It’s a reliable rule of history that by the time the president is using a once-hip phrase from the young people’s popular culture, it’s probably getting a little stale.
But eight months after Barack Obama "dropped the mic" at the end of his last White House Correspondents’ dinner, the Illinois GOP has dug up the bloated corpse of the tired saying, sprinkled it with a little stardust and inserted it in an ad that urges voters to "Drop the Mike" Madigan.
The ad — featuring a caricature of the Illinois House speaker — uses Gov. Bruce Rauner‘s bottomless war chest and the latest technology to answer a question literally nobody was asking: What would Mike Madigan sound like as a rap star?
Like an old Republican with no flow, apparently.
"Word. Don’t fight the feeling," the Madigan caricature raps over a plodding beat. "I’m Mike Madigan and I rock Illinois. I’m speaker of the house, and these are my boys."
Viewers unable to yank their TV power cord from the socket quickly enough are then subjected to dancing caricatures of Democrat state Sen. Andy Manar, of Bunker Hill, and gubernatorial candidates Chris Kennedy and J.B. Pritzker, who jump on stage and act as Madigan’s hype men.
"I’m the longest-serving speaker in the USA," Madigan drones on. "I love to raise your taxes, and I’ll make you suckers pay."
Madigan re-elected speaker for 17th time, lays out Democratic economic agenda Monique Garcia and Kim Geiger
A newly re-elected House Speaker Michael Madigan on Wednesday unveiled a series of proposals aimed at jump starting job growth in Illinois, the Democratic response to the economic agenda Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner has pushed for two years as the sides remain deadlocked on a state budget.
The…
A newly re-elected House Speaker Michael Madigan on Wednesday unveiled a series of proposals aimed at jump starting job growth in Illinois, the Democratic response to the economic agenda Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner has pushed for two years as the sides remain deadlocked on a state budget.
The…
(Monique Garcia and Kim Geiger)
Posted early last week on YouTube, the ad had garnered only a modest 6,000 or so views as of Friday lunchtime, though with nearly two years until the next gubernatorial election, there is still plenty of time for both sides to suck more beloved music genres into the black hole of their unending feud.
Madigan spokesman Steve Brown told Chicago Inc. he was not among those who had clicked on the GOP’s latest effort, but he added that "in the unlikely event I find time with nothin’ to do, I may take a look."
kjanssen@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @kimjnews
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