IL Lt gov race: Source: Cohen seeking 'honorable way' to drop out

[mucifer]

HALLELUJAH!! This guy makes blago look like a saint. This article made me feel so much better:

By STEFANO ESPOSITO, RUMMANA HUSSAIN AND MARK J. KONKOL Staff Reporters

Facing intense and mounting pressure to step aside, embattled Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor Scott Lee Cohen is seeking an “honorable way” out, a Cohen campaign source said tonight.

Cohen, who mostly kept out of the public eye today, said as recently as Thursday that he had no plans to quit. But with Democrats across the state urging him to re-think that decision, Cohen appears to be concerned how revelations about his private life might hurt the Democratic party.

Close advisers have been trying to convince Cohen to “do the right thing,” warning that he could be blamed for “bringing down the party” by remaining a candidate, the campaign source said.

Cohen could not be reached for comment tonight. His staff has said he plans to speak tonight to the media at a downtown night club — where a table was roped off and waiting for him at 8 p.m.

This morning, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin called on Cohen to step aside, and several local women’s groups blasted the media and Cohen’s political opponents for “burying” and “ignoring” domestic violence issues. ... snip

http://www.suntimes.com/news/elections/2031654,dick-durbin-scott-lee-cohen-020510.article

[sharesunited]

1. He's a pawnbroker, he wants money. Pass the hat and take up a collection.

[mucifer]

2. I'd almost consider giving him money to go away. I bet someone who has a few more

dollars than me did.

[KingFlorez]

3. That's a relief

A candidate like that could potentially harm the statewide ticket there.

[mucifer]

4. I'm sure his face will appear in many repub commercials to come in our lovely state of IL

But, the sooner he's out the better.

[barb162]

5. This lowlife hasn't the slightest idea about honor

or else he would have paid the 55,000 child support he owes, he wouldn't have been bringing his girlfriends into the house where his kids and wife were, etc.

[KittyWampus]

6. do what republicans do- find jesus.

[mucifer]

9. he's Jewish and so am I. But, you know what ? The Christians can have him.

I'd love to see him have a come to Jesus moment. Great idea.

But, you CAN'T take Al Franken or Bernie Sanders or Jan Scharkowsky or Russ Feingold. They are ours. :) You can have lieberman.

[barb162]

32. Let him find the money to pay child support first and a way to drop out

of this race. And just let him disappear forever in New Guinea or the Andes. I never want to hear about him again.

[AllentownJake]

7. What the hell is going on in Illinois?

Seriously?

[CatWoman]

8. that was my exact question

when I saw this on Tweety tonight.

[AllentownJake]

10. When you find someone who makes Blago look like a decent guy

What the hell is going on, and who in the party up there isn't doing oppo research or dropping the ball on their own candidates during a primary.

We go through everything in PA during the primary, everything, no surprises.

I seriously suspect some laziness in the party leadership.

[barb162]

14. There's nothing preventing someone from running as a candidate

in IL. Is there something in your state that prevents a slug from getting on a ticket? This happened in the 80s here too, with Adlai Stevenson III. A person ran for Lt Gov and won and he was a anti-semite who Stevenson ethically couldn't tolerate. The guy wouldn't get off the ticket.

[AllentownJake]

16. Pulling police records on candidates is standard operating procedure

In 2010. I'm honestly surprised none of his opponents or party leadership didn't hand over this information to the media before the election and run ads.

[Venceremos]

41. Everyone dropped the ball, typical of Illinois politics

Toward the end of the primary season Cohen started gaining ground in the polls. So one of his opponents went to the governor campaigns and tried to get them to denounce Cohen. The governor campaigns ignored it, and Cohen's opponent did not actually do anything about it himself, meaning he didn't run any ads, etc., alerting the voters to Cohen's problems.

Cohen had previously admitted to a Chicago Sun-Times reporter that he had a domestic battery arrest. The reporter then wrote a profile about Cohen and devoted ONE paragraph to the arrest and buried that information nineteen paragraphs down the page. The profile was published once and that was 11 months before the election. Then the reporter did not follow up on it at all and didn't say another word about the arrest until after Cohen won.

I'm as disgusted with our party "leadership" and the media as I am with Cohen. Keep in mind these are many of the same idiots that let Blagojevich run rampant for years. So part of me wants Cohen to stay on the ticket to teach them all a lesson they won't soon forget.

[mucifer]

11. The guy on the dem ticket for Lt gov (the governor candidate and the Lt gov candidate

run separately.) The lovely citizens of our state of IL put on the dem ticket a guy who was arrested for threatening his exgirlfriend who was a prostitute with a knife. Oh and he doesn't pay child support. I think he won because he was the only candidate who had commercials and the press didn't vet him. Oh and he does drugs.

[AllentownJake]

17. No one in the party pulled police and court records?

What the hell are you paying for with your party organization up there?

[barb162]

26. He told a reporter in March 09

he had a domestic battery complaint against him and that it was false. No one cared as he was a total unknown and there were about 5 long time party regulars running along with him. No one thought he would win. he was a complete unknown, never ran for anything before.

[AllentownJake]

27. He was spending 2 million on ads

Tom Knox was spending a but load on races in PA, believe me, the party made sure everyone knew he made his money in pay day lending during the primary for Mayor of Philadelphia in 2007.

[barb162]

36. It sound s like your state has its act together.

The reporter who interviewed him in March 09 thought he was a "goofoff" and told him straight out he'd never win as these party regulars in the IL legislature were running. So he buried the domestic battery story in a column in March 09. This guy ran as a successful entrepreneur (not as a pawnbroker on 47th street). Last month some party regulars saw the polls and tried to get Cohen stopped (they wanted the man denounced by the governor and his opponent) but the two governor candidates were running a terribly bitter race and neither campaign paid attention at all until it was too late. It was an amazing disaster.

[barb162]

21. So what's the problem? You got a problem with that?

:sarcasm:

[KharmaTrain]

22. Goofy Primary System...

Instead of running on the same slate in the primary, the Governer and Lt. Governor run separately. Most people are only paying attention to the big races, the little ones slip under the radar. In '86 a Larouchie got on the ticket the same way...he wouldn't step down forcing Adlai Stevenson to run as an independent...where he barely lost. It's a screwed up system...maybe now it'll force the politicians to fix it.

[barb162]

13. Good question. Sometimes I wonder

if other states aren't equally as bad. I have just been watching Jenny Sanford on 20-20 talking about her husband (Ex gov of SC) and his affair with the Argentinian woman. And I wonder if federal prosecutors are less tough in other states when they uncover corruption, fraud, etc.

[AllentownJake]

18. Generally speaking

The party is supposed to pull police records for anyone running for anything above Mayor of a small municipality.

[barb162]

29. I watched the IL Democratic Party attorney yesterday talking about

all this. I can give a transcript if you'd like. But anyone can run. If I am KKK, etc., I can run and no one can really stop me. There are systemic problems in the system. Even if police reports were pulled, can the party stop a person from running in your state? See, this guy was such a total unknown, literally no one paid attention to him, not even the major paper reporter he went to 3/17/09. The reporter buried it in a column that date and that was that. No one ever thought he would win, not the media, not the party, NO ONE. Then he started spending 2.5 million on ads talking about jobs.

[AllentownJake]

30. I didn't say you knock him off the ballot

You pull the records and you let people know he beats his hooker girl friend.

[barb162]

35. People already now know it this week and

he keeps denying he did it. He also keeps denying he knew she was a prostitute even though he lived with her. The woman never showed up at the battery hearing. What's going to drive him out now (I PRAY) is all the crap coming out about his divorce, the money he owes on child support (55,000 as of this week), the threats to his wife, the girlfriends bring brought to his house with the kids and wife in the house, his drunken kicking in the garage door, etc.

The man has such deep and serious character flaws it's amazing watching him. He's pond scum and doesn't even realize it. He blows everything off to he "fell in with a bad crowd"...like he was 12 years old or something. He says he's changed and then his wife filed for the overdue child support earlier this week. He sees nothing wrong with his behavior. This man is majorly disturbed.

Look, he went to a reporter in MArch 09 and told them of this battery charge which was dismissed ( she never showed for the hearing) and he said he never touched the woman. SO he thought he was okay.

[WildEyedLiberal]

37. Don't ask me

And I live here.

Jesus Christ, I need a brown paper bag to put over my head.

I didn't vote for this clown, at least, although the absolute dearth of information available about Lt. Gov. candidates means that most people who voted for him probably did so because he was the only one they saw a billboard for.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

12. OK he's going to hold a press conference at a night club. WTF? nt

[barb162]

34. It;'s better than holding a press conference at a massage parlor.

That's where he picks up his girlfriends.

Look this guy is so exquisitely lowlife, he has no clue about anything.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

40. Yeah nothing like addressing your prospective constituents in a "rub & tug".

:evilgrin:

[JI7]

15. why did he run in the first place and why did he win ?

[barb162]

19. He said he was holding job fairs and he spent 2.5 million on ads

on the jobs, jobs, jobs, theme, like he had solutions. People bought into it. I'm not sure he ever really held a job fair that got anyone a job.

[mucifer]

20. he is very wealthy and he had lots of tv commercials about how he ran job fairs

So some people believed that job fairs could save our economy. (Doesn't make any sense to me). Anyway, he had a ton of money he was endorsed by no one and probably very few people voted for Lt Gov. The IL DUers did our research and voted for other dems.

[barb162]

23. I still question whether those were phony job fairs

and if there were any really held. I trust NOTHING that slug says.

[nevergiveup]

25. There is something in the water here in Illinois

I voted twice for Blagojevich and each time I was sober. It has to be the water.

[barb162]

33. Hey, so did I because he was running as a "reformer."

He just had a different definition of reformer than I have.

[Luciferous]

38. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I also voted for him. Twice.

[barb162]

31. He ran to help the people of IL and get the state running better

SO HE SAID. He said with his business experience he could help and he wanted to root out corruption. I don't know, maybe pawnshops on every corner.

[mucifer]

24. I'm sure there will be a skit about it on SNL tomorrow.

[UTUSN]

28. If only I could help him do it. n/t

[frazzled]

39. And I spent so much time agonizing on whether to vote for Art Turner ...

or Mike Boland. I finally voted for Turner. Then when this unknown mo-fo wins out of completely NOWHERE, and it turns out he's a criminal mental case or something, I was really ... well, pissed.

I pray he will be convinced to drop out. Let the party give it to, I guess, Turner. Let's move on. This is a huge embarrassment. But it is an object lesson in the power of money. He won because of the ads, even though no one knew him from Adam. He may not even be a Democrat for all we know. He could have been financed by the GOP. But if you doubt money and advertising has an effect on elections, let that doubt be dispelled now. People were fooled.

[barb162]

42. People were fooled because they had such incomplete information

I bet if the contest were held this coming Tuesday and voters had all the info on this slimeball that is out now in the papers, he'd come in dead last. It's now a disaster even if he drops out next week.