I generally had no interest in this race, but having watched this almost surreal interview with Scott Lee Cohen, the Democrat nominee for the office of Lt. Governor, all I could think was: if there is ever a film, Dan Aykroyd needs to re-invent his Ed Zelinsky character (from the film Tommy Boy) to play this guy.
“I never touched the woman; I never tried to cut her throat . . . and if we can find her, and have her come forward, I’m sure she would sure she would tell you the same thing! [I had unpaid federal taxes] I am just a normal human being, a very ordinary guy. . . . I have been the most honest, open, forthright candidate out there. I had a legal right to seal the divorce file; I had a legal right to squash the arrest record because I was never convicted of anything. I chose to keep it out there so the people could see . . . I tried hard to be an honest guy. I’m the guy that’s gonna bring industry and jobs back to Illinois . . .”
Sadly, I cannot find Aykroyd’s Cohen counterpart on You Tube.
The press is hating on this guy because he may keep the Democrat candidate from winning. He certainly is a colorful character who does not fit the mold!
For the record, though -whatever this guy’s story is- I really believe the press needs to leave his wife, his ex-wife and his kids alone, and he is right to be angry about their intrusions. As I have said again and again: members of the press would never tolerate anyone bothering their own spouses or their own children, and they need to stay away from the families of those they cover.
Meanwhile, Moe Lane says the Illinois elections are “turning nicely symmetrical.
JWF has more on Illinois Dems etc.
Ed Morrissey: Cohen’s baggage is now at steamer trunk level.
Hmmmmm. He’s a Democrat. So do you think the newspapers will do a “Jack and Jeri Ryan” job on him? I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for it.
You’re right that his family and ex-family should be left out of this, but it would be nice if the press weren’t such a bunch of stinking hypocrites.
There’s another one? Isn’t there a Dem politician of some sort that slashed his girlfriend’s face in New York? What is wrong with a party that would nominate this kind of guy to the lieutenant governship? Guess it means the Dems are totally in the tank.
Note to Cohen: you can’t find her because she’s terrified out of her mind, you twit. Thanks for clueing us in.
Sorry – The Chicago Tribune reports that Cohen met the woman in a massage parlor cited numerous times for prostitution in 2005. She herself was a convicted prostitute when she met Cohen at the massage parlor. Other Dems are pressuring him to take himself out of the race. Pray for them all! My heart goes out especially to the children – my kids would have killed me for embarrassing them. Anyone remember how your very existence in front of school waiting for then mortified your poor tween or adolescent. These kids have to know way more than they want or should know about their father’s sex life!
Anchoress, what this guy has done goes WAY beyond just being a “colorful character who doesn’t fit the mold.”
For the benefit of those who don’t have time to read the linked stories, here’s just a partial rundown: his ex-wife says he did steroids and attempted to rape her; he neglected to pay child support for his four children while spending more than $2 million on his run for lt. governor; he has dozens of lawsuits pending against him, and his own brother has sued him for $400,000;
he admitted meeting his ex-girlfriend at a “spa” that was widely known at the time to be a brothel in disguise; and he never voted in any party primary before this week.
For those of you wondering how he got “nominated” — in Illinois, candidates for governor and lieutenant governor run separately in the primaries but together in the general. Someone who runs for governor in the primaries can informally choose a “running mate” and urge his/her supporters to vote for that person for LG, but the final decision is left to the voters so the gov candidate actually has no control over who runs with them.
This system has led to several memorable electoral debacles in the last 30 years or so, and has renewed calls to either abolish the office of LG altogether (and just let some other state official be next in the line of succession to the governor in case of death, disability, indictment or impeachment) or allow governor candidates to choose their running mates directly.
I also note that the presumptive GOP candidate for governor — a very pro-life, conservative, Catholic, downstate legislator named Bill Brady — has said that he would prefer this Cohen guy to step down too, even though his staying would give him (Brady) a better shot at winning the general — because Brady wants to win fair and square, on his merits, and not by “default”.
As an Illinois resident and political junkie myself, this story has kept me chained to the computer all week long… I may have picked the wrong year to give up blogging for Lent
you meant “Ray” Zalinsky, not “Ed” as you said in your article… I can still recall the television ad jingle on Tommy Boy singing, “Ray Zalinsky, the auto-parts king.”
With that said (and I only told you that to correct the record not to belittle your point), I want to comment on how accurate your observation is that this guy does in fact sound a LOT like Ray Zalinsky and if this guy does become part of a movie, I hope Aykroyd tears him a new one because this guy deserves it.
Good article; thanks for sharing the video.
[You are correct - Ray Zelinski. I should have remembered that, as I once noted that Aykroyd seems to like the name Ray and has played several characters with that name, most notably, "Ray Stantz; the heart of the ghostbusters."
admin]
Update: He quit. Cohen made his announcement at a Chicago bar (!) (on Super Bowl Sunday, no less). He said he was leaving the ticket “for the good of the (Dem) party” and because he didn’t want to “hurt the people I love so much.”
(If he didn’t want to hurt the people he allegedly loves so much, maybe he shoulda thought of that sooner… like about 5 years ago, before the steroids, hooker incident, etc.)
The Illinois Democratic Party Central Committee now gets to slate a replacement candidate for him, which they will probably do within the next month or so.