By Bruce Walker

The
Illinois State Legislature is going to quickly remove the power of senatorial
appointment from its latest disgraced governor.  That means some other politician will
fill the seat held by another politician, all of whom are steeped in the
corruption that is Illinois politics. 
The bipartisan slime includes the oldest and biggest city machine in
American history, Daley and Son.  In
the 1920s, Mayor Daley’s office was held by a hand picked candidate of Al
Capone.  It includes Blagojevich’s
imprisoned Republican predecessor. 
It includes the whole rotten mess, and it is safe to say that almost no
one who is the next Junior Senator from Illinois will take office with clean
hands.  Except Mike
Ditka.

The
legendary player and coach almost ran against Obama when our president-elect won
his Senate seat.  He ought to do so
now.  Not every citizen of Chicago
is happy with pandemic political putrescence.  Not every person who calls Illinois home
likes the fact that an honorable Speaker of the House, Danny Hastert, resigned
from the second highest office in the land in utter repulsion.  Not every Chicagoan enjoys the fact that
the town once known as the “Second City” is viewed by the rest of America as
something of a sick joke.

Coach Ditka gained fame and fortune with bare knuckles and a
bullying thunder – but his fighting was honorable, gritty, character-building
fighting.  He earned everything he
ever had with hard work.  Can anyone
imagine trying to bribe Senator Ditka? 
Can anyone imagine trying to intimidate Senator Ditka?   

Mike
Ditka doesn’t want the job of senator. 
That is exactly what our country needs.  Someone who reluctantly, led only by
love of his country and what it represents, runs for office is the cure for what
ails us.  Mike Ditka doesn’t need to
be senator.  He became a household
word in our nation and an honored name among all sports fans because he worked
his tail off, never backed off from any fight, and never earned a dime on the
taxpayer’s tab.  We need someone
sick of politics to run for political office.

Would
Ditka win?  His Chicago Bears Super
Bowl Winner is, arguably, the best pro football team in history.  He raised the Bears into the pinnacle of
sports excellence, just like Ditka, the college football player and Ditka, the
NFL tight end, represented pure excellence.>   Fixing the vote in Chicago against
this icon would be almost unpatriotic, and if he gets a significant percentage
of the vote in Chicago, Ditka wins office easily in Illinois.

His
personal life has had a few ups and downs.  But Mike Ditka has never pretended
otherwise.  What is true about this
tough American is that he never backed away from anything, never lied about his
life, never pretended to be perfect, and he comes across as a real John Wayne –
a straight shooter at a time in which our country desperately needs straight
shooters.  Moreover, his decades in
front of television make Ditka easily appear to be just who he is:  A genuine, authentic, real
American.   He is a communicator, a very forceful
communicator.

Is
Ditka conservative?  He describes
himself as an “ultra-ultra- conservative.” 
Enough said.  A man who grew
up in the industrial heartland of Pennsylvania, clinging to guns and to faith, a
motivational speaker whose message is to work, to fight, and to win.  A few short weeks ago, Mike Ditka was
proudly introducing Sarah Palin to Americans.  Does anyone doubt he would vote the way
he believes or that he believes in what is best for America?

Would
Mike run?  Only if we asked him
too.  There is nothing – and I
really mean nothing – in it for him. 
That is just why Mike Ditka might run for the Senate.  He is not a young man any more.  A few years ago, Ditka had a real touch
with the mortality of man with a heart attack.  Ditka would not gain a single thing out
of being a United States Senator, except the knowledge that he was helping to
save his country.  We need to ask
Mike Ditka to run.  We need to
challenge him to take this last, biggest, toughest job in his very rugged
life.  America needs Ditka.  If we tell Mike that, and if he listens
to his heart, Mike will run.

       © 2008 Bruce Walker — All Rights Reserved