* From the Twitters…
* But that’s not how he felt during a May 6th Legislative Audit Commission meeting. Members who claimed that Commission-issued subpoenas could impede other investigations were spouting “nonsense,” Sandack declared…
“I think we ought to get to the bottom of it without interfering with anyone. To the extent that anyone would suggest we’re going to get in the way of the federal government or state government procedures, investigations or criminal investigations, that’s nonsense.
“Anyone who has ever dealt with the federal government that is looking into something they simply say ‘We’ve got it,’ and then you step down. Whether that’s from State’s Attorney Alvarez’s office, the Central District of Illinois investigations. Whether it’s the US Attorney, the Department of Justice or whomever you just get out of their way.
“You stop. You suspend and let them do their thing.
“I suspect if that comes a day we’ll do just that.”
And now, despite a Justice Department request that the Commission stand down for 90 days, Sandack wants this to go full speed ahead.
You don’t suppose there’s any political motivation behind this righteous flip-flop?
Nah, couldn’t be.
*** UPDATE *** Press release…
Reacting to the recent request by the U.S. Justice Department to delay the Illinois General Assembly’s inquiries into Governor Quinn’s scandal plagued anti-violence program, House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R, Western Springs) and Rep. Ron Sandack (R, Downers Grove) Thursday indicated their intent to press on with the Legislative Audit Commission hearing next week.
“While we respect the request from the Justice Department and are sensitive to the criminal investigation, we believe the Legislative Audit Commission needs to continue their review of the NRI audit,” said Durkin.
“In my past experience with parallel inquires, rather than being asked to cease the legislative proceedings by investigators, we worked with them on an almost daily basis enabling us to fulfill our statutory obligation as legislators without impeding their efforts,” Durkin added.
The request for a 90-day delay in legislative proceedings came from the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Legislative Affairs on Wednesday, making this request different from those dealing with recent legislative actions into former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Rep. Derrick Smith.
“Our legislative fact finding mission and the federal probe have two different goals,” said Sandack. “Our primary concern for figuring out the ‘who, what, when, where, why and how’s’ is to prevent a situation like this from happening again and to protect the taxpayers of Illinois.”
Sandack added, “We’re not here to investigate or prosecute, as members of the Illinois House of Representatives and the Legislative Audit Commission we have a job to do. We are here to get the facts and build legislative safeguards against allowing this from happening again and the legislative Audit Commission should proceed with our mission.”
The bi-partisan, bi-cameral Legislative Audit Commission is scheduled to meet next Wednesday and Thursday at the Michael J. Bilandic Building in Chicago to question and hear testimony from seven individuals subpoenaed earlier by a sub-committee of the Audit Commission. At that time, it is expected the commission will take procedural votes to decide whether or not to proceed.
“I am advising the House Republican members of the Audit Commission that they should consider the Justice Department’s request, but still have an obligation to review the audit and should proceed with the hearing next week,” Durkin concluded.
Durkin, a former Cook County prosecutor, served as the ranking Republican on the Illinois House Special Investigative Committee for the Impeachment of Governor Blagojevich and served as the House Manager for the removal of a sitting member prior to becoming House Minority Leader. Sandack, a floor leader for the House Republicans, is a practicing attorney in Downers Grove and Republican Spokesman for the Illinois House Judiciary Committee.
Sorry, but comparing this little dog and pony show to the impeachment of a sitting governor is downright silly.
And if all the Commission is doing is attempting to “build legislative safeguards against allowing this from happening again,” then it can wait.
- Tom Joad - Thursday, Jul 10, 14 @ 3:23 pm:
Someone must have enlightened him about the upcoming election.
- train111 - Thursday, Jul 10, 14 @ 3:27 pm:
Obama narrowly carried the 81st in the last election. The ballot challenge to his Democratic opponent has been withdrawn, so he will have a race in the general election, and I’m sure there are those in his party’s conservative base who are none too happy with him after the scorched earth primary battle with Keith Matune
- Precinct Captain - Thursday, Jul 10, 14 @ 3:28 pm:
Hypocrisy and nonsense from the Illinois GOP in an election year. I’m shocked, shocked!
- Norseman - Thursday, Jul 10, 14 @ 3:35 pm:
Rich, I agree with you. It’s definitely a principled decision. Cough, cough.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Jul 10, 14 @ 3:35 pm:
First “Boo-Boo” by Leader Durkin. I will get to Rep. Sandack shortly.
The political prism that gas the most effect is what is seen as ambiguous, but is also seen as fact;
The hammer here is that the US Attorney, and as I recall you worked as a prosecutor, has asked the committee to kindly back off, as a Federal Investigation proceeds.
Let that breathe.
A federal prosecutor is saying the Quinn Adminstration is under investigation, and you guys don’t even need to drill into “who” or “why” or spin rhetoric. It’s clean. It’s plain. It’s devastating. Why muddy the waters?
You get a bonus too.
The fact in 90 days, something could happen is just teed up for the campaign season.
“We all know the Quinn Administration is under a federal investigation so intense, we had to back off our own inquiries, and here in October, we are going to find out much more.”
Let this all get some air.
As for Rep. Sandack,
This veer makes all the good political hay, look political…
“You go after Quinn, and back off, once to get in the record you wanted hearings. You keep going at it, it makes all the clean posturing that is hammering Quinn… look like a bunch of partisan tricks. It’s the difference between paper politics and real politics…”
You guys are on the wrong road to make hay here;
Ambiguous is better till October.
You are not making hay, you are burning down the barn storing the hay…
- walker - Thursday, Jul 10, 14 @ 3:38 pm:
I wonder if he already knows they will vote against going forward, and he gets to appear the hero and victim simultaneously.
Or maybe he wants a split vote on party lines, so one side can leverage this to the hilt, before their witnesses show up and clam up — whose silence they can leverage to the hilt as well.
We shall see.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jul 10, 14 @ 3:42 pm:
Walker I think you’re exactly right on all counts.
- anon - Thursday, Jul 10, 14 @ 3:42 pm:
hey, GOP are dancing to rauner’s every note–whatever he says goes-if they don’t jump they don’t get fed
- anon - Thursday, Jul 10, 14 @ 3:45 pm:
Why worry about hypocrisy when Rauner is promising you the moon, the stars, and a Carhartt jacket? No one cares about flip flops after the election.
- circular firing squad - Thursday, Jul 10, 14 @ 3:48 pm:
What? Who said that
Yeah we are missing Billboards already
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Jul 10, 14 @ 3:51 pm:
- walker -, Rich beat me to it.
I am looking at it a bit differently, but still thinking a clean stop might play better.
===I wonder if he already knows they will vote against going forward, and he gets to appear the hero and victim simultaneously.===
This is the one I agree with more, but you seem to be On It better than I. Well thought out.
- A guy... - Thursday, Jul 10, 14 @ 3:57 pm:
We’ve got a spokesperson and two lawyers asking for the Commission to step back. Maybe this smokes out a real US Atty to speak for the Justice Dept. more clearly and maybe even have to stand there and answer a question or two. I doubt we’ll get “Lincoln would turn in his grave” out of this one, but we might get something useful. The US Attorney should make a better case than what we’ve seen so far to halt a legislative process due to start with all the actors lined up, lawyered up and in make-up. Let’s see if this does something before going to harsh here. Might be a calculated boo boo. Which isn’t a boo boo at all.
- Norseman - Thursday, Jul 10, 14 @ 4:16 pm:
=== We’ve got a spokesperson and two lawyers asking for the Commission to step back. ===
Wow, that lucky intern got a promotion. All I got was a nice good bye party.
- Precinct Captain - Thursday, Jul 10, 14 @ 4:29 pm:
==- A guy… - Thursday, Jul 10, 14 @ 3:57 pm:==
Swing and a miss. See here: https://capitolfax.com/2014/07/10/just-90-days/#comment-11564802
- A guy... - Thursday, Jul 10, 14 @ 4:43 pm:
PC, I don’t think so. Have we heard from a US Attorney on this directly?
Aren’t you still supposed to be in the corner? lol
- Rollo Tomasi - Thursday, Jul 10, 14 @ 4:44 pm:
Or are the fed’s going to sit on the investigation like fast and furious until after the election? Our side has been known to play politics just like the Republicans.
- A guy... - Thursday, Jul 10, 14 @ 4:55 pm:
We have now heard from an Asst. US Attorney per the update. Hmmm
- Toure's Latte - Thursday, Jul 10, 14 @ 5:33 pm:
Lightening rod for all the wrong reasons. Jumped before Rauner told him which way.
His opponent: Elizabeth “Liz” Chaplin, a DuPage County Board 2 member living in Downers Grove. Married, teenage kids, accountant at a local area small business. Whistle blower on the DuPage Water Commission fiasco. Looks very good. All she needs is about half a million more than the $500 or so her last quarterly showed.
- wordslinger - Thursday, Jul 10, 14 @ 5:42 pm:
–“build legislative safeguards against allowing this from happening again,”–
LOL, um, you could have passed a budget, rather than just taking a big wad of money, throwing it at the governor and saying “you make the decisions.”
Line-item appropriations are a nifty safeguard.
- DuPage Bard - Thursday, Jul 10, 14 @ 8:48 pm:
Another opportunity for Representative Sandack to get in front of the cameras or have his name pushed all over the press.
I think he took your Governor comments to heart from earlier this year.
- Not in the Know - Friday, Jul 11, 14 @ 12:22 am:
Whistle blower…..lol, good one. She was knee deep in that fiasco.