Dennis Byrne Nails 501(c) Hypocrites - Hull House Settlement for Cronies?

Remember when real estate agent and hausfrau Patty Blagojevich was named to the board of directors for a local charity? Thought so. Let me refresh you, dear reader.

CHICAGO — The wife of impeached Illinois Gov
Rod Blagojevich was fired from her $100,000-a-year job as a Chicago homeless agency's chief fundraiser.

The Chicago Christian Industrial League's board exercised a termination clause of Patti Blagojevich's contract on Tuesday, the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times reported on their Web sites Wednesday.

Interim Executive Director Mary Shaver told the papers she could not discuss personnel issues. She did not return telephone messages from The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The poor girl went from bagging 100K to eating worms in Costa Rica - life's viscissitudes.

Mrs. Blagojevich was fired almost immediately after her husband was cuffed by the Feds; however, the same folks hired her for some reason at a husky salary, I might add. That is Charity these days.

I have been working in and around charity since 1991. Mostly, I work with private family foundations with, in charitable circles, modest piles of loot. They are not the Ford, Hearst, Joyce, MacArthur, Polk Brothers, or God forbid, the Woods Fund. There's charity . . . and then there's Charity.

I also have a great deal of luck taping local companies for support - Wells Fargo, The John Buck Company, McDonalds & etc. Law Firms with Leo Alumni are very generous, as well.

CHARITIES - Wood Fund, Joyce and MacArthur play big league politics. Those charities pay hugely and grant magnificently to connected and sanctioned entities.

It seems to me that since the early 1990's more of the Big Charities play politics rather than philanthropy. In fact, some family members of the MacArthur Foundation beefed to the press in the mid-1990s about the radicalization of their family fortunes by hand-picked boards of directors. I recall the Chicago Tribune running a series of such articles back then, but no such inquiry seems to arouse the tepid souls of editorial boards these days. The Annenburg Foundation, once a rock-ribbed conservative entity was handed over to the likes of Bill Ayers and folded into the Woods Fund Web. No story there.

Recently Hull House caved in under the burden of . . . well, someone is asking. Dennis Byrne, an old timey news guy, takes hard look at why that well-larded CHARITY went alewive.

Take Chicago's historic Hull House, the "crown jewel of settlement houses," which went belly up. A tragedy, indeed. The conventional, and correct, wisdom is that it became too dependent on government largesse. Yet, it's too easy to blame someone else, namely the stingy government.

The signs were there. The Better Business Bureau, in its last review of Hull House, found that it failed to meet some standards for charity accountability. It cited insufficient board oversight, lack of transparency in certain financial matters and inadequate reporting of its activities.

In 2009, the federal Pension BenefitGuaranty Corp.announced its takeover of Hull House's pension plan, whose liabilities for employees and retirees amounted to $11.1 million. Hull House Executive Director Clarence Wood at the time called the group's financial position solid, saying, "We are not about to close our doors."

And why would he want to? According to the last public disclosure I could find (2008), he was paid $283,000. As much as that might surprise many people laboring in the vineyards of public service for much more modest sums, it's not that unusual for nonprofit bosses. Scanning public records, I discovered top salaries and benefits in many Chicago-area nonprofits were in the reasonable, if not humble range. Then there were those that zoomed into the stratosphere, from $300,000 annually to a good deal more than $1 million. You can, and should, check out your favorite charity by examining its Internal Revenue Service Form 990 (Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax), available on the Economic Research Institute and other Internet sites.

Those high salaries rile Rick Roberts, who received from President George H.W. Busha Point of Light award for his work in the 1990s as CEO of the former Chicago Christian Industrial League, a social service agency serving the homeless.

"The CEO of any tax exempt charity must be held to a higher standard," he said. "With limited private dollars available and massive public budget deficits, why should any organization receive preferential tax treatment, let alone expect tax deductible private donations when the key people in that organization are enriching themselves, even if it's legal?

Roberts wanted to make clear that he wasn't indicting all nonprofits, naming Catholic Charities and the Salvation Army as examples of organizations serving the needy without enriching their employees or CEOs. Others may pay high salaries but do an especially good job, such as the Greater Chicago Food Depository. It's "doing not only a remarkable service but doing so to save money for hundreds of other nonprofits," he said.

Roberts sees too many nonprofits gaming the system, such as Illinois hospital executives plunging into debt to fund exorbitant expansions, and not incidentally to justify their plush salaries. He also warns about the increasing trend of nonprofits turning their operations over to for-profits so they can avoid the IRS' Form 990 disclosure requirements.

"If your goal in life is to help the poor rebuild their lives and heal their minds or bodies by working in a charitable endeavor, then accept the fact that you're not in the private sector where capitalist standards of compensation are an appropriate goal," he said. "It doesn't mean paying pauper wages. Just reasonable ones."

Today the belly-up museum and charity boasts the fine contributions to urban living by the Conservative Vice Lords. Charities -the bigger ones, always managed to attract program directors who spent far too much time with the Testors Glue tubes in youth. Thus, one can also understand its failure to attract any public willing to toss away a ten-spot, or more to honor gang-bangers, or other miscreants and perverts in a celebration of diversity.

Dennis Byrne, a Chicago writer, blogs in The Barbershop at ChicagoNow. dennis@dennisbyrne.net

Patty Blagojevich, briefly, received a pretty handsome pay package for her experience as a fund-raiser, but the board of CCIL took a real hard look at that salary once her hubby did the perp-walk.

Hull House was founded by Jane Addams and her special friend Ellen Gates Starr in 1889 with a donation of the mansion by the Hull Family and help from her Alderman Johnny Powers. Jane Addmas, as phony and homely an old broad as ever wore a page-boy, really saw her settlement house 'take off' after the 1904 Stockyard Strike. Jane and her short-haired activist intimates sold out the strikers - it's in the Chicago Tribune by the way.

Charity is good business. Dennis Byrne is doing a great job in calling public attention to the disconnect - philathropy and business . . .monkey business.


http://www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull/

Civil Liberties Are Not Afforded to Catholics - Dennis Byrne Explains the "The Yeah-Butters."

The Yeah, Butters are secular Progressive meme-mummers. The talking points (memes) are churned in the well-larded cash cows that produce the "The Yeah, Buts" - arguments and shout downs meant to silence any and all opposition to anything.

The "Yeah, Butters" created the "little liberty free zones" - no smoking, no trans-fatties, no goose liver, no nothing landscape that are the hall mark of Progressive America's laboratory schools of thought.

Progressives hate large families

Progressives hate smokers

Progressive hate people with pot-bellies

Progressives hate talk radio

Progressives hate you-name-it

Progressives hate schools that work ( Washington D.C., Catholic Schools and private schools)

Is hate too strong a word? Gosh, yes. Rather let's say that the above are Verifiably Unsatisfactory targets for elimination. Everybody Dance Now!

Progressives ( American Dewey/Hegelian Secularists - think Bill Moyers) really hate Catholics and always have done so. From Lyman Beecher - to Thoreau - to Jane Addams - to Roger Baldwin, Progressives have worked like Mexicans with family to eliminate Roman Catholic American influence and existence.

In the last fifty years, Catholic Democrats have done their heavy lifting. Funding from the big Yeah, Butter Dairies - Planned Parenthood, ACLU, 501 (c) 3 Family Foundations with boards backed with Lefties, public service unions and lending institutions helped baptized Catholic politicians, become born-again Henry Wallace/Margaret Sanger mouthpieces.

The result is the looming battle against religious liberty - going the way of cigarettes, sugar and butter. Catholics are the target for tonight and everynight.
Dennis Byrne, in his Chicago Tribune column answers the Yeah, Butters in their own words.

Radical secularists spit out their usual canard about how "Catholics seek to impose their morals on everyone else." This is the goofiest of upside-down arguments. In truth, it should be clear to anyone but the blindly ideological and anti-Catholic bigots that secularists are imposing their beliefs on Catholics. As the Rev. Robert Barron, a Catholic priest, scholar and author, noted: "Who is using the law to impose morality on people? It ain't the Catholic Church. It's the secular state."

Secularists will drag out plenty of diversionary arguments to the central issue, most typically: Many Catholic couples use artificial birth control, so it doesn't matter if the government tells the church what to do about contraception. As if the government can decide what church teachings are valid and constitutionally protected by taking a poll. If church membership disagrees with the church's beliefs, that's a problem for the church and its members, not the government. Government already has enough problems of its own.

In his controversial appearance at the University of Notre Dame, President Barack Obama promised a sensible approach to matters of conscience. He now touts how he draws from his Christian faith when crafting public policy.

It's all campaign rhetoric, and Catholics who fell for it by giving him a majority of their votes in 2008 have cause for regret and anger.

Yeah, but there is so much more coming.

Dennis Byrne Reveals - Personal PAC Commands the Good Ship Quinn

doublewide at 3:26 AM November 15, 2011
Byrne this boat has sailed long ago give it up! from Chicago Tribune Comments

Dennis Byrne is a Chicago Newsman. Ballyhooed by the Progressives who are so glad that they are no longer around, Chicago Newsmen reported and presented an independent voice free of political tentacles. Chicago Newsmen like Dennis Byrne, the late, great Ray Coffey, Mike Royko, Steve Neal, Basil Talbott, John McHugh, Herman Kogan, S.E. Kiser Robert Herguth,and Nick Von Hoffman are praised but never emulated by the contemporary species of ink-slinger.

The narrative is controlled. The narrative is pre-determined and pre-set for type. . .or font.

Chicago's supine media, to quote the late Tom Roeser, is in-the-tank for Progressive everything. Nowhere is that more in evidence than with the editorial boards of the two extant Chicago Dailies and the iconic "Ain't They Great" columnists.

The narrative is controlled. The story line of reports are edited to fit the Procrustean Progressive racks and the Opinion if Progressive agenda driven.

Gainful Employment for Protected Species - Forrest Claypool, Terry Cosgrove, Sheila Simon, & etc.

Gay Marriage is a must

Police Torture, though there has not been one conviction in the three decades of journalistic partnership with G. Flint Taylor's Peoples Law Office, is doctrine.

Redistribution of Wealth via Ralphie Martire's Pie-Charts is legislation

Public Schools are a howling success and need more money -For the Children!

Systemic Racism determines everything and anything from breakfast to black-on-back crime

Sexual Predators avoid meat on Friday, say the Memorare and conduct May Crownings

Sexual Preference is a Civil Right

Marriage is for White People - the stupid ones.

Bullying is a wholly owned subsidiary of LGBT industries

Abortion is cosmetic choice

Human Life begins and ends with the State.

Former Governor Pat Quinn turned to Planned Parenthood's Illinois Personal PAC President Terry Cosgrove when the Illinois Catholic Bishops yelled at Quinn and hurt his feelings for participating in Personal PAC's Awards Dinner.

Terry Cosgrove deftly gamed the media and took hold of the story, for the Governor who could not find a Chinaman on 22nd Street. The Bishops it seems hurt the feelings of a person being awarded for her efforts to advance the Cause of Women killing babies.

Dennis Byrne revisited this Orwellian gambit today. The ever-ready Vox Abortus a coalition of Gay Rights and Abortion activists turned on the News Cycle hate - much longer than two minutes.

Byrne pointed out the secular issue:

Outfits like Personal PAC would prefer to fight this issue on purely secular grounds, insisting that people who have a moral compass butt out. So let's consider this controversy from a purely secular perspective.

In that light, Quinn provides a lesson in Illinois' pay-to-play politics. He owes Personal PAC large. The group gave more than $400,000 in cash and in-kind contributions to Quinn's campaign. It ran its own TV ad campaign at a critical time. Terry Cosgrove, head of Personal PAC, was appointed to a $46,960-a-year seat on the state's Human Rights Commission.

The bishops' criticism targets Quinn's betrayal of his faith. My criticism is that Personal PAC is not just your average political action committee. It represents the most extreme political views about questions of life, and it's every bit as extreme as it accuses the Catholic Church of being.

Personal PAC opposes common sense regulations that would allow parents to be notified if their child is set for an abortion. Not only do Americans strongly support such parental notification, but according to a Gallup poll that was updated Nov. 11, 71 percent favor laws requiring parental consent for juveniles, education about possible risks of an abortion (87 percent), a 24-hour waiting period (69 percent), a ban on partial-birth abortions in the last six months of pregnancy (64 percent) and that patients be shown a pre-abortion ultrasound. Answers are similar for both men and women. Pro-choicers of Personal PAC's stripe oppose every one of them, arguing they cramp the "right to choose."

Personal PAC's position can be summed up by its support of proposed state legislation called the Reproductive Health and Access Act. It would grant an absolute right for any elective abortion before viability . It also would grant the right to an abortion at any time during pregnancy when it's "necessary to protect the life or health of the pregnant woman."

Who's To Say - the Progressive Mantra - works everyday!

Pat Quinn got elected Governor by promising the moon and stars to members of the Skilled Trades and Industrial unions. Absent from Quinn-A-Rama's were the XXXL Purple T-Shirts of SEIU. Quinn was a working guy. Quinn delivered for the public service unions and Pipe-fitters, Carpenters, Electricians, Operating Engineers, Millwrights, Iron Workers, Teamsters, and Machinists are getting laid off by the cohort. Abortion, Gay Marriage, Cop Torture, and State Welfare are doing just fine thank you.

In fact, the compelling narrative has shifted from Quinn to Speaker Madigan for the next few weeks.

All the while, a real Chicago Newsman, Dennis Byrne stays on the story of Personal PAC's ( Terry Cosgrove et al) control of the Goodship Paddy Quinn.








Dennis Byrne

1998-Present: Freelance writer and consultant
• Writing under my own byline and ghostwriting.
• Appearing weekly as Chicago Tribune op-ed columnist (2000 to present) and regular contributor to RealClearPolitics.com, Human Events, PoliticalMavens and other publications
• Chicago Sun-Times freelance op-ed columnist appearing twice weekly (1998 to 2000).
• Commercial writing of many kinds for corporate, governmental and other clients.
• Consulting on public affairs matters and public relations.

1986-1998: Chicago Sun-Times
• Columnist: Appearing up to four times weekly in Commentary section; writing on public policy, political, economic, cultural and other topics of my choosing.
• Editorial Board Member: Responsible for setting newspaper’s editorial policy, writing editorials, endorsing political candidates and interviewing government office holders, corporate executives, civic and community leaders, and a multitude of others.


1984-1986: Director of Public Relations, Specialty Chemicals Division, AlliedSignal, Inc., Des Plaines, IL
• Responsible for public relations for this $1-billion regional headquarters of a Fortune 50 company. Helped move the company’s corporate image toward one of a high-tech enterprise.
• Oversaw public relations for its dozen operating divisions, from developers of petroleum processes to the commercialization of reverse osmosis water purifiers.
• Writing and public relations for the AlliedSignal Corporate Research Center, interpreting complex scientific and engineering developments for mainstream media.

1978-1984: Chicago Sun-Times
• Science and Technology Writer: 1981-1984
• Transportation Writer: 1978-1981
• Special Projects Writer, heading up political polling, computer analysis of public issues and other projects.

1970-1978: Chicago Daily News
• Assistant Financial Editor: 1975-1976
• Urban Affairs Reporter: 1971-1974; 1976-1978
• General Assignment Reporter: 1970-1971


1967-1970: United States Navy
• Assistant Supply Officer, U.S. Naval Air Reserve Station, Olathe, Kansas: 1969-1970.
• Disbursing Officer and Assistant Supply Officer, USS Jonas Ingram (DD-938), homeported in Mayport, Florida: 1967-1969.
• Student, U.S. Navy Supply Corps School, Athens, Georgia, 1997.
• Officer Candidate, Navy Officer Candidate School, Newport, Rhode Island, 1997.

1965-1966: Chicago Daily News
• General Assignment Reporter

1962: DePere Journal-Democrat, De Pere, Wisconsin
• Summer Editorial Intern

.
Education
• Post Graduate Russell Sage Fellow in Social Science Writing, University of Wisconsin, Madison. 1964-1965
• M.S. Urban Affairs, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, 1963-1964
• B.A. Journalism, Marquette University, 1959-1963


Recognitions
• Nominated for Pulitzer Prize by the Chicago Sun-Times for column writing, 1998.
• Nominated for Pulitzer Prize by the Chicago Sun-Times for investigative series on police underreporting of rape cases, 1982.
• Nominated for Pulitzer Prize by Chicago Daily News, for investigative series on shoddy home construction, 1973
• Peter Lisagor Award, presented by the Chicago Headline Club, for editorial writing, 1991, 1993.
• UPI, third Place Award for Spot News reporting in Illinois, for mass transit funding crisis, 1981.
• Chicago Newspaper Guild Stick-O-Type Award for editorial writing, 1988.
• Chicago Newspaper Guild Stick-O-Type Ward for analytical reporting on the crash of American Airlines DC-10 in Chicago, 1979.

Dennis Byrne's Common Sense on the Mosque at Ground Zero

One of the best lines of dialogue in James T. Farrell's Chicago masterpiece -Studs Lonigan occurred in the first book of the trilogy Young Lonigan.

In one of the pool hall scenes Lonigan and the Hoods hanging out at Bathseller's Pool Hall are razzing one of the younger guys. The kid has had enough and he pathetically commands, "Keep Your Old Pool Hall."

Barney Keefe wags back, " No. Take it with you!"

Similarly, Dennis Byrne offers a very nuanced suggestion with regard to President Obama's favorite Mosque - The Cordoba House at Ground Zero.

The Constitution, law and tradition prohibit government from dictating where a denomination can build its house of worship. It's so enshrined in the law that the Supreme Court has decreed that government can't prohibit American Indians from smoking hallucinogenic peyote as part of a religious rite. Thankfully. We've already had enough of government prohibitions on expressions of faith, from the presence of a cross on isolated, public property, to public schools erasing references to religious holidays.

Yes, houses of worship located even on private property are not exempt from zoning laws. And government can take property owned by religious dominations if it serves a clear and compelling public interest and a no "less burdensome" alternative to achieve this public good is available.

But the Cordoba House has passed those tests. It doesn't violate local zoning or landmark ordinances. And being insensitive — as the imam surely is — is hardly sufficient legal grounds for blocking the construction of a house of worship. Let's be honest: the opposition to the mosque is fueled by discrimination against this religion. It's so obvious that any attempt by any government to stop the mosque surely is a loser. If Catholics, Protestants or Jews wanted to build there, we wouldn't be having this debate.

So, conservatives, let's leave the wailing about the imam's insensitivity to liberals, for whom it is the highest of offenses. Let's not waste our breath hoping that a government you believe should be limited would step in and do something about it. Such an expansion of government powers would eventually and surely turn against you in unforeseen ways.

Give Rauf his victory, if he must have it. It'll be hollow because the mosque's presence will stand as a concrete reminder of our devotion to liberty and acceptance of its costs. Erect a plaque outside proclaiming, "This mosque brought to you courtesy of America's dedication to freedom." The mosque will stand for all to see as testimony to Rauf's rigid and Procrustean version of Islam. Certainly, he and Islam will be the losers.

Absolutely! All of the Obama Cheerleaders, like Jonathon Alter and Mark Halperin, have been churning out Harper Lee Heart-tugging appeals to the Founding Fathers' Writ since President Gaffe-o-Matic Obama uttered his warm embrace of New York Mayor Bloomberg's Hagia Sophia West . . .and began the long walk back.

Have a Mosque, Rauf, by all means.

Great thoughts, Mr. Byrne!

Three Race Hustlers Take a Cue to and Beat the Hell Out of the Truth - CTA Cuts

We must make certain that Illinois is a state that truly exemplifies the principles of equity and justice in its public institutions. We can start now. Let's take this lawsuit as our cue.

Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.)

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.)

Ald. Rick Munoz (22nd Ward)

Never bring a Cue to a Race Card Game, Guys!

Congressman Jackson has Ethics - well an Ethics Investigation over his noggin in Congress.

Wrong-Way Kedzie, Tamil Tiger and Rev. Moon-Pie Danny Davis is a celebrated nit-wit with the pipes of church organ and E. Power Biggs hitting the keys.

Ald. Ricky Munoz is a dodgy ethically challenged darling of the Brie Eating Dummies. His poor Dad got into a huge jackpot last year, by Ricky managed to keep most the problem off his own shoes*.

This triumvirate of race baiters is hammering the race card over cuts to CTA services and using the time-honored Lefty Mantra ( now being 'so played' by the Obama White House - Systemic)

This funding ( CTA) scheme comes from a history of systemic racism that perpetuates barriers to social and economic equity in the region.

Thanks, Fellas! I ride the CTA. Grandma Donahue rides the CTA from 63rd and Kedvale to visit Mrs. Cooney in St. Gabes in Canaryville - she takes three ( four sometimes) buses ( 63rd to Pulaski -Pulaski to 47th and 47th East to the 'Ville). Stan Petkas from over by Marquette Park rides the CTA up Kedzie to Archer and then downtown. Dinko Malinkovich from Hegewisch rides the CTA down to Jardin and back every day. Esther Fein on the Gold Coast rides CTA #151 to Temple. Bruno and Rose Panatera from Taylor Street ( well not for long because the Profs and Docs strangled what used to be called rent in that once proud Italian neighborhood) ride the CTA all over the place.

Chicago journalist Dennis Byrne at Chicago Daily Observer gives these three dopes a Three Stooges Xylophone slap (Danny,Jesse, Ricky!)- Do Read:

The problem with the filing goes well beyond it('s) narrow reading of history, convenient disregard of reality and factual errors. The pleading asks for an end to the “disproportionate adverse impact” on race, but fails to say how. Redress would by definition require the reopening of the distribution formula and possibly legislative change of the farebox recovery ratio to favor more CTA riders. Should a judge—and not elected officials—now make that decision? On what basis? There’s no guarantee that when all things fair are considered that the CTA would even come out better.

The suit also leaves out an important fact when it bifurcates the region into the CTA and suburbs. The Illinois Metropolitan Transit Authority Act, which created the CTA, authorizes the agency to operate in much of Cook County, including the suburbs (for the literal-minded, it’s everything east of Range 11.) And, indeed it does, serving as many as 30 suburbs, such as Wilmette and Evanston. Metra also serves some of those same suburbs, such as Wilmette and Evanston. So, for purposes of squishy equity the suit demands, are African Americans living in Wilmette or Evanston defined as a part of the plaintiff class? If so, should their Metra service be reduced to achieve some vaguely defined notion of parity?

Racial mongers make their living like this, separating the world into honeycombs of advantaged and disadvantage, victims and oppressors, black and white. This is the 21st century, folks. We should be beyond that.

To the three nitwits - ALL CHICAGOANS pay fares and get cold at the stops. Cuts hurt Everyone! It is cold at stops for elderly Jewish, Croatian, Lithuanian, Italian, Polish and Irish systemic racists as well as the Acceptable Victims ( Black & Hispanic). Funny – I never hear Mexicans beef. Only Hispanics, Where the hell is Hispania, or Hispanica anyway?

Danny Davis needs to start collecting his many pensions.

Jesse Jackson, Jr. needs less street cred and more sound legal advice - Talk to the Mrs. more Congressman - Dad's advice has not played out too well. Fitzy has a spotlight brighter than the Congressional 10 Watt Flashlight.

Ricky - well. One can never get through to a Leftist Action Figure. Time will take care of Ricky.



This Systemic Winter is a Bitch! Ain't it just.

*
Muñoz's father, Elias Muñoz, a legal Mexican immigrant, operated Nuevo Foto Muñoz at 3105 W. 26th St., in the Little Village Discount Mall. In April, 2007 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents searched the shop as part of an investigation dubbed "Operation Paper Tiger." Nearly two-dozen defendants were charged with participating in a bustling counterfeit identification document business that allegedly generated between $2 million and $3 million annually. Elias Muñoz was charged on May 29, 2007 with conspiracy to produce false identification documents and aiding and abetting. Elias Muñoz pleaded guilty, was sentenced to four years in prison and two additional years of probation, and is likely to be deported.
http://www.cdobs.com/archive/featured/will-we-ever-get-beyond-racial-hype-in-the-public-interest,112821

John McCain: Chicago's Great Reporter - Dennis Byrne - McCain Most Competent

Chicago's talented and insightful Dennis Byrne has this to say about Senator John McCain in the Chicago Tribune:

For all of McCain's alleged faults, he holds an American Conservative Union lifetime rating of 82.3. True, that's the lowest among the leading GOP candidates. But, RealClearPolitics.com's consolidated polls of various head-to-head races show that McCain is the only Republican candidate who is, at this moment, ahead of the Democratic front-runners, Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois. Are die-hard conservatives so dead set against a slightly less than pure conservative president that they would prefer either Clinton or Obama (with American Conservative Union ratings of 9 and 8, respectively) in the White House?

McCain's conservative credentials can be verified by a close examination of Project Vote Smart's Web site (www.vote smart.org), where the voting records, issue positions and interest group ratings of the candidates are detailed. Spend time there, and you'll find that McCain isn't the ogre that custodians of the conservative flame would have us believe.

For me, the two most important issues in the election are national security (i.e. the war on terror, the war in Iraq and the nuclear threat posed by lunatic tyrants) and the quality and philosophical grounding of the new president's appointments to the Supreme Court and other federal courts. (The latter should be most critical to pro-lifers. Whether the high court will return the question of abortion to voters depends on the quality of those appointments.) McCain is on the right side of both issues, and that's what counts for me. Everything else -- the economy, free trade, balanced budget and so forth -- comes in second. McCain's remarkable comeback in the polls means something. Perhaps its significance coincides with the success of the Iraq "surge" -- something he courageously had urged for years while former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was still carrying out his lame war strategy.

Or perhaps voters are getting tired of the mind-clanging, headache-inducing demands for "outsiders" who are the "agents of change." Right. Tossing a puppy into a ring of snarling pit bulls also will bring about change. Reformers often fail because they don't know the territory. For all the glory heaped on Obama, I'd put my money on the less illustrious and consummate insider Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) to be an effective agent of change. Not that he is, or that his change is the kind I'd like.

This election, any election, comes down to a single question: Who can govern the best? Not who can orate the best. Or which candidate is the correct race or color. Who can govern the best ... it's not a conversation you often, if ever, hear in the endless jabber about the presidential elections. I suspect voters are getting tired of all the strategizing by creepy political advisers and just want someone to govern, someone who, as one shoe commercial says, can "just do it." If so, that's why McCain will get the Republican nomination.