The Morgue the Merrier

As if stretching their creative muscles this week, TeamAmerica10th took a stab at Internet humor. The niche-market blog posted a story about Richard Keller, the Lake County Coroner. Keller, who proved it doesn't pay to moonlight from the day-job, resigned suddenly on Tuesday; the Sun-Times has the post-mortem:

Lake County coroner resigns after plea deal in overdose case

TeamAmerica10th's comical spin on the story's aftermath:

Terry Link, Lake County Democratic Chairman, will likely be the one to make the recommendation of a temporary replacement to be appointed by the Lake County Board Chairman, David Stolman, with the advice and consent of the Lake County Board (since the replacement must be a Democrat). Maybe since his wife Susan Link was crushed in her primary bid for election as a Waukegan Alderman (against long-time incumbent Larry TenPas), she would be a likely candidate.
A Sad End to the Tenure of Democrat Dr. Richard Keller as Lake County Coroner

One of the pitfalls of Internet blogging is that there is no laughtrack to alert the reader where the jokes are. In this particular case the joke is the suggestion that Terry Link will recommend his wife to replace Keller. Rimshot.

All kidding aside, Link may very well be extended the courtesy to recommend a candidate. However, the appointment is to be be made by David Stolman and the Lake County Board; their only constraint is the appointee must be a Democrat.

Operatives are advised to watch for the County Board to disregard any qualified candidate recommended to them. Your LakeCountyEye has learned that the Board is already interviewing a pre-determined slate of eager job hopefuls. Here are their names, and the rationale behind their suitability for the position. The winner assumes the Coroner's job at an annual salary of about $100K, through 2012.

The Ten Leading Candidates for Lake County Coroner
Name	Occupation	Qualification
Brent Paxton	County Commissioner	Chiropractor
Joe Walsh	Congressman	Skeletons in the Closet
Richard Keller	Ex-Coroner	Prior On-the-Job Experience
Creepy Chicago Tribune Cartoonist	Political Cartoonist	Creepy
TeamAmerica10th	Attorney	Internet Blogger
Dan Duffy	State Senator	"I'm not down there to make friends."
Lisa Stone	Ex-Trustee	David Stolman : Lisa Stone :: Skipper : Gilligan
Bonnie Thompson Carter	County Commissioner	Able to Procure Plenty of Land for Pauper's Graves
Your LakeCountyEye	Pajamaclad Blogger	Extensive Experience Getting Dead People to the Polls
Mark Curran	County Sheriff	Mad as a Hornet

Look for your LakeCountyEye in the scullery, sharpening the knives.

Fact Checking

If one needs to catch up in a hurry, one could do worse than consult the excellent CapitolFaxBlog and TeamAmerica blogs. So it was to your LakeCountyEye's surprise to see a shout-out while reading TeamAmerica today. The shout-out was directed toward fellow scribbler Redtail, who had some trenchant observations on the Dick Keller kerfuffle here. Redtail speculates that TeamAmerica had some advance notice about Michael Waller's ongoing investigation of the Coroner.

A TeamAmerica post from July 6 had prompted Redtail to say ...

If you read the entire post and between the lines, it's hard not to suspect that TeamAmerica was tipped off in advance about the investigation.

TeamAmerica not surprisingly begged to differ here, on Monday ...

Of course, LakeCountyEye implies that Team America was tipped off about the investigation when he wrote this post, and knew then that there was more to Keller's announcement than met the eye. While TA's sources are many, I will also say that it was a pretty darn obvious conclusion from the circumstances and TA's research into Keller's fundraising record that raising money was never something that he spent a lot of time on, which LakeCountyEye fails to mention.

He said, she said? Your LakeCountyEye decided some sniffing around was in order.

The TeamAmerica post in question here is ostensibly about Keller's early July announcement that he won't be seeking re-election in 2012. Keller mentioned his poor fundraising efforts as the reason for the decision. TeamAmerica was rightly suspicious of the excuse. Everyone knows Keller has been an indifferent fundraiser, and your LakeCountyEye doesn't think anyone really believed Keller's explanation.

An obvious conclusion to make & end of story? Well, first take a look at the title of that TeamAmerica post:

Do Dead Men Have Tales to Tell? Lake County Coroner Richard Keller's Decision Not to Seek Re-election Should Raise Questions

Which dead men might TeamAmerica be slyly referring to?

TeamAmerica says ...

Something here smells like a corpse the coroner forgot to put back into the freezer for a few days. TA suspects there is much more than just a re-evaluation of Keller's life priorities behind this decision.

A corpse -- who mentioned anything about a corpse? No one as of July 6.

There are also some interesting comments from the peanut gallery. The prolific Anonymous has this to share:

It seems clear that Keller is in trouble and trying to get out. My guess is that he stays in office until Terry "Dead Guy" Link can appoint a successor - maybe "Sneaky" Pete Couvall, his bankrupt sidekick.

A dead guy? Pray tell us more!

TeamAmerica replies ...

In the wake of any scandal that forced Keller to resign, that would probably be a boost to the GOP candidate for the office, not to mention Republicans Willard Helander, Mark Curran, and Bob Skidmore, who are all also up for election in 2010(I forget if Roycelee Wood is up this cycle; I think she might be). If Keller and the Dems were smart, he would exit sooner rather than later to allow as much time as possible for any taint to pass, and get the new person settled in. Of course, this is all assuming there is some scandal brewing just beneath the surface...

Now Keller could have privately decided to retire in 2012 for a raft of reasons. Why would one assume that Keller was in trouble -- that some scandal was brewing just beneath the surface?

To another commenter TeamAmerica says ...

Bottom line: Let's give Keller a few weeks and see what happens. Perhaps we'll be seeing some more announcements soon...

And we wait a few weeks and mirabile dictu we see some more announcements! Your LakeCountyEye's magic crystal ball is in total awe of TeamAmerica.

Finally, TeamAmerica confides to another commenter:

let's put it this way: Leaving aside the fact that Keller's fundraising history does not support a claim that it was too much of a burden to deal with every four years, I have other sources for my suspicion that it's not the whole story. Nothing I can print (yet). But give it a few weeks and let's see if anything develops. Perhaps I'm wrong. But we shall see.

And see we shall.

Safety in Numbers

Fresh back from vacationing in the Hamptons, your LakeCountyEye has been attempting to catch up on current events.

The News-Sun last week was all over the Dick Keller kerfuffle:

Lake County Republican Chairman Dan Venturi of Lake Villa said the situation "is not being driven by politics," adding that "from a party standpoint, I can tell you that we haven't been involved in it at all. "We're about as far out of the political cycle as you can possibly be. If this had come out last October, I can see people saying that, but it's three years until the next election," Venturi said.

Your LakeCountyEye is no math major, but isn't the next election in 2010? One year (and change) until the next election? Certainly Keller would have been slated for re-election in 2012, but he declared last month that he's not running again.

2012 looks to be a big presidential election. And 2012 is the year of redistricting. But call your LakeCountyEye sentimental, the 2010 election ought to count for something. The Lake County Republicans seem to think so, according to the News-Sun they're already campaigning for 2010. The County-wide quadrille of Helander, Skidmore, Curran & Wood are running collectively as the Republican Leadership Team. (Your LakeCountyEye hopes not a ton of money was spent on that particular nom de plume.)

It's possible Venturi is locked in like a laser guided missile on the 2012 election. And oblivious that four of his top candidates are running as a team in 2010. Does that mean there is no plan in the works to run his people against a party of corruption in 2010 -- against the party of Blagojevich and Burris and Keller? And there really is nothing political lurking behind the Keller kerfuffle?

If that's so your LakeCountyEye is on record saying Dan Venturi has missed a bet.

He Said, She Said

The circus that steamrolled Lake County Coroner Dr Richard Keller has pitched its stakes on both the MSM and the blogosphere this week. A lot of high profile players, like Michael Waller, Terry Link, Dan Venturi, have jumped in with their talking points. Adding to the circus atmosphere is a partisan troll who has been predictably showing up on this blog demanding Keller's scalp.

The odd thing, to me at least, is the both the timing and the source of the story. Steve Vaughn, who was being treated for drug addiction, died on Dec 3 of last year. Now eight months later we're all talking about the investigation. What happened between then and now?

Investigations obviously take time, but this investigation is far from complete. The press is usually not notified when an investigation is in progress for obvious reasons. When the press does learn about an on-going investigation it's because someone leaked it. The investigation is being conducted by Lake County State's Attorney Michael Waller. Who leaked the Keller investigation and why?

According to the News-Sun:

State's Attorney Michael Waller said his office began investigating Vaughn's death in February at the request of Vaughn's family.

But according to another News-Sun story on the same day, the deceased's mother

said she is unsure who initiated the investigation into her son's death, but said investigators from the Lake County State's Attorney's Office told her they were looking into an increase in heroin and methadone deaths.

Did the Vaughn family contact Waller's office? Or did the State's Attorney contact the Vaughn family?

As reported in the News-Sun Keller maintains it's all a political witch-hunt. Keller announced last month that he did not plan to seek re-election in 2012. And Keller admitted to the News-Sun that the investigation contributed to his decision. Was Keller coerced? Or worse, was the threat of an investigation in some way an occasion for political blackmail?

Keller's announcement last month was also noticed by the partisan blog TeamAmerica:

Something here smells like a corpse the coroner forgot to put back into the freezer for a few days. TA suspects there is much more than just a re-evaluation of Keller's life priorities behind this decision.
Do Dead Men Have Tales to Tell?
Lake County Coroner Richard Keller's Decision Not to Seek Re-election Should Raise Questions

If you read the entire post and between the lines, it's hard not to suspect that TeamAmerica was tipped off in advance about the investigation.

According to the News-Sun, the State's Attorney says he is just doing his job:

Waller, a Republican who has served as state's attorney for nearly 20 years, denied that the investigation had anything to do with politics, saying his office is merely investigating what they're tasked to do. He said it may take some time before his office comes to any conclusion.

Stay tuned, I'm sure we haven't heard the end of this one.