Rich Miller opines:

But Weller could be a liability for Baldermann, as this excerpt hints…

Weller was supposed to appear at Monday’s breakfast with Baldermann, but cancelled because a family-related issue, said McLean County Republican Party Chairman John Parrott. [emphasis added]

“A family-related issue”? That just may be the understatement of the year.

Mr. Miller culls a few other choice segments of various articles on the 11th’s open seat, but two things are clear. The Republican field is being winnowed down for New Lenox Mayor Tim Baldermann, the favored candidate backed by the ethically-questionable retiree Jerry Weller. And, Mayor Baldermann is coming out spitting fire and venom at his likely Democratic opponent (should they both make it through the primary), State Senator Debbie Halvorson.

Baldermann’s tactic to date seems to be to tie Halvorson to the only politician with approval ratings lower than Pres. Bush — Gov. Blagojevich — by constantly reciting the refrain “Springfield”. His stock quote so far? “The last thing we need is that kind of dysfunction brought to Washington,” Baldermann said.

Got news for ya, Mayor Baldermann. The Republicans pretty much squandered their power while they ran the trifecta in Washington — succumbing to unprecedented levels of corruption, covering up other corruption, raising the debt ceiling while spending like “drunken sailors” (in Sen. McCain’s words), starting a war based on lies, trashing our environment, etc. Not to mention the fact that the guy he wants to replace, and who is in turn backing him, is leaving Congress under a cloud of suspicion.
If that’s not the definition of “dysfunction” then what is? Yet, Mayor Baldermann hopes to return Washington (and, by extension, America) to those not-so-glorious days by sending another Republican, himself, to DC. Gimme a break.

For those who are interested, Mayor Baldermann does have a history of following in the footsteps of allegedly corrupt officials. You may recall that the most recent former mayor of New Lenox, the fellow Mr. Baldermann replaced in last spring’s muni elections, was one Mike Smith who was caught in a shell game with village funds and campaign cash going for such personal expenses as visits to a Chicago strip club. Now, to be fair, Mr. Smith did reimburse the village and other accounts using money from the personal bank account he and his wife share. (Wonder what she thought of his big tips to strippers?)

So perhaps Mr. Baldermann enjoys replacing higher-ups who appear to have a history of ethical-imbalance. According to at least a few anonymous New Lenox blog commenters, he’s got quite the reputation back home. Wonder if the not-really-so-liberal traditional media will look into those anonymous allegorical allegations to see if there’s any there there? (At least we know conserv-o-partisan blogger, author and FOX News TV personality Michelle Malkin would begin stalking Tim Baldermann to find out, if he weren’t a Republican that is.)