Christmas in Springfield?

Lake County has celebrated another Thanksgiving. Its observance traditionally marks the beginning of a month-long season of festive preparation where friends, family & neighbors all come together to engage in what is truly a once-in-a-year occasion. Yes, the War on Christmas, simmering all year, has again erupted into a shooting war. The opening salvo against this most sacred of holidays is typically fired from the war-room of some activist nanny-state federal court. This year is no exception. According to the Chicago Tribune ...

A federal judge today moved back the filing schedule for Illinois congressional candidates to late December while deliberations continue on a lawsuit challenging the state's new U.S. House district boundaries. The start date for filing candidate petitions was to begin next Monday. But U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow, one of three federal judges overseeing a Republican challenge to the Democratic-drawn boundaries, set Friday, Dec. 23, through Tuesday, Dec. 27, as the new filing period.
Federal court pushes back congressional candidate filing while Illinois map in dispute

Operatives will not need to consult their pollsters to see that Christmas -- Dec. 25 -- falls smack dab in the middle of Dec.-23-through-Dec.-27, the new federally mandated Congressional filing period.

As readers of this blog are acutely aware ...

The Petition Edition

the Congressional primary ballot in Lake County is looking to be packed tighter than the Millburn Strangler in a ComEd outage. Typically most congressional candidates are utter noobs, unable to meet even their minimum petition requirement. But every one of those Congressional campaigns, experiencing near-death right about now, just got mouth-to-mouth resuscitated with this federal ruling.

Scores of congressional candidates will now be forsaking their holiday obligations in last-minute pursuit of petition signatures. And holiday shoppers will be staying home in droves rather than risk being overpowered by an army of campaign operatives desperately advancing to hit that magic-number of signatures before the new post-Christmas deadline. Thank you, unelected panel of federal judges, the Grinch himself couldn't have done a better job stealing Christmas in Lake County.

Your LakeCountyEye shudders to think what those activist judges have next up the sleeves of their black robes, in pursuit of their total War On Christmas. Oh, the humanity, won't somebody think of the children?