Call Off The Cops: Brady Throws In Towel To HOP Homophobes‏

The Daily Herald article chronicling IL GOP Chairman Pat Brady's resignation was pretty mundane till paragraph 17 which is too precious not to share:
 
The last of three ouster attempts was a raucous meeting April 13 in Tinley Park. About 75 people attended to call for Brady's removal over his support for same-sex marriage and erupted in anger when they learned Brady would keep his job. Local police had been called to keep the peace and at one point locked people out of the hallway adjacent to the meeting room, where they'd begun yelling and chanting, "Throw him out."
 
Not once, not twice, but three times the IL  HOP (Homophobe Only Party, a.k.a. GOP) led by State Senator Jim Oberweis and Jerry Clarke, former chief of staff to U.S. Congressman Randy Hultgren, disgraced themselves and their party by publically staging an ouster move of the gallant Mr. Brady, whose support of gay marriage in Illinois was the 800 lb impediment to his staying in charge of the HOP and trying to drag it (no pun intended) into the 21st century of inclusiveness and full humanitarianism. If you're  going to make complete fools of yourselves, the least you can do is finish the job in one embarrassing effort.  Three times the HOP well to well of divisiveness and three times they came up dry. HOP stalwarts were quick to point out that Brady's gay marriage stance had little to do with their ferocious ouster campaign. To believe them, it focused on his inability to make the HOP competitive in elections. Considering this is the same self destructive mindset that gave us possibly the worst major office candidate in Illinois history, Alan Keyes in 2004, who lost to Barack Obama by over 2,200,000 votes, the current HOP leaders need only look in the mirror to figure out what ails the HOP. By the way, what ever happened to that guy who overwhelmed Keyes?
 
Brady's removal exposes the real problem the HOP faces as the 2014 election season approaches. A virulent homophobe has little chance to ascend to the chairmanship and the dwindling moderates left, like state Sen. Matt Murphy of Palatine have already bowed out, reading the homophobia writing on the wall.
 
While these Illinois HOP shenanigans were playing out, both Rhode Island and Delaware legalized gay marriage, pushing Illinois to only a possible 12th best finish in the statewide full civil rights sweepstakes. And over at Lincoln's Tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery, if you're real quite, you might hear mutterings like this:
 
"In 1860 I put the GOP on the map. If I could come back for one day I'd rip the HOP right off that map."