Illinois to fix Medicaid shortfall by promoting smoking

No, this isn’t a story about Mark Block. Out in the Land of Lincoln, the state is facing a serious shortfall in their Medicaid funding. (A story which is being repeated across the nation, in case you haven’t been keeping score.) But the Governor has a plan! Fear not, citizens. We’ll raise the money to help people with their medical bills by counting on people smoking more. What could possibly go wrong?

Blowing Smoke – With a politically incorrect puff, Mark Block lights up the presidential race.

Blowing Smoke

With a politically incorrect puff, Mark Block lights up the presidential race.

As I strolled up First Street, I spotted him immediately. Mark Block, as he likes to say, was “being Block.”

He was smoking.

To be exact, he was puffing a Marlboro Light. And like most in Washington, he was doing it outside on a Wednesday afternoon, banished from the indoors.

As Block paced, a drizzle began. Others took cover. Block lit up another cigarette, gripping an iPhone to his ear as he circled his campaign papers, which were piled in binders on the pavement.

When the drops fell harder, he picked up the folders and stepped under the awning of the Capitol Hill Club, muttering campaign musings to his caller as politicos streamed past.

Everyone noticed him, from business-casual interns to slick-haired lobbyists. One congressman gave him a thumbs-up; most incoming diners simply grinned.

Block, you see, is a celebrity this week. He is a YouTube sensation.

As chief of staff for Herman Cain, Block recently starred in an online video. In the 55-second spot, he talks up Cain’s effort. He also smokes.

“We’ve run a campaign like nobody has ever seen,” Block says in the clip, leaning against a fence. “But then, America has never seen a candidate like Herman Cain.”

As he takes a drag, Block looks straight at the lens. The camera zooms in, focusing on his gray eyes and drooping, salt-and-pepper moustache. Then Cain appears for the closing seconds.

Cain’s brief appearance is as memorable as Block’s monologue. The presidential contender slowly turns his head and smiles. “I Am America,” Krista Branch’s country hit, blares.

Cain’s cheeky expression — endearing, to be sure, but also a tad long — has unsettled more than a few viewers. So have Block’s intense, rambling remarks. But it’s trippy and it works, Block insists as we take chairs for lunch with Linda Hansen, Cain’s deputy chief of staff.

Late-night comics have celebrated and mimicked the clip. But the mainstream press, of course, is not amused. Inside the Beltway, Block’s smoking has stirred a certain horror.

Pundits are befuddled. Block broke — without shame! – an unwritten rule of political correctness. Even President Obama, a longtime chain smoker, takes his packs in private.

Block couldn’t care less. The video, in a couple days, has garnered millions of clicks. On cable television, it is a sizzle story. Talking heads on every network — some giggling, some wagging their fingers — have attempted to decode its meaning, its message, and its leading man.