The governor’s over the top “defense” of his wife’s business dealings with people connected to state government won’t go away. The guv defended her by attacking critics as “Neanderthals.” The result is the governor’s campaign took a story buried on the same Friday that Stu Levine pled guilty and kept it alive for almost a week by injecting a bogus claim of sexism into the equation.

Topinka added more fuel to the fire yesterday.

Republican governor candidate Judy Baar Topinka on Wednesday proposed restricting outside income for the families of statewide elected officials, citing the real-estate business of First Lady Patricia Blagojevich.

Topinka’s proposal was in response to a recent Tribune report that found Patricia Blagojevich received $113,000 in real estate commissions on behalf of a longtime no-bid state contractor whose husband also had bank regulatory issues pending before the state. The four commissions were the only ones she made so far this year. […]

Kent Redfield, a professor of political science at the University of Illinois at Springfield, said it had nothing to do with sexism, but with the appearance of a conflict of interest.

That’s the very same appearance of conflict that all state employees are warned to avoid. It’s the same conflict that all attorneys, reporters and just about anyone with any common sense avoids. And since Mrs. Blagojevich only did the one deal this year, it shouldn’t be asking too much of her to check to see if there were any potential conflicts of interest.

This is the old way of doing business. The very old way.

Here’s more from a Southern Illinoisan columnist (I assume it’s Jim Muir, but I didn’t see a name listed).

When questioned by the media about those obvious connections, the governor responded in a way that shows exactly how the political game in Illinois is played these days. Blagojevich said that anybody who questions or suggests that his wife landed the deal because he is governor is a “Neanderthal.”

In other words, politicians these days don’t have to answer questions about things like people who are under state contract doing business with family members of elected officials. They simply discredit the person asking the questions and label them as a “Neanderthal.”

I suppose that would mean that any person asking questions about $1,500 birthday gifts, “endemic hiring fraud,” federal investigations into hiring and contract irregularities at multiple state agencies, 60-year-old interns who were given preference over military veterans and that growing list of indictments would also have to be labeled a “Neanderthal.”

Meanwhile, the Tribune editorial board is sick of the governor’s attacks on Topinka.

It’s not fair, though, to portray Topinka the way Blagojevich has–as a loathsome consort of criminals. Blagojevich has spent millions of dollars crafting his phony image of Topinka as the kind of little-bit-nutty woman that her own son should be embarrassed to love. […]

If this gutter strategy pays off, get used to it.

The governor, incidentally, says his vile attack ads merely differentiate him from Topinka.

How convenient that Blagojevich is racing to his own defense. He won’t have to stand in line.

Topinka struck back against some of the attacks yesterday. NBC5:

Republican candidate for governor Judy Baar Topinka began her day Wednesday hopping mad, her voice shaking as she blasted Gov. Rod Blagojevich for an ad taking her to task for her history with veterans.

“He has yet to show up with veterans groups and then he has the gall to sit there and take me on, when my kid’s been to Afghanistan and back,” she said.

A Lee Newspapers article, not a column, compared the governor to George Ryan.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich appears to have ripped a page from his predecessor’s playbook as he seeks to seal up support for a second term.

Over the final two months of the campaign season, the Chicago Democrat has crisscrossed Illinois distributing state dollars for everything from a wind farm in central Illinois to a river research facility near Alton.

An informal tally of the dollars he’s handed out indicates Blagojevich has spread an estimated $45 million around the state through a series of high-profile announcements — just in time for voters to head to the polls.

The spending on new snowmobile trails and expanded Amtrak service is similar to what convicted former Gov. George Ryan did during his tenure as chief executive, which Blagojevich roundly criticized when he ran for governor in 2002.

Blagojevich campaign spokeswoman Sheila Nix said the governor’s announcements are not the same as Ryan’s.

And Kristen McQueary wonders what’s up with the female vote?

Alas, impossible-to-please women voters are to blame for forcing female politicians to downplay their feminine attributes, even though we gossip about them anyway.