In Facebook terms, it sounds like Gov. Pat Quinn decided to hit the "unfriend" button on GOP Rep. Aaron Schock.
After the two had a joint morning appearance on Morning Joe, The Chicago Tribune picked up on the governor's work to get Schock disinvited "from a luncheon honoring Illinois Special Olympians."
Seriously? Is this high school?
Even though the appearance was characterized by the Tribune as a "bit of a wash" for both (and, honestly, watch here--this debate was really anything but uncivil), it apparently kickstarted a political fury in Illinois:
The rhetoric ramped up in the aftermath.
"I've never heard so much gibberish and nonsense," Schock said of Quinn on WLS-AM 890. "Who put his talking points together? Either that, or focus on the problems of the state and don't talk about the federal. It's no wonder why we're in year five of his (Quinn's) administration now that we still don't have a fix to our pensions."
A day later, Quinn went on WLS' "Don Wade and Roma" show.
"He was kind of giving me a hard time," Quinn said of Schock, and he noted the congressman's transportation bill faux pas. "I actually heard him say on this program that he heard gibberish and nonsense. And yes he did. He uttered it out of his own mouth — gibberish and nonsense — and I think we wanted to get the record straight."
The administration took matters even further two days later.
Schock was supposed to appear with Quinn in Springfield at an Executive Mansion kickoff luncheon for Illinois' Special Olympics. The Quinn administration contacted event sponsors and tried to get Schock removed from the program or to shift things so the two wouldn't appear together, said event officials who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
When the program went on as scheduled, organizers were told Quinn was running late and that Schock should appear on his own.
Brooke Anderson, a Quinn spokeswoman, said the governor's late arrival was due to travel, not Schock. She also acknowledged the spat.
"Considering the congressman's comments (two) days before in which he stated blatant falsehoods about the federal transportation bill … we did have concerns about the congressman politicizing the event," Anderson said.
Sounds like Quinn gets his political tactics straight out of Mean Girls. Schock did misspeak about the transportation bill, and Quinn tried to make a false parallel between the president's auto bailout and a Ford plant in Chicago adding more shifts (even though Ford didn't receive bailout money), as the Tribune article pointed out. I'm not really sure how that all leads to Quinn claiming Schock would try to politicize a Special Olympics event (when his comments came in radio and TV interviews) and then try to get him disinvited, which, in turn, actually politicized the event.
There goes Quinn's Miss Congeniality vote.
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