Chicago Daily Observer

A dramatic declaration of independence was issued by Illinois Republican Party Chairman Andy McKenna in Decatur on Saturday at the GOP state convention.

McKenna tongue lashed both former Governor Jim Thompson and either DuPage County Board Chairman Robert Schillerstrom or DuPage GOP Party Chairman Dan Cronin.

Taking on Thompson’s continuing show of support of incarcerated former Republican Governor George Ryan, McKenna said,

Illinois Republican Party leaders recommended Friday that consultant and former state’s attorney Pat Brady of St. Charles be named the new national committeeman at the Republican National Convention.

Brady, cousin to state Rep. Dan Brady, R-Bloomington, still must be elected by the Illinois Republican Convention in Decatur today to officially take the spot.

The national committeeman represents the Illinois Republican Party to the national party. If elected, Brady would succeed committeeman Bob Kjellander, who has announced he will step down at the end of his term, following the 2008 elections.

Illinois Republican Party Chairman Andy McKenna used the occasion of the conviction of Democratic fixer Tony Rezko to call for repair of the “broken political system in Illinois.”

Yeah, well, we’ll see about that.

McKenna’s commitment to reform will be tested this weekend when the state GOP convention meets in Decatur to debate, among other things, freeing the party from that “broken political system.” It will be a test of whether the party’s Ins will be able to keep the party’s Outs out.

The party’s Ins are doing whatever is necessary to keep that system broken because it ensures the continue flowing (to them) of money and power. The Outs have the ideas and the conscience necessary to revitalize the party and liberate the state from its Rezko-like corruption in which both the Democratic and Republican brass wallow together. The GOP’s only hope for redemption is to yank ... Read More...