Wysocki and Beckett in District 9 primary

If this were 1806 instead of 2006, the political primary fight being waged in Champaign County Board District 9 in Urbana might be settled with silk gloves and sidearms at 20 paces. But instead of using pistols to dispose of their political foes, dueling Democrats are flinging epithets at each other for the right to run as Democratic Party candidates in the November general election.

This distasteful four-candidates-for-two-seats free-for-all, which is the epitome of what people hate most about politics, demonstrates once again that whoever said family fights were the worst fights was right on the money.