SCHMIDT HITS THE PHONE

9/30/11

The salacious news on the local political scene over the last few weeks involved one State Senator Suzi Schmidt (R., Lake Villa). Why we should take anyone who insists, at the age of 60, on being called, for professional reasons, by the name of a little girl is another question, but I digress. It has apparently come out that, in a series of 911 calls made last December during what can charitably be called heated arguments with her husband, Bob Schmidt, Suzi Schmidt suggested that the 911 operator ignore any calls from her husband because, first, the situation was under control, and, second, she was a big time (in her own mind) political operator. The 911 operator rebuffed Mrs. Schmidt’s attempts at bullying her, pointing out that she, or any 911 operator, could not ignore any 911 call.

In the course of the calls, which were made in response to physical confrontation between the Senator and her husband, Bob Schmidt’s being locked out of the house on a cold Christmas day, and Suzi allegedly ramming her Cadillac (The woman does have great taste in cars; I’ll give her that much.) into her husband’s vehicle, we hear screaming, shouting and audible manifestations of all manner of incivility. The Senator attributes her manifest rage on her husband’s infidelity (One wonders why on earth a guy would stray when he has such a sweetheart for a wife, but I digress and, by doing so in this instance, will probably get myself into a great deal of trouble with much of my readership.) and suggests too much was made of the whole thing because, after all, she was, and is, going through a difficult personal time. I’ll say.

The most salient portions of the 911 calls were Senator Schmidt’s pointing out that she formerly was Chairman of the Lake County Board and that her husband was afraid of her because “he knows I have connections.” I suppose that could be one reason her husband is afraid of her, but, again, I digress. Clearly, the Senator somehow feels that, because she is, in her mind anyway, some kind of big time political muckety-muck, she deserves, and demands, obsequious obeisance from the hoi polloi, the salt of the earth public employees, who, like the 911 operator, actually work for a living, perform their stressful jobs on a daily basis, and do their best to protect us from the criminals and the crazies. Those of the mindset manifested by Senator Schmidt feel that those lowly genuine public servants who are on the front lines of the truly indispensable government functions owe their livelihoods to the beneficence of those who have make their livings lapping at the public trough and primping and preening for the cameras.

Before I get too condemnatory of Suzi Schmidt, I should point out that she differs, if at all, from many of her colleagues only in degree. How many of her colleagues in “public life” would not also attempt to use their clout to circumvent the rules they mandate for the rest of us? Remember, we only hear of such incidents when intrepid public employees stand up to the pols who are trying to intimidate them. How many times do less valiant public employees, probably wisely, simply yield to the demands of those who actually could have their jobs in this clout infested, overly politicized, state? Why should we be surprised at the likes of Suzi Schmidt’s trying to muscle a public employee by citing her “connections” and her former job as Lake County Board Chairman? People like Suzi Schmidt who, again, is by no means unique among those who seek self-aggrandizement through public office for a living, consider themselves a governing class, an Olympian pantheon who do us a favor by deigning to condescend to us and dispense their superior insight as to how we should live.

Note the responses of the profiles in courage who inhabit the Lake County Republican Party to Mrs. Schmidt’s self-inflicted travails. State Representative JoAnn Osmond (R., Antioch), who apparently has some trouble with English sentence structure, whimpered

“It’s just hurting so bad to loser her if that’s (resigning or deciding not to stand for reelection) her (Schmidt’s) choice. She’s upset. She never meant it the way it’s coming out…I’m praying something happens that she’ll stay.”

No, Suzi Schmidt didn’t mean to sound like a pompous popinjay; she just thought the 911 operator’s next question would be her profession, so Mrs. Schmidt generously pointed that she is a former Lake County Board Chairman who has “connections.”

And how about the reaction of Bob Cook, chairman of the Lake County Republican Party, who doubtless polished the apple while stating

“She didn’t threaten the operator. She didn’t try to make any kind of deal or press the issue. We’re talking about a two-minute phone call over 15 years in politics, helping people, doing the right thing, and being there.”

Mr. Cook didn’t point out that among those “right thing”s that Mrs. Schmidt did was to play ball with Mr. Cook. And the Senator didn’t try to “to make any kind of deal or press the issue”? Suzi Schmidt simply, and plainly, implied to the 911 operator that she knew people who could have her fired. Nothing coercive about that, no sir.

Given that Suzi Schmidt is surrounded by such sycophants, perhaps one can understand why she has such a high opinion of herself.

The only thing that can mitigate the arrogance of office that Suzi Schmidt so manifestly displayed in her conduct with the 911 operator would be term limits so that the self-styled governing class would somehow change their “We’re the barons, you’re the peasants, so fill our cups and make it snappy” attitude. Ms. Schmidt was only in her first term in the Senate, so limits would not purge this parasite quickly enough. But they might have prevented her from sticking around the Lake County Board long enough to assume that we are all desperately in need of her superior insights regarding how we ought to live our lives and that she was thus compelled to share her manifest wisdom and goodness with the entire state of Illinois.