Dillard: “I Told You He Was a Socialist”

Apparently formerly moderate (sound familiar?) Republican state Sen. Kirk Dillard has no sense of decency.

The Hinsdale legislator and former chief of staff to Gov. Jim Edgar has hopped on the crowded right-wing train to loony land and, in the process, created for himself an Obama Problem.

Dillard angered his party colleagues last year when he participated in a campaign commercial for Barack Obama, praising his bipartisan approach as an Illinois state senator.

At the time, it seemed like a savvy - if not transparent - move to position himself as a similar bipartisan moderate in a run for governor. Riding Obama's coattails in Illinois even as a Republican must have sounded like a better idea than opposing him in a home state whipped into a frenzy behind him.

But now, facing backlash in his own primary, Dillard is clarifying where he stands on the president.

"I warned people he was a a socialist then," Dillard said. "His health care plan when he was in the Senate showed that."

Really? You warned us, Kirk? And yet, you went ahead with a campaign commercial designed to put the man in the White House? 

Dillard hasn't painted himself into a corner, he's painted himself into a conundrum wrapped in a contradiction.

Dillard claims he was only testifying in the ad to Obama's bipartisanship, particularly on ethics reform.

So you were praising his bipartisan socialism? Terrific! 

Put Dillard down for socialist ethics - but not for the rest of their program! 

Of course, the commercial included Obama's allegedly socialist health care work in Illinois as one of his achievements. Maybe Dillard didn't get a copy of the script ahead of time. Like the part about confiscating everyone's property and forcing schoolchildren to wear little red uniforms.

As long as we're talking about red-baiting here, let's play an old game. You say you warned everybody that Obama was a socialist? Name names! We want to see just who was told and sat back and did nothing.

Steve Rhodes is the proprietor of The Beachwood Reporter, a Chicago-centric news and culture review.