The first…and only…time I interviewed Melissa Bean was on my radio show…shortly after her election—and she showed up with a handler armed with a fact-book from the DNC. I had a list of questions to ask her and as I am the ultimate in gentle-ness, I reviewed them with her before the broadcast to get her thinking about them.
That’s the kind of guy I am, folks. I’d rather get a thoughtful response than sneak up on an interviewee and surprise him/her with a “gotcha” question.
No, no, no she said about questions that did not pertain exactly to her congressional job but to the political climate of Illinois. I won’t answer them. No-no-no, I won’t!

The handler winced, looking like he was just kicked in the groin because the questions were not tricky at all.
No, no, no. And on the air when I asked her one anyhow, she said she wouldn’t comment. On some of the more tricky ones…that dealt with congressional issues…she used her handy Clif Notes from the DNC. First and only time I ever saw that done. Usually adroit Dems memorize them.

But still, by no means was she the worst interview I ever had. That dubious honor belongs indisputably to the president of the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce, Doug Whitley…he of new-found allegiance to the Republicans after a near lifetime of being a Democrat—and who is still emotionally and intellectually a Democrat to this day…not withstanding his run for the Republican nomination for governor this year.

Of course, social issues were off the table when Dugout Doug ran. He concentrated on issues important to the country club.

He just sat there and said on the air: No comment. No comment. No comment.

But now Ms. Bean has come up with another formula to protect herself from the public…and you can see it on YouTube…or Breitbart and elsewhere around the Internet.

Ms. Bean showed up at a Town Hall with a couple of slab-faced thugs who specialized in discouraging her audience from challenging her.

That is the mark of devastating insecurity. Much as I dislike Mme. Schakowsky’s ideology, my Congresswoman, she’s got guts, inner resolve, ideological certainty, fire, healthy vehemence. She doesn’t need male brutes to shush up dissent. Not so Ms. Bean the Insecure.

You see that video clip and you will resolve to vote her out.
Who Was that Mosque Man?

The Weekly Standard blog has an interesting reference to one of Alexi Giannoulias’ contributors. He is Mohammad Sahloul the former president of the Mosque Foundation, the Bridgeview outfit which was shut down by the Feds as a possible front for terrorism. He gave Alexi $1,000. The Standard says the Foundation gave $400,000 to four Islamic charities which were also shut down for links to terrorism.

By the way, Harry Reid’s opposition to building the Mosque near Ground Zero and Mitch McConnell’s out to presage a resolution supported by both to the Senate where it would undoubtedly pass—sending it on to Barack Hussein Obama. (The name Hussein by the way is a longstanding honorific implying one who stands in good favor with The Prophet. Can’t quarrel with that up to now.)

Sort of pathetic how Obama has been trying to clear up his original statement that sounded unmistakably like he favored building the Mosque. Now the firm party line is that he merely endorses the right of Muslims to worship as they please. Now’s the time for Lynn Sweet, the Obama cosmetician to get her rhetorical powder puff, rouge and eyeliner out and pretty up the presidential image on the Mosque.

While I’m at it, do the media have an unmistakably clear statement from Alexi on the Mosque issue? I haven’t seen one.

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Tom Roeser is the Chairman of the Editorial Board of the Chicago Daily Observer