each of the above are speaking to matters of sovereignty. Your LakeCountyEye suspects that rein may have been the intended word. Whether our local politicians are unschooled in telegraphing their talking points to reporters, or whether our local print media rely on discount, open-source grammour checkers is an open question.

Your LakeCountyEye is no grammour-cop and does not wish to lecture on the correct usage of rein, reign & rain. However it's not likely that our local pols are ever going to quit talking to reporters in sound bytes. (Sooner expect a reigny day in London.) So, some LakeCountyEye free advice for the Daily Herald and other local print media: Get it in writing -- e-Mail, Twitter, Text Message, etc. -- before quoting a source in print. This, grammatically speaking, buys you clausible deniability.