Time for Brady to step down

The news media have made a big deal that the “conservative wing” of the Illinois Republican Central Committee couldn’t garner enough votes to oust Chairman Pat Brady.

The media focused on Mr. Brady’s comments in support of gay marriage, which flies in the face of the party’s established platform. If Mr. Brady doesn’t like a portion of the party’s platform, he should go through the appropriate, established channels in the party to get it changed — not just make statements, off the cuff, pandering to the Democrats’ own base.

But that’s only part of it. Mr. Brady shouldn’t be voted out; he should step down. This is the guy that has presided over the unraveling of the Illinois Republican Party to the point of irrelevance.

In 2010, a wave election for Republicans nationwide, his party loses the governor’s race to an ineffective, politically useless lieutenant governor. Then, two years later, after a litany of Pat Quinn tax and fee increases, credit downgrades, and runaway spending, it should have been a slam dunk to regain a majority in Springfield. But, no, Mr. Brady presides over a disastrous election where his party gets slammed down into super minority status.

You would think after that debacle, Mr. Brady would have the courage to step down. No, Tom Cross, Mark Kirk and the Illinois establishment stick their collective heads in the sand, circle the wagons around him, keep him in his cushy leadership position.

So, folks, it’s not just about gay marriage, it’s about Mr. Brady’s ineffective, if not nonexistent leadership and the establishment protecting their own.

Joe Tagliavia

Beach Park