One of my favorite columnists, John Kass of the Chicago Tribune, has an excellent analysis out this morning entitled, appropriately enough, What Plagues Clinton in the final days: The Chicago Way, in which he sets out a nice, succinct statement of all the ways the Clintons’ thirty years of sleaze is catching up with them in the last stretch of the campaign.

Using the full force of his many years of experience of reporting political news in the place which gave that special treatment its name, he notes that one thing which is different this time, as is the case with anyone with half a brain who experiences Chicago politics on a day-to-day basis, is that everyone knows the system is rigged now that it is all out in the open for all to see:

“Something they’ve felt for years, whether Republicans or Democrats were in charge, something they were mocked from saying outright:

It’s rigged.

Now that this is commonly understood by the people, and has become a daily feature of the presidential campaign — with both sides leveling the charge — and the Department of Justice mired in politics, the republic is treading on dangerous ground.”

Emphasizing the fact that this time the voters have it all laid out right in front of their eyes, if they just take a moment to see it and understand the depth of its rottenness and decay and corruption, he says:

“It’s a ripe mess and voters know it. It’s right there in front of them. And this has outraged many liberal pundits, who perpetuate the myth that they speak truth to power even as they rally around the desperate establishment queen. The wits of our modern Versailles continue to ridicule voters who dare think the system is rigged, and call them foolish, deplorable hicks or mentally ill.

But media ridicule and the mocking of voters who have been left behind in this economy has its limits. All it does, really, is stoke cynicism in the final days, leaving Mrs. Clinton and her friends scrambling one step ahead of a closing Trump.”

After reviewing the cast of bottom-feeders which have performed in this Theater of Sleaze just in the past few weeks, such as Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Donna Brazile and the open and blatant rigging of the DNC against Bernie Sanders, he sums up the recent battle between the FBI and The “Justice” Department:

“And now comes the worst of all, what seems to be that proxy war, fought through the media, between FBI agents investigating Clinton on a series of fronts and the Department of Justice which has reportedly tried to shut those investigations down.

Yes, it’s corrosive. It is the Chicago Way writ large.

And pretending it is something else blinds Americans to dangers yet to come, no matter who is elected president in November.”

This is an outstanding summary of the tsunami of slime we have witnessed in this campaign– in such volume it is hard to fathom even for those of us who try to stay abreast of the new eruptions every day — and I highly recommend it for your careful consideration.

God Bless America!