Ditka's wife has been quoted as saying she'd divorce him if he ran

[Paragon]

-- a prospect Ditka dismissed Tuesday saying, "She'd do anything I wanted to do."

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/elections/article.adp?id=20040713140809990002


Well...no doubts he's a Republican now, eh?

[buycitgo]

1. run, mike, run!!!!!

quoting another Mike, I/d be "happy as a little girrrrrrrl" if he ran

he has NO chance, and the schadenfreude factor would go off the scale

lots of threads on this, including a good one in the Illinois thread

[HEyHEY]

4. Uh...I bet he does

Look at Ventura in Min. And he never won a superbowl

[Worst Username Ever]

9. I agree, I think he has a chance, BUT

at least Ventura was mayor of Brooklyn Park before becoming the gov.

[CO Liberal]

2. Ah, Yes - "The Sanctity of Marriage...."

:-)

[buycitgo]

3. rumors out there of the beating of the wife

probably the first one

his kids hate him, too

or used to

maybe he started giving them some of his gazillions

[buycitgo]

6. you;ll love this one

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/820681/posts

"smoke won't hurt you!"

"My dad smoked four packs of Luckies from the time he was 12 until the time he was 60. He lived to 80. He died of hardening of the arteries. He didn't die from what smoking caused. He worked in the steel mill where every morning, you woke up and there was half an inch of soot on the cars," Ditka said.

'hard' to be more ignorant than that, isn't it?

guess he hasn't heard what everybody else has about nicotine and coronary disease

keep on puffing, you fatuous pric

[Boomer]

5. At least SHE has some sense

I can't imagine why any family members in their right minds -- Dem or Repug -- would agree to becoming part of a campaign. Which is why I always retain at least a smidge of sympathy for the Bush women, who were against Shrub's run for president. If only he had listened to them...

[buycitgo]

7. 'fruits and nuts' in California

oh, this should be SO amusing

from the same article

Reminded that smoking has been banned for years in California restaurants and bars, Ditka said: "That's fruits and nuts. That's what they are. A lot of liberals. . .. All the do-gooders in the world. The people in California who abolished smoking are the same people who want to legalize marijuana. Come on. Give me a break."

[LittleApple81]

8. She should divorce him anyway. n/t

[buycitgo]

10. what kinda sex clubs do you think he took HER to?

[LittleApple81]

13. His is an inane sack of testosterone with an attitude. Enough reason.n/t

[AirAmFan]

11. Is a "Great White Hope" factor motivating Mrs Ditka's opposition to running?

Race is always just below the surface of things in Illinois.

She may be afraid that Mike will lose and become another Bernie Epton, the Republican who ran against Harold Washington for mayor of Chicago 21 years ago. After the election, the Eptons had to move far, far away. The Chicago Historical Society has a stunning exhibit catalog, with stirring photos of the Washington-Epton race, at http://www.chicagohs.org/haroldwashington/pdf/hwgalleryguide.pdf

Here's a snippet of text:

"In 1983, four out of five of Chicago voters were registered Democrats. The city had not elected a Republican mayor since 1927, and, since the 1930s, the winner of the Democratic primary had always won the general election. When Washington won the Democratic primary, everything changed. High-ranking white Democrats endorsed Epton, and white voters crossed party lines to organize groups like Democrats for Epton (above). While Epton began his campaign stating that he would not make race an issue, his racially loaded slogan,'Epton, Before It�s Too Late,' further contributed to the growing divisiveness. Crowds greeted the Republican, a former state representative from Hyde Park, at his public appearances with T-shirts reading 'Vote Right, Vote White' or singing 'Bye Bye Blackbird.' Racist buttons and flyers appeared across the city. In the end, Harold Washington won the election with 53 percent of the nearly 1.3 million votes cast. The vast majority of white Democrats in Chicago had voted for a Republican mayoral candidate."

[Thrill]

12. I don;t think Illiinois voters

will vote for another Bush yes man

[AirAmFan]

14. When do you think the press will start openly commenting on the racial angle?

Ditka himself apparently is less racist than the average American, but so may have been Bernie Epton. Don't you think "Obama is a ******" is an "issue" the Illinois GOP will exploiit, at the expense of both Obama and Ditka?