It's Hard To Pander To Everyone

The so-called Democratic big tent is actually a collection of many little tents, the occupants of each are only loosely allied. There is no better example than when Illinois' bumbling governor Rod Blagojevich tried to suck up to blacks by appointing a member of the Nation of Islam to a ceremonial state human rights panel.

"No matter what he does, he's going to tick somebody off," Rick Garcia, political director of the gay rights organization Equality Illinois, said Friday. "It's completely a no-win situation."

Four Jewish members of the Governor's Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes resigned this week rather than serve alongside an aide to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, known for his disparaging remarks about Jews, whites and gays.

The third and fourth resignations came Friday, when Howard Kaplan of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago said he could not serve on a commission "that, by implication, accepts divisive and bigoted standards."

Democratic state Rep. Lou Lang, who was appointed just a day earlier to fill one of the vacancies, also stepped down.

It's entirely possible that he's telling the truth when he said that he did not even know that he had appointed a Nation of Islam true believer to the panel. He claims that he didn't even know that Jon Stewart's Daily Show was a comedy show before appearing on it. He thought it was real news.