Feeling a bit peevish today
Tuesday, Aug 5, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Umm…
The time stamp on Sirota’s story is August 4th at 3:11 pm The time stamp on my own story about the video is August 4th at 11:30 am.
“Scoop” means you have something “first.” I wasn’t first because it was the IFT’s video that the union was promoting, but I was surely ahead of that guy.
* Let’s move along. Here was Rauner’s quote as a refresher…
“I apologize. We may have to go through rough times. We may have to do what Ronald Reagan did with the air traffic controllers. Sort of have to do a do-over and shut things down for a little while. That’s what we’re gonna do.”
* Now, on to the CNN story…
Critics are pouncing on remarks Bruce Rauner, the Republican nominee for governor in Illinois, made to supporters earlier this year that a government shutdown was an option to help the state deal with its financial troubles. […]
In response to the outcry, Rauner’s campaign said their candidate “has put forth a detailed plan for reviving Illinois, and shutting down state government is not among those plans.”
“But if the choice is between that and four more years of failed leadership, higher taxes, and high unemployment from Quinn and Madigan, a whole lot of Illinoisans might think less government is a pretty good idea,” spokesman Mike Schrimpf told CNN.
So, it’s not actually in the written plans that the campaign has already released, but they could still do it. And “less government” is equated with actually shutting down government? He basically said nothing, which I assume means the idea is still viable.
* Back to Sirota…
Follow the link and you get this…
Another video has surfaced today showing Rauner making a similar comment in a March 2013 speech to Illinois Republicans. In that video, Rauner says: “I may have to take a strike and shut down the government for a few weeks and kinda redo everybody’s contract. That’s a possibility…I will do it proudly.”
The video didn’t “surface” yesterday. I posted it to YouTube on March 19th last year.
If you’re gonna write about Illinois, dude, learn a little about Illinois first.
- OneMan - Tuesday, Aug 5, 14 @ 2:03 pm:
Can we agree when it comes to state politics CNN is a low information network…
And…
If you follow his twitter stream, you will see last week he broke the exclusive that Sheila Simon was not related to Paul Simon the singer…
- LincolnLounger - Tuesday, Aug 5, 14 @ 2:08 pm:
What the hell is the International Business Times? I really have no clue.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Aug 5, 14 @ 2:24 pm:
Meh, he’s a salesman who tells a particular audience what he thinks they want to hear. It change from place to place, day to day.
After all these months, I don’t think we have a real clue as to what a Rauner agenda would be as governor.
Like all politicians, the dude wants the gig for an ego-stroke, and it looks it might be low-hanging fruit for a guy with his resources at this time.
- whetstone - Tuesday, Aug 5, 14 @ 2:25 pm:
Sirota actually was in and around Illinois politics for a bit in the late 1990s.
He seems… kind of like that. Not long ago he did what sounded like a big expose of Emanuel in Pando Daily: “Revealed: Rahm Emanuel’s top donor bought stock in Marriott just before it was awarded huge Chicago contract.”
If you read the piece, it turns out that Ken Griffin (whose fund buys and sells craploads of stock) bought 1.6 million shares of stock about *a year* before the deal was announced, added 700,000 more by the time of the deal, and then sold 700,000. Sirota would have you believe this is to benefit from a company with 4,000 hotels building one more.
You kinda have to take Sirota with a grain of salt, is what I’m saying.
- low level - Tuesday, Aug 5, 14 @ 2:26 pm:
Go for it, Bruce. Guess what? Its not 1981 anymore. Times have changed, as has Illinois.
You want to stop payments to providers? You think that will be a “plus”?
- OneMan - Tuesday, Aug 5, 14 @ 2:36 pm:
Yeah, sticking it to public employees would be a lot more popular now that in 1981…
Not even close
- Norseman - Tuesday, Aug 5, 14 @ 2:37 pm:
Rich, count to ten and repeat. “Talking heads are egotistical blowhards who are more interested in promoting themselves then in accurately reporting on events.”
- A guy... - Tuesday, Aug 5, 14 @ 2:47 pm:
Advance LOL_
I can see why you’d get ticked for anyone to think you got “scooped” by this guy. It might just mean he treated himself to ice cream before you did. He couldn’t scoop Oscar.
- mcb - Tuesday, Aug 5, 14 @ 2:48 pm:
How does “may have to” equal “pledging to create a govt shutdown”?
- mcb - Tuesday, Aug 5, 14 @ 2:52 pm:
And taking it a step further, here’s the headline, “Bruce Rauner, GOP Candidate for Illinois Governor, Promises Government Shutdown and Mass Firing of Public Workers”. Seriously? One of the most deliberately dishonest headlines I’ve seen in a while. This guy is terrible.
- Aaron Krager - Tuesday, Aug 5, 14 @ 3:01 pm:
David Sirota is always about promoting David Sirota.
Click through his links that he uses in a particular article & they are likely to be links to another article he wrote.
- Anonymoiis - Tuesday, Aug 5, 14 @ 3:33 pm:
We’ve had shutdowns before that have in the end led to real negotiation and led to better long term policy instead of short term ineffective band aids. Not a guaranteedresult, but has happened. I take from his words that, while an extreme measure, if that’s a last resort necessary to stop and turn the ship around, then so be it. AFSCME would hate that, but I’d agree with that, as would a lot of people.
- Norseman - Tuesday, Aug 5, 14 @ 3:46 pm:
=== We’ve had shutdowns before that have in the end led to real negotiation and led to better long term policy instead of short term ineffective band aids. ===
What places or organizations are you talking about? There has been no labor/management shutdowns of Illinois government.
If Raunervich gets elected, I suspect we’ll be discussing the possibilities on this blog when the labor negotiations come to an impasse. Unless we find out that Raunervich was not such a resolute guy afterall.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Tuesday, Aug 5, 14 @ 5:06 pm:
Sirota is not the only journalist who believes that political reporting, like chili, is best served reheated.
I have been tweaking one sun-times reporter in particular for serving up comments from Capitolfax as original ideas.
- Joe M - Tuesday, Aug 5, 14 @ 5:56 pm:
==“But if the choice is between that and four more years of failed leadership, higher taxes, and high unemployment from Quinn and Madigan, a whole lot of Illinoisans might think less government is a pretty good idea,” spokesman Mike Schrimpf told CNN.==
Doesn’t Schrimpf realize that Illinois already had the fewest number of state employees per capita out of all 50 states?
- Budget Watcher - Tuesday, Aug 5, 14 @ 6:03 pm:
Rauner might want to understand that roughly 1 out 5 current employees could walk out the door right now and not return because they qualify under rule of 85. The state workforce is already perilously thin in many places and a shutdown over pensions could paralyze some agencies if there’s another exodus. We’ve all read the stories over the past several years of bad or ineffective government, oftentimes resulting from not enough talented or trained staff. Just imagine what might happen should a significant number of the most experienced folks leave. The brain drain that could result from any potentially hardball tactics would be crippling in a lot of places.
- Jimbo - Tuesday, Aug 5, 14 @ 8:34 pm:
Sirota has a reputation as a relentless self-promoter who doesn’t cite sources that existed long before this Rich.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Tuesday, Aug 5, 14 @ 8:43 pm:
Good point budget watcher.
I was hoping some enterprising reporter from the SJR or AP would look into whether the number of vacancies, number of applicants and length of time to fill vacancies has changed.
Particularly since changes in the pension system took effect.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Aug 5, 14 @ 9:54 pm:
===The video didn’t “surface” yesterday. I posted it to YouTube on March 19th last year.
If you’re gonna write about Illinois, dude, learn a little about Illinois first.===
This is exactly why I have out here and understand from jump street that credit is given to those who deserve it, and thinking you something about Illinois politics by pilfering off other people’s work is not a great way to be seen as credible.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Aug 5, 14 @ 9:58 pm:
“…hang out here…”
Stupid phone.
- James Knell - Tuesday, Aug 5, 14 @ 10:59 pm:
PATCO - there you have it. Rauner = Walker + Koch Masters. If elected he will turn Illinois into a kill zone for the middle class. Anybody doing business with the the State government needs to freak out. It would mean ten years of below average Wisconsin style job growth not to mention all the brotherly love of neighbor vs. neighbor. Say no to this poison!
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Aug 5, 14 @ 11:50 pm:
PATCO/Reagan analogies don’t apply to either Scott Walker or Bruce Rauner, no matter how much they’d like to ride that train.
Like much of Reagan’s very recent record, the story is wildly misrepresented by partisans of all stripes.
Reagan didn’t pick a fight with PATCO. He was sympathetic to their issues with the FAA. He sought and received the union’s endorsement in 1980 over Carter, who had honked off airline unions by deregulating the industry (can you dig it? Reagan the union guy, Carter the deregulation guy).
For some inexplicable reasons, PATCO decided to pick a fight with Reagan in his first year. When the Soviets were taking his measure. When Congressional Republicans and Democrats were hostile to his agenda. After he had been shot and his personal popularity was sky high, for crying out loud.
PATCO went on an illegal strike. Reagan gave them a chance to come back. Those who did, kept their jobs. Those that didn’t, were fired, in keeping with their contracts and the law.
- Nearly Normal - Wednesday, Aug 6, 14 @ 7:11 am:
Research, research, research!! These reporters need to do their research FIRST before they publish/report anything. It is my understanding that a lot of these news outlets let their researchers go years ago. You might call them librarians, archivists, whatever, but they used to assist the reporters with the background info needed. Now the reporters just Google and guess what–Google is not research, it just gives you a list of sites that are ranked by the most times they are visited by others. No info on reliability, relevance, etc.
Now that schools are doing away with professional librarians kids just Google away and slam some info on paper or tablet and call it research.
Makes my retired educator blood boil! People more than ever need to know how to research in all the formats info comes in.
- Befuddled - Wednesday, Aug 6, 14 @ 8:51 am:
Check Sirota’s twitter profile. Apparently, the third most important thing about him is that he’s a vegetarian, and he listed that before beer drinker. Not my cup of tea.