Q the Eye/12.18.11

Dear LakeCountyEye,

I need to run for Congress. This year.

Mr Smith Goes to Washington

Dear Mr Smith (if that's your real name),

With Congressional job approval numbers hovering in the low negative digits, you've picked a good year to toss your hat in the ring. An angry electorate is in a mood to throw the bums out, while hoping for nothing more than to meet-the-new-bum-same-as-the-old-bum in 2012.

And as reported in the Sun-Times, you're also in luck because a Federal court has just put their seal of approval on Illinois's new congressional map:

Illinois GOP lose congressional remap case; Democratic map stands

The controversial decision will yield its share of winners and losers but the number-one big winner has to be the Illinois GOP. With the new map set in stone, Illinois's GOP is now on course to divest itself of its biggest blunder since Alan Keyes, namely Eighth District Congressman Joe Walsh.

Walsh's no-holds-barred media histrionics is a source of embarrassment for the Illinois GOP while translating into a bonanza of fundraising dollars for both national and Illinois Democrats. The Illinois GOP's nightmare scenario was an unmuzzled Walsh winning re-election over and over and over again in a safe Republican congressional district. But the federal ruling gave the Illinois GOP the time and opportunity to exile Walsh to a newly drawn Eighth District where he is on track to be summarily dispatched by the Tammy Duckworth juggernaut in November of 2012.

No longer will operatives be subjected to the cringe-worthy spectacle of local GOP blogs in desperate search of nice things to say about Walsh:

Hopefully that's the way Congressman Joe Walsh is taking it, since the New York Times published a nice hit piece on Walsh yesterday. The NYT goes through Walsh's various troubles with his divorce and other tidbits (have you heard his driver's license was suspended? Twice? Horrors!) to set up the real question so that us parochial voters here in Illinois can hopefully understand it -- don't you people see what kind of a hypocritical, loose-cannon you losers out in the cornfields have elected? The thing about Joe, though, is that he cares little for what anyone thinks about him, especially an outfit like the NYT, except that he does care for the people who elected him.
The New York Times Takes a Swing at Joe Walsh

TeamAmerica10th and McHenryCountyBlog and the rest all owe the Illinois Democrats a debt of gratitude for not redrawing the congressional map in a way that the Eighth District became a safe Republican vote-sink -- and where a then-incumbent Joe Walsh would win re-election over and over and over again.

Anyways, you have until December 27 to submit your nominating petition. The requirement is 600 signatures, drawn from any one of Illinois's eighteen congressional districts. Your LakeCountyEye personally recommends the Eighth.

If you are an elected official, or a previously elected official, or just a private citizen under indictment, send your political questions to Q the Eye c/o ... LakeCountyEye@gMail.com