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Still think that was a good idea, guv?
Thursday, Jun 6, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller * As I told you the other day, Gov. Pat Quinn’s post-session “leaders meeting” was a complete disaster when Speaker Madigan didn’t show up. Quinn blamed the snafu on Madigan not having a cell phone. The push-back from Madigan’s spokesman was pretty darned harsh…
Ouch. That sort of talk was used against Rod Blagojevich quite often. Beware, governor. Beware. * And check out the latest political cartoons. Sun-Times…  * Tribune…  Oof.
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- sal-says - Thursday, Jun 6, 13 @ 10:17 am:
Old saying: ‘Can’t cure stupid’ ???
- Robert the Bruce - Thursday, Jun 6, 13 @ 10:18 am:
Love the cartoons! The post-session meeting was going to be useless, Quinn tried to use it as a media opportunity, and got what he deserved.
I’d love to know how often, if ever, Quinn and the two legislative leaders actually got together in the last month of the session to see if they could reach a compromise on pension reform. Perhaps that would have been pointless, but the outcome couldn’t have been much worse than passing nothing.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Jun 6, 13 @ 10:18 am:
You’re obsessed, Rich.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jun 6, 13 @ 10:21 am:
Anonymous, you haven’t seen obsessed. Ask Rod. This ain’t obsessed. But you have the same sort of reaction as the Rod folks did. And not just on stuff like this, either.
- dupage dan - Thursday, Jun 6, 13 @ 10:23 am:
I get it now. PQ is trying to pull of a type of Inspector Cleauseau persona - completely inept but gets the bad guy in the end. That’s about all they have left to go with here.
- Nice Kid - Thursday, Jun 6, 13 @ 10:26 am:
Day 1: we didn’t know calling in was an option.
Day 2: the speaker didn’t have a phone with him.
Day 3: the speaker just wasn’t available.
- Cassiopeia - Thursday, Jun 6, 13 @ 10:30 am:
Quinn is truly floundering and uncertain of what to do. At some point his long-suffering older staff will begin edging towards the exits. The younger ones, who are still wild-eyed believers, don’t have the perspective to know that they are on a sinking ship that gets lower in the water every day.
The truly weird times will come after March 18th when he has lost the primary but is still Governor for almost 10 months.
- OneMan - Thursday, Jun 6, 13 @ 10:41 am:
== You’re obsessed, Rich. ==
Funny lots of folks feel that way about Rich when it comes to giving their guy a hard time. Be it Republican or Democrat….
- Distant Viewer - Thursday, Jun 6, 13 @ 10:44 am:
Sure, Quinn keeps fumbling but…
All of you are closer to Springfield than I am, but from the suburbs of Chicago it looks like Madigan is also losing his control and power. He’s failed to get important bills passed like pension reform. He’s failed to help pass what should be slam dunks like the marriage bill. This despite a veto-proof majority.
And, nearly all the headline news about him is negative.
I wouldn’t say he’s done, but he sure looks weakened.
- wayward - Thursday, Jun 6, 13 @ 10:52 am:
Quinn: Here’s my number, so call me maybe.
Madigan: No.
- IBE - Thursday, Jun 6, 13 @ 11:04 am:
wayward: Hilarious!
- Chicago Cynic - Thursday, Jun 6, 13 @ 11:20 am:
Distant viewer, you’re dreaming if you think the Speaker’s power is weakened. The weaker the governor, the stronger the Speaker. Hard to imagine this governor looking weaker than he did with this.
And yes Wayward, hysterical.
- low level - Thursday, Jun 6, 13 @ 11:22 am:
Can someone please tell me what had developed in the 3 days since the session had ended that had to be discussed right then? Was there an agreement to be finalized, or some other new aspect that hadn’t been covered during the 5 months of spring session?
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jun 6, 13 @ 11:27 am:
===Was there an agreement to be finalized, or some other new aspect that hadn’t been covered during the 5 months of spring session?===
Nope.
This was all show, no go from jump st.
And it backfired. Badly.
- Both Sides Now - Thursday, Jun 6, 13 @ 11:27 am:
@Robert the Bruce - perhaps you have forgotten that Quinn did call for additional meetings regarding the pension crisis earlier in the session, and at the time, Madigan said “he was done with meetings”.
In my opinion, the bulk of the pension crisis rests at Madigan’s feet. He won’t go to meetings with the Governor, he won’t call the Senate’s bill in the House, he didn’t work with President Cullerton to come up with a mutual bill to run in both chambers, he didn’t have enough influence to get his own bill passed in the Senate, he doesn’t even manage to take the bits and pieces discussed during his early session stunt and cobble them together to simply do something! Instead, he just retreats to wherever, ignores the rest of the world and the citizens of Illinois are picking up the tab to the tune of $17 million a day! Want Illinois to move forward? Fire Madigan and find someone who really wants to work with the Senate President and Governor rather than rule the state as his own kingdom.
- low level - Thursday, Jun 6, 13 @ 11:38 am:
Thank you, Rich. I am not down there any more, but that was my sense of it.
So there was nothing new - and yet the story is that MJM didn’t have a cell phone, or borrows one, or some other nonsense.
I wish the media would ask Quinn, or his spokeswoman, why the Governor didn’t hold more leaders meetings during the session? That way, being transparent and all, other legislators and Senators could have been brought in - when they were in Springfield.
The headline very well could have been “Quinn wants closed door, private meeting with leaders only days after lawmakers leave Springfield”
- RNUG Fan - Thursday, Jun 6, 13 @ 11:44 am:
I thought Madigan was smart on the cell phone but the feds know every call of every cell to his house -his staff and so on so he might as well have one
You are right I think both sides but I am sure his fans will be telling us how unfathomable brilliant he was
- low level - Thursday, Jun 6, 13 @ 11:49 am:
Ah, yes- the MJM bashing/blaming is in such vogue that even statements that have no logic behind them are put forward.
- Formerly Known As... - Thursday, Jun 6, 13 @ 11:53 am:
=== why the Governor didn’t hold more leaders meetings during the session? ===
That is an excellent question.
It seems, most likely, because he is not a leader.
- RNUG Fan - Thursday, Jun 6, 13 @ 11:54 am:
I am just adding my MJM bashing to the Quinn Bashing. After all MJM is a creation of yet another bad Quinn idea
- Formerly Known As... - Thursday, Jun 6, 13 @ 12:05 pm:
=== Beware, governor. Beware. ===
How much of this is legitimate political back-and-forth, and how much of this is designed to help bolster his daughter’s challenge to the Governor?
Is this Madigan the obstructionist or Madigan the defender of Illinois?
There lies the rub.
Unfortunately, we cannot tell until Lisa makes her formal announcement.
If she runs, many will question the Speaker’s role in creating, or at least failing to remedy, some of the major problems currently facing our state.
If she does not run, the Speaker will likely regain the benefit of the doubt on such issues. The legacy of Madigan as the only sane operator in Springfield, looking out for the state, will be safe.
Otherwise the perception may well be one of a man, over many years, trying to position his daughter for the Governor’s office at the expense of our common good. That is not a legacy one wants to leave.
Disappointing the end of session disintegrated the way it did.
- Distant Viewer - Thursday, Jun 6, 13 @ 12:45 pm:
I defer to the more active commenters on MAdigan’s power. It just seems, that Madigan tends to use his power to avoid making any tough or possibly controversial decision. I’m not sure that’s leadership either. To me, a person who follows Illinois politics without being involved in them, Madigan appears aloof and gutless.
- RNUG - Thursday, Jun 6, 13 @ 1:41 pm:
Madigan doesn’t have a cell because someone at Verizon tipped him off …
- No Sense - Thursday, Jun 6, 13 @ 2:21 pm:
Call me Mr. Governor maybe I’ll answer.
- Anon III - Thursday, Jun 6, 13 @ 2:36 pm:
CASS- ===The truly weird times will come after March 18th when he has lost the primary but is still Governor for almost 10 months.===
Another negative effect of having primaries ten months before general elections.
- concern1 - Thursday, Jun 6, 13 @ 3:18 pm:
What a mess…Quinn is no leader just a puppet gov and Madigan needs to go he has screwed this state up so bad its time for him to go hide in Chicago and stay there …and take the Mighty Quinn with you !!!