An Illinois Democrat with ethical problems? Perish the thought

By Phil Boehmke

Only a matter of hours after voters in Tuesday's Illinois Democratic Primary had elected Scott Lee Cohen to be their nominee for Lt. Governor, the party was in full crisis mode. It seems that the Chicago pawn broker has a rather checkered past to say the least. The day after the election The Chicago Tribune reported.

police and court records from an October 2005 incident show that Cohen's then-girlfriend alleged he put a knife to her throat and pushed her head against a wall. Public records show that the woman, his 24-year-old girlfriend at the time, pleaded guilty to prostitution that same month.

It seems that prior to the election nobody in the Democrat party or the media had bothered to find out anything about Mr. Cohen. In all fairness, Lt. Governor is not a very high profile office in most states. In Illinois it has been over a year since Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich was removed from office, impeached and replaced with then Lt. Governor Pat Quinn. What are the odds that something similar could happen again? Mr. Blagojevich was the first Illinois governor to be impeached, although three of the state's former governors in the past half century were sent to prison after they left office.

Many Illinois Democrats are having buyer's remorse now that they are learning about the man they voted for (sound familiar?). Still you have to give Scott Lee Cohen credit for running a good campaign, his aggressive use of direct mail, staging of job fairs, TV and radio spots more than made up for any lack of substantive information about his background and fitness for office.

But new disclosures showed that even as Cohen was spending more than $2 million of his own money to run TV and radio ads for his campaign, his ex-wife in December was accusing him in court of being $54,000 behind in child support payments.

As further details about Mr. Cohen's troubled past including incidents of steroid use, spousal abuse and particulars about his messy divorce in 2005 have been revealed, his running mate and current Illinois Governor Pat Quinn said that he had "an obligation to step aside." Following in the footsteps of former Governor Rod Balgojevich Cohen has vowed to fight on and made his case for remaining on the ticket.