From the Illinois Tenth Congressional District
Ah, the Chicago Tribune. Remember this? You don't see political reporting of this caliber every day:
The paper is no friend of Illinois Democrats and has no interest in a successful future for our party. Nevertheless, the Tribune endorses in Democratic primaries, largely with a mind to meddling, judging by the remarks in some of their endorsements. The paper's choice in the Democratic primary in the Congressional District where I live is Blue Dog businessman Brad Schneider. Now, Mr. Schneider has maliciously twisted the newspaper's misuse in the endorsement of the term "bogus" to create a suggestion that Mr. Schneider's opponent, Ilya Sheyman, is misrepresenting Schneider's record. Mr. Schneider knows perfectly well that Mr. Sheyman's charges about his record are true.
Mr. Sheyman has been giving Mr. Schneider trouble over the fact that Mr. Schneider has sometimes voted in Republican primaries and has contributed thousands of dollars to Republican candidates, including to vicious Congressional opponents of women's reproductive rights. In mailers this week, Mr. Sheyman called Mr. Schneider out over this.
Continue reading to see Brad Schneider's sleazy and misleading response to this controversy.
Start with this: The Chicago Tribune did not call "Sheyman's attacks 'bogus'" as Mr. Schneider's new ad trumpets. What the paper actually said was that the editors thought Mr. Sheyman's complaining about Schneider's support for Republicans was "bogus". "Bogus" means false or fraudulent or misleading. The newspaper did not use the word in any such sense.
The quoted word comes from the Tribune's actual endorsement of Mr. Schneider in which the word "bogus" cropped up.
Deerfield management consultant Brad Schneider, 50, is a much better fit. He has experience working for big companies and running his own, and he has a long record of service to community organizations in the district. He's taken some heat for donating to some of Republican Mark Kirk's congressional campaigns, but this is a bogus complaint. It's a testament to Schneider's independence that on other occasions he contributed to Kirk's opponents. Federal Election Commission records suggest Schneider has found common ground with a wide range of candidates — Nancy Pelosi, anyone? — just like the voters he'd represent. Schneider is endorsed.
The newspaper doesn't dispute Sheyman's charge that Schneider sometimes supports Republican candidates. Instead, the paper completely misuses the word bogus, as though the word meant something like, sure, it's true he did it, but it's OK with us. After all, what Mr. Sheyman has accused Mr. Schneider of doing is supporting Republicans, which is perfectly OK with the
Chicago Tribune. In Mr. Schneider's ad, he twists the
Tribune's lexicographical malpractice to make Ilya Sheyman out as a liar, even though Schneider knows the facts to be true.
Did you notice, too, how the Tribune's endorsement almost made Schneider sound like some sort of Mitt Romney, who is going to use his business experience to steer us to a better tomorrow? Like I said before, too much about Brad Schneider has a Republican stench to it, from his embrace of austerity hawks like Steny Hoyer, to his wobbliness on means testing Social Security, to his financial support for ferocious enemies of reproductive choice for women and foes of equality, Mr. Schneider, as a Democrat, is way too much of what has been wrong with our party in Congress and way too little of what could be better. Brad Schneider calling himself a lifelong progressive doesn't make it so. If you really want to know the truth about Brad, click.