[AuH2ORepublican]

*ILLINOIS SENATE PING*

Do any of you know anything about Dr. Andrea Grubb Barthwell? Other than the fact that she's a black physician from Chicago, Bush's deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy and is strongly anti-drug, I know nothing about her.

[sinkspur]

I'd vote for Mike Ditka. Pumped on Cialis, comity in the Senate would suffer a serious blow from Iron Mike.

[fieldmarshaldj]

I just heard this story earlier today. I had never heard of her (apparently Speaker Hastert had no idea, either). I just did a googlesearch on her, and during her confirmation back in 2001, this was what the late liberal Sen. Paul Wellstone had to say about her:

"Dr. Barthwell is extraordinarily qualified for this position and the Administration would be fortunate to have her expertise readily available as the lead White House advisor on domestic drug and alcohol treatment and prevention issues." Senator Wellstone urged the Senate to confirm Dr. Barthwell quickly, adding, "Her contributions will be invaluable as the White House implements the President's addiction treatment expansion initiative, one which could go a long way to help our country effectively deal with the serious domestic drug addiction problem that it faces."

Dr. Andrea Grubb Barthwell

[fieldmarshaldj]

Y'know, I actually think Ditka is enough of an audacious choice to run the guy (which would definitely throw Obama for a loop). But the question is what are his positions ? He may be enough to cut into the Chicago ethnic voting bloc dramatically (such as the Rostenkowski-Blagojevich-Emanuel district as well as Lipinski's), which is an absolute must now. At this point, we've got precious little to lose where IL is concerned.

[Clintonfatigued]

I've never heard of her, but I'm intrigued. A race between two African-Americans would generate a lot of publicity. Now that Steven Rauchenberger has dropped out, there are only little-known candidates, and Dr. Barthwell could at least make the race interesting.

[Abram]

I have seen that she has resigned to look at the race. I am not very optimistic with her chances. Obama is very charismatic and the whole Democratic machine is backing him. The dear doctor does not seem to have a lot of name recognition, but I am hoping that the Ds will need to concentrate some money on that race so that they cannot divert it elsewhere into more competitive races such as NC, SC, LA, and OK.