26 Comments - Anonymous - Saturday, Apr 23, 05 @ 10:40 am: It isn’t real important but it just says something about general character and respect for institutions vs. a me first attitude. Another more troubling example with role model implications is the family feud stuff. Many (or most)people have family difficulties, but how they are handled is a real important measure of character. Becoming consumed and fueling the negative is not uncommon, but we should hope our leaders could do a little better. - Anonymous - Saturday, Apr 23, 05 @ 11:56 am: I cannot believe that the Governor hired Victor Reyes twentysomething niece to run the Drug program. His press spokesman said she ran some campaign. The rank and file HDO guys never heard of her. The Governor said he did not have room for Dominic Longo in State Government BUT does he have room for Victor Reyes in state government. Victor Reyes is more controversial and certainly more powerful than Dominic Longo. The Governor’s aides said that his father in law Alderman Richard Mell is a negative machine image–what about HDO??? The Governor said in his 2002 election campaign that HDO was like H20 and welcomed their support. There are some good blue collar guys in their rank and file but you also have a bigger collection of thugs since the old 1st ward existed. Victor Reyes TWICE was asked in Editorial by the Sun Times WHO IS VICTOR REYES? He is at the center of Hired Trucks. His lobbyist disclosure numbers don’t add up to what he is truly making. The T6 Airport expansion alone he is making $60,000 from Bechtel, with a lot of controversy with D’Escoto and conflict of interest that he worked for the city. Victor Reyes is a lobbyist with Traurig and Hill a Miami based firm. He has PROMISED jobs in the engineering field and has gotten them on the Toll expansion for Lochner. (Public record) He is a lobbyist for DuPage Government. HOW DOES VICTOR REYES HAVE THIS INFLUENCE ON BLAGOJEVICH??? This is clean and reform government? This is not politics as usual? The funny thing is Victor did NOTHING to help elect the Governor. And during the primary sabotaged him at every level. There is supposedly a RICO Federal investigation into HDO. Senator Munoz’s lawyer says he is cooperating with the Feds in Hired Trucks. Angelo Torres already got convcited. Jay Levine said that Victor Reyes helped get Boyle’s pyro brother the promotion with Alderman Ike Carothers. Convicted felons on city and CTA payrolls through Victor Reyes. - Anonymous - Saturday, Apr 23, 05 @ 12:43 pm: It is very clear that the governor is trying to reinvent patronage politics in Illinois, in violation of the Rutan court decision which reined in the Republicans, who were doing the same thing. He is replicating Chicago ward politics statewide–if you are somebody that somebody sent you are qualified for the job no matter what the job description says. We have to admit that it has worked for Daley. None of the recent scandals have touched him. Apparently, Chicago voters are willing to put up with high levels of corruption, and pay for them through excessive taxes. Unless Illinois citizens wake up, the state will look like a Chicago ward. - Anonymous - Saturday, Apr 23, 05 @ 12:45 pm: personal sleazy lies have no place on this blog - Anonymous - Saturday, Apr 23, 05 @ 1:27 pm: Victor Reyes and HDO might not have done much nor were they effective BUT they did raise money and were with him for whatever it was worth in the general. They did not do much but were not against him. They were playing both sides in the primary with Vallas until the poll numbers came out. - Marie - Saturday, Apr 23, 05 @ 1:35 pm: For some folks, even the easiest of tax returns causes great anguish. Not that I’m saying the governor is racked with anguish. On the other hand, it’s hard to imagine how crazed their household is if they didn’t have time for this. But, barring hiring a time management consultant two words for Patti: Turbo Tax. - Anonymous - Saturday, Apr 23, 05 @ 1:57 pm: The paper said they had an accountant, and I had an accountant do mine (which I did). Mine were done in February. They need more time? Good accounting firms get things done on time. Poor time management on the gov’s part. - DazedGovernor - Saturday, Apr 23, 05 @ 2:04 pm: Not getting his tax return in on time does seem like another typical Blago schlock job, as is with most of his other attempts at governing. Example - Announcing a project/program then never hearing about it again, and on and on. But give him a break, he got only an 18 on his ACT and a D in algebra. Doesn’t sound like a person who could understand a tax return. I can’t speak for his wife, but she did marry Blagozo. - Anonymous - Saturday, Apr 23, 05 @ 3:03 pm: Who cares if his taxes were late? The governor may be the busiest man in the state! Thousans of people each year file for an extension. Give them a break. Its pathetic that people are so focused on ripping him down that now they are trying to draw a connection between late tax filing and a sleazy persona. Did any other statewide politicians file late? Did you bother to check??? - Anonymous - Saturday, Apr 23, 05 @ 3:33 pm: This post has been removed by a blog administrator. - Tessa - Saturday, Apr 23, 05 @ 4:27 pm: I guess I wouldn’t think much of the gov filing late, if it wasn’t year 3. The local paper here took a survey and everyone they asked said he should have filed on time. So, it’s not just me. - Anonymous - Saturday, Apr 23, 05 @ 4:34 pm: This post has been removed by a blog administrator. - Anonymous - Saturday, Apr 23, 05 @ 6:47 pm: This post has been removed by a blog administrator. - Anonymous - Saturday, Apr 23, 05 @ 6:47 pm: HDO makes the Coalition for Better Government look like choir boys. - Anonymous - Saturday, Apr 23, 05 @ 9:34 pm: Who cares about his personal taxes and Victor Reyes? What about the fact that the gov inherited a mess, has reduced the size of the Illinois payroll, increased funding for education and healthcare and hasn’t raised taxes. Why can’t people see that? See Tom Roeser’s column in the Sun Times today - DazedGovernor - Saturday, Apr 23, 05 @ 10:41 pm: I have posted this comment before. ENOUGH whining about the mess GRod inherited!!! He has had over two years to try to work out the budget mess. That excuse was worn out 100,000 miles ago. Besides, what has GRod done about the mess? I seem to remember a $10 billion bond sale to help bail out the state’s problems. That money, which BTW doubled the state bond debt, went into a black hole mortgaging the future of the state beyond comprehension. Bonds do need to be paid back, they are not a gift. Hasn’t raised taxes? Perhaps he hasn’t raised personal income tax, but those hundreds of raised fee’s equates to money out of someone’s pocket. If you don’t think those fee’s will affect you guess again. More money for education? How about presenting a real number of dollars increased? I have not seen anything concrete. If GRod is so good for the state, why is it that Illinois is the only state in the upper midwest to lose jobs while all the states surrounding us have gained jobs? The number of state jobs may have been cut but I would hazard a guess that the payroll didn’t drop that much due to all the new high priced hacks on the payroll. Compared to what GRod inherited I feel sorry for the mess the next governor(s) will inherit. - Yellow Dog Democrat - Saturday, Apr 23, 05 @ 11:18 pm: Please keep the mindless name and cat-calling about staff to yourself. We don’t blog here because we’re interested in who you think is hot or not. That’s another site. - the Other Anonymous - Sunday, Apr 24, 05 @ 10:04 am: The only reason the Governor (damn, I capitalized!) gets flack for things like filing his taxes late is that his Administration is aloof and arrogant; he ignores the constituencies that elected him; he repeatedly picks on people with jokes and remarks that are simply not funny; and he has a growing reputation for not taking the job of governing seriously. If Blagojevich was not such a disaster as governor, no one would be talking about him getting an extension for his taxes. - Shelbyville - Sunday, Apr 24, 05 @ 10:22 am: How long ’til the next election? I am ready to move on to someone, else. Rod lost his appeal in week one. It is not that difficult to file your taxes on time. Perhaps he doesn’t want them released to the public. - OneMan - Sunday, Apr 24, 05 @ 7:29 pm: How can anyone dare attack our brave and fine Governor for filing an extension. He is busy dealing with important issues in Illinois like 9-1-1 calls via VOIP and violent videogames being sold to kids. He is perhaps the busiest man in the whole world. Taxes take time, time a man so busy making Illinois better doesn’t have to be dealing with such trivilaities. (I even said that with a streight face) Perhaps he can also brag about how you can become governor of Illinois without the sense to figure out how to get your taxes done on time. OneMan - Anonymous - Sunday, Apr 24, 05 @ 9:03 pm: For those who think that capitalizing the “G” in Governor; Capitalize the titles of high-ranking government officials when used with or without their names. Examples The President will address Congress. All Senators are expected to attend. Refers to national. The Governor, Lieutenant Governor, attorney general, and senators will attend. The attorney general and state senators are considered lower-ranking officials although they might not like this designation. http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/capital.asp People just don’t care about grammar anymore. - the Other Anonymous - Monday, Apr 25, 05 @ 7:15 am: Thanks for the capitalization tip. I was under the impression that “Governor” was capitalized, but that was criticized (by I think Bernie Schoenburg first) recently as the construction preferred by lackies of the Governor. I should have checked on my own, like you did. - Tom Joad - Monday, Apr 25, 05 @ 8:59 am: How petty can you get. Many people file for extensions of time to file their tax returns. It is not a moral deficiency. You have to pay the full tax you owe to get an extension or you pay a big tax penalty. Sometimes, when you have a lot of expenses, investments, conmflicting 1099’s from revenue sources, late w-2’s or 1099’s sent to you they have to be reconciled. This happens all the time. Saying this a character issue or moral issue just shows how this blog is saturated by self-satisfied, petty, small thinking hate mongers. - Anonymous - Monday, Apr 25, 05 @ 10:28 am: For DazedGovernor: “If GRod is so good for the state, why is it that Illinois is the only state in the upper midwest to lose jobs while all the states surrounding us have gained jobs?” I’ll answer that! It’s because this Governor continues to use his out of state consultants to send our Illinois based jobs OUT OF STATE. Hey, he’ll need to make more than Illinois happy when he runs for President. What a joke! - Anonymous - Monday, Apr 25, 05 @ 12:20 pm: What’s the big deal?? So the man needs more time. Last I checked, this does NOT affect his ability to do his job. - Tessa - Monday, Apr 25, 05 @ 5:17 pm: “Saying this a character issue or moral issue just shows how this blog is saturated by self-satisfied, petty, small thinking hate mongers.” “So the man needs more time. Last I checked, this does NOT affect his ability to do his job.” Well, since I’m the one who started this whole thing, I guess I feel the need to address these. Like I pointed out, my local paper did a poll on this, and every person who responded felt he should have had them done on time. I’m not a small thinking, petty, hate monger. I just asked a question. And again, it’s not like he did his own taxes - he had an accountant. So did I. Mine got done on time. I guess I wouldn’t have asked the question if this was his first year, as I said before. It’s just a general character thing for me. I used to look up to this man, thought very highly of him. Wow, great things are going to happen when he gets into office. And then, one example after another, I’m led to think I was wrong, and left to wonder, what will my choice be next time around. I want someone I can believe in and stand behind. And character counts in my book. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.