McHenry County Blog

Boy, am I getting old.

About 15 years ago, I was so proud of Illinois’ Republican state representatives. (I was still in remission between my 8 years in the 1970’s and 8 years in the 1990’s.)

When riverboat gambling was proposed in Illinois, not one GOP House member voted for it.

I even went to the Legislative Printing Unit and, after arguing that I was merely asking them to reprint a roll call in a different format, their printers produced a card which showed the names of all the Democrats voting “Yes” and all the Republicans voting “No.”

Now, Republicans are mainlining contributions from casino interests and wanna-be casinos (read race tracks, off-track betting parlors and, who knows, maybe even Shell Oil).

And, if you don’t believe me, take a look at their leaderships’ contributions.

So, Republicans have gone from no House Republicans voting to turn our state into a big Las Vegas to their gubernatorial nominee’s deciding to offer Mayor Richard Daley an incentive of $50 million a year to help convince him to dump Governor Rod Blagojevich.

And, those conservative Republicans who sincerely believe that gambling is bad for society—will they hate Blagojevich (who, remember lied about being against gambling four years ago) enough to jettison their principles and vote for Topinka?

Or, will it just add to the number who are ready to write-in Randy Stufflebeam, the man who gathered so few signatures to get on the ballot as the Constitution Party’s candidate, but is crisscrossing the state for his write-in candidacy.

Oh, I know, “It’s for the kids.”

I have grown weary of evil enterprises pretending it is “for the kids,” when it is purely and simply for their own self-aggrandizement.

And, me thinks that Topinka’s super-casino gambit is just a way to raise money and, if she is lucky, pry loose some support from Chicago Democrats.

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On top is the Chicago Sun-Times headline for Thursday. Next is a photo of one of two gas station-casinos I found in South Dakota last weekend on a prol-life foray. Finally, a picture of Randy Stufflebeam, a surprise visitor to my son's 9th birthday party.