18 Comments - Phocion - Thursday, Mar 2, 06 @ 4:26 pm: Lang is going to be scorched with a “Traitor” tag for accepting this slot. Not smart, Lou! - bought the shirt - Thursday, Mar 2, 06 @ 4:35 pm: But Lou’s been proud of his role as an honest broker through tough deals; in that sense, this isn’t so surprising. - Democrat Grrl - Thursday, Mar 2, 06 @ 4:35 pm: I for one am glad Rep. Lang is entering the fray. Let cooler heads prevail, and let’s get people talking TO one another instead of dueling press conferences and releases. As it says in the song, what’s so funny ’bout peace, love and understanding? - Anon - Thursday, Mar 2, 06 @ 4:42 pm: Let’s see, is this the Lou Lang who hollered at the governor during a Democratic caucus two years ago, because Blagojevich was publicly speaking against Democratic House members aligned with Speaker Madigan? The same Lang who considered challenging the governor in the primary this year? He is now is accepting an appointment from the governor to help bail him out of political trouble? Politics has strange bed fellows…. - ONEMANCANMAKEADIFFERENCE - Thursday, Mar 2, 06 @ 4:52 pm: The Commission already has a member who I don’t believe should be apart of it. He was the administrator of Child Support during the time Child Support frauded the federal gov’t and assisted in hiding fraud; Paternity Fraud and more. He is also aware that the Governor’s former Executive Inspector General investigated Child Support, found wrongdoing and has covered it since. All of the above will surface in the coming days.If scrutiny is going to be placed on one particular person, the entire commission should be scrutined. - Anonymous - Thursday, Mar 2, 06 @ 5:44 pm: So Lou slaps the ADL in the face to help out the Guv? Not real good for the old credibility Rep. Lang. - DuPage progressive - Thursday, Mar 2, 06 @ 6:19 pm: Lou will do a great job — and it’s a smart move for all involved. Kudos to the Gov’s office for finally recognizing what an asset Lou would be under “their tent”, and kudos to Lou for teaming up with them instead of fighting the administration. Good solution — he will be great! - Pat Collins - Thursday, Mar 2, 06 @ 7:08 pm: Hmm, the State’s premier pusher of gambling and gun control seems to have no scruples at all. It looks like he is an opportunist who takes any dubious position that benefits him. We are shocked, aren’t we Mr. Rick? - Prophet Rodney King - Thursday, Mar 2, 06 @ 8:57 pm: Can’t we all just get along? - Darrell Democrat - Thursday, Mar 2, 06 @ 9:04 pm: Quote from the commisson’s state web site: state.il.us/cdhc #The State of Illinois and Governor Rod Blagojevich are committed to fighting discrimination based on ethnicity, religion, skin color, gender, disability or sexual orientation in Illinois.# I count five out of six on this issue… and the last line on the website: #The Commission also offers the citizens of Illinois direct access to the people who are addressing the issues of hatred and bigotry# who knew the link was so direct? - flipside - Thursday, Mar 2, 06 @ 9:21 pm: what if lou is going on precisely to pick a fight? lou gets to beat up on sister m., blago rides in to make peace, no fingerprints with the black community and props with the jewish base. name someone better for a verbal fight on behalf of the jewish community. lou may be complicit and opportunistic but no traitor. - Yellow Dog Democrat - Thursday, Mar 2, 06 @ 10:09 pm: I think Lang is right and the ADL is wrong on this one. If the goal of the Commission is to reduce hatred ad bigotry, the ADL’s “My way or the highway” attitude is exactly what the Commission doesn’t need. They have thrown away a perfectly good opportunity to develop dialogue in exchange for an empty symbolic gesture. Don’t get me wrong, I know that sitting down across the table from someone who stands for everything you think you oppose takes alot of character. But in the process, you almost always find common ground, and so do they. That’s why I talk to so many Republicans. Can you imagine what the legislature would be like if Democrats and Republicans refused to be in te same room together? - Anon - Thursday, Mar 2, 06 @ 10:34 pm: “I know that sitting down across the table from someone who stands for everything you think you oppose takes alot of character.” - That is the opinion of someone who is obviously NOT a minority. The NoI doesn’t oppose the opinions or character of individual Jewish persons, they oppose (not to mention despise, resent, and hate) the existance of the entire people or “community”. Why would you put someone from such an organization on a commission that is supposed to oppose such hatred? It’s not a therapy group to convert members who are intolerant. - These are our choices? - Thursday, Mar 2, 06 @ 11:12 pm: Oooooh what did Lou Lang get for taking on this post and trying to help Rod’s damage control? The 10th casino license? Looks like that could have been the tipping point for the Holocaust Museum director resigning though. Backfire. At this point there really is nothing left for Rod to make things better. The Jewish community is mad, what will make them happy will make the African American community mad, neither side trusts Blagojevich and Blagojevich has no way of improving trust with either side in this issue, and Blagojevich already tried to play the incompetent/throw the staff under the bus card and it didn’t work. BTW, Rich… since in the past you have posted a question of the day that is asking people to list all the investigations into Blagojevich’s office I was wondering if sometime you could have a question that asks people to list all the people that Blagojevich has appointed/given jobs to that he didn’t realize until they resulted in bad headlines for him. I figure a question simply asking how many times he has tried to explain away all bad headlines because of staff incompetence would take too long to list. - Yellow Dog Democrat - Friday, Mar 3, 06 @ 2:31 am: Anon 10:34 - I’ve seen this show far too many times. It’s diplomacy by press release. If the ADL was really interested in what was in Ms. Muhammed’s heart, or whether or not she was a “Jew hater”, they should talk to her. Instead, they’ve taken a hard-line, and very public position. It’s the kind of posturing — like the press conference in Springfield — that is intended to entrench positions and annihilate any possible common ground. It’s childish. As for your “You don’t know what it’s like” comment, gimme a break. Muslims can come up with as many reasons to be angry at Jews, as Jews can to be angry at Muslims, give or take. The only difference is that this one member of the Nation of Islam appears willing to work toward peace, whereas the ADL does not. - cat by the tail - Friday, Mar 3, 06 @ 8:33 am: Yellow Dog 2:31 AM, Sister Johnson invited the members of the Commission to a speach by Minister Louis, who promptly spat in their faces. What’s Lou gonna do if there’s more spittle? - Establishment Republican - Friday, Mar 3, 06 @ 11:30 am: This is very simple….. She refuses to repudiate Farrakhan and thus should not sit on a commission that deals with anti-discrimination of all things. This isn’t like she was appointed to the Tollway Authority or something. Her involvement in a hate group is completely relevant and for Blagojevich to say that it is not because he does not believe in guilt by association is practically sickening. Also, the comment that Muslims have as good of reasons to be upset at Jews than Jews have to be upset at radical Muslims is absolutely ridiculous on too many levels to count. - Anon1 - Friday, Mar 3, 06 @ 4:02 pm: YDD, making excuses for Blago since 2003! Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.