Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner's phoniness was never on more display than yesterday. Rauner knows it's easy to harp on corruption, but he clearly has difficulty doing anything about corruption when the corruption is for his benefit.
Natasha Korecki of the Chicago Sun-Times did an excellent job yesterday pressing Rauner about the openly armed men the Libertarian Party had to deal with during their recent successful fight to stay on the November ballot.
You can watch Rauner's response on this video beginning at the 40 second mark here.
Rauner says he's "appalled by the behavior," is "outgraged," and "would never condone it."
Really Mr. Rauner? Well then what are you doing about it?
Have you fired everyone on your campaign staff who worked alongside the openly armed goons but who said and did nothing?
Just last month Mr. Rauner, your own campaign gave $750,000 to the Illinois Republican Party, a record contribution. Yesterday you tried to pin all the blame on the Illinois Republican Party for the conduct you yourself describe as appalling and outrageous. And yet you know darn good and well that it's you who funded armed investigators and intimidation tactics, via your contribution funneling.
If you're truly so "outraged" and "appalled" at the way the State GOP is spending your money, have you called for the resignation of State GOP Chairman Tim Schneider?
Have you called for the resignation of State GOP governing board member Sean Morrison? As you know Mr. Rauner, Morrison is one of only 18 members of the Illinois Republican Party's State Central Committee. Surely you can't be okay with being a record-setting contributor to an organization led by the same person whose security firm employs the openly armed intimidators you claim to be outraged about.
Mr. Rauner, I wasn't around when the private equity firm you chaired did things like abandoning nursing home victims after you and your partners carried off what you could.
But after you helped Democrats in a major way for years, you see an opportunity this year and now want to crash your way into what for many of us has been our life-long Republican Party home. You think you can just bring in the strong-arm tactics that made you a lot of money elsewhere.
But you're wrong. Enough is enough Mr. Rauner. Some of us think the Republican Party should be the leader on reform. If you're going to remain unserious about cleaning up this latest mess which has your fingerprints all over it, then you picked the wrong party to crash.
Doug Ibendahl is a Chicago Attorney and a former General Counsel of the Illinois Republican Party.