IL-66: Rep. Walker Attacked by Nat'l GOP Committeeman

It's clear that newly-minted State Rep. Mark Walker (D-Arlington Hts.) has the Republicans' attention down in Springfield.

Unfortunately, it's also clear the elephants are still all-too-willing to twist facts and omit truths while attacking him. Didn't they learn anything in the wake of his win, in which he took over a seat that had been Republican for decades after the State GOP splattered him with every speck of nasty gutter-level muck they could scrape up and resorted to literally trying to paste over his good name?


The booby prize of the week goes to the still relatively new GOP National Committeman for Illinois, Pat Brady, who took over for Bob Kjellander. Why the state's National Committeeman felt Rep. Walker was important enough to attack is known only to him, but important enough Mark must be.

So what was the attack?

Mr. Brady declared that a vote to put one of a number of politcally-motivated resolutions the Republicans were tossing up -- HR 93 in this case -- to a committee was somehow lending "support to Roland Burris" and he singled out Rep. Walker even though a total of 67 Dems, including several Dems who were sponsors of the resolution, voted to put the issue in the committee's jurisdiction.

The rationale behind referring HR 93 (and its companion HR 92) to the Rules Committe is clear. Both resolutions were placed in Rules on almost straight party-line votes because the State House has other matters to attend than debating the hows, whats, and whys of telling the US Senate what to do with itself. It's not as if we aren't facing a massive state deficit, ballooning health costs, crumbling infrastructure and whole host of other more pressing matters than the latest Burris soap opera.

The fact that the Illinois Republicans' National Committeeman targeted a single Democratic State Rep while using House Republican Organization letterhead clearly demonstrates that whatever the 'sounds good' language of these resolutions is, the ulterior motive was purely political mud-slinging.

It would be as if the House Dems turned out an inflammatory press release lambasting State Rep. Sid Mathias for missing the very same vote Pat Brady complains about. Did Rep. Mathias miss the vote? Yes. But he has a very clear and reasonable explanation (he is in Israel with US Congressman Mark Kirk). But the H-DEMs didn't do that, even though they targeted Sid last year, because to do so would be petty and pointless political opportunism -- just like Mr. Brady's diatribe.

And besides, Mr. Brady's press release carries an outright lie in its opening paragraph with a cute turn of phrase:

Voting in lock-step with Illinois Democrat Leaders, newly-elected State Representative Mark Walker opposed a House Resolution on Thursday that urges the US Senate to take swift and immediate action to address the mounting concerns surrounding Roland Burris’ appointment to the US Senate. Walker’s vote to support Roland Burris is troubling in light of the recent news outlining potential perjury and play-to-play allegations, said Illinois’ Republican National Committeeman Pat Brady.

Sending a politically-motivated, time-wasting resolution to the committee where it should be debated is hardly "support" for Burris, let alone "opposition" to the resolution itself. It's simply a move to put the resolution where it belongs so that other pressing matters can actually be worked on.

More to the point, Rep. Walker hardly "supports" our junior Senator and has publicly called for Roland Burris to resign his Senate seat immediately. That, of course, means the conservatives' lies about Rep. Walker are so much bunk.

I suppose that sort of principled call to action is to be expected from a fellow who carried a petition opposing Todd Stroger while he was going door-to-door campaigning for office and who also publicly called for the former governor's ouster on the campaign trail. Indeed, just like all but one State Rep, one of Mark Walker's first votes literally on the day he was sworn in was to re-instate the impeachment panel and impeach then-Gov. Blagojevich. But, far be it from the Republican National Committeeman to consider such things when a weak attack needs to be sent out on a Friday afternoon.

Pat Brady's scurrilous press release was dutifully picked up by our friends over at the conservative echo chamber Illinois Review (who don't have the best grasp on honesty or reality themselves), though in Ill Review Editor Fran Eaton's defense she did point out up-front that Rep. Walker wasn't the only one voting on HR 93. Unfortunately, she did not include info explaining that this wasn't actually a vote "opposing" action against Sen. Burris nor a demonstration of "support" for him. (Again, several Democratic sponsors of the resolution also voted to put it in Rules.)

Such is life when all the Republicans seem to have left are smoke and mirrors. To borrow a phrase from Mr. Brady, "that's troubling and wrong."

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Full Disclosure: I've known Mark for a number of years, have worked with him on various local efforts and I endorsed him and supported him as a volunteer during his campaign.

(c/p at Illinois Reason)