GOP Wish: Welsh on Walsh

Joe Walsh, Tea Party paladin and Eighth Congressional District candidate, may be well-advised to sport his Don't Tread On Me T-shirt. Because GOP Party leaders would like to see Walsh thrown under the campaign bus. Press leaks rivaling a BP oil spill have, the past few weeks, brought a flood of media attention to Walsh's campaign. Notably, Walsh was 6 months late filing his financial disclosure statement with the FEC.

GOP Congressional Candidate Joe Walsh Fails To File Personal Financial Disclosure Form

And this week, some staffers resigned from the Walsh campaign, while inviting FoxChicagoNews and the Grayslake police to participate.

2 of Republican Candidate Joe Walsh's Aides, Some Volunteers Quit

More important to a political campaign than a good message is being able to control that message. Local GOP poobahs monitoring the Walsh campaign message no doubt think a geologist in Iceland has the better command over the next eruption. Small wonder the Republican committeemen in Cook and party chiefs in Lake Counties are powwowing over how to get Walsh to make like Mark Sanford and take a hike.

Don't expect anything soon. Walsh is the decisive winner of a 6-way primary, who appealed to party activists and the Tea Party membership. He has moved his family all the way from well-heeled Winnetka to back-woods Johnsburg. Johnsburg is both in-district and in McHenry county, his base of support. Walsh also recently brought on-board McHenry County Board member Nick Provenzano to manage his campaign. Perhaps most importantly, Walsh is unemployed, which ipso facto makes running for Congress his current livelihood.

Although envious of how the Democrats surgically dispatched Scott Lee Cohen, if the IL GOP are searching for a way to trash-can Walsh they have their work cut out. This means either offering him a real job somewhere, or digging up the kind of oppo-dirt that will make Walsh exit-stage-right quietly. Michael Madigan made the inconvenient Scott Lee Cohen go away after a two hour meeting. Unfortunately for the eighth district GOP, they have no equivalent to a Michael Madigan. They may need to hire the House Speaker's services for an afternoon.