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READER COMMENTS CLOSED FOR THE WEEKEND
Friday, Jul 21, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller See you Monday. In the meantime, head to Illinoize.
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Roskam dodges WSJ
Friday, Jul 21, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller The Wall Street Journal tried to reach state Sen. Peter Roskam for two days to talk to him about stem cell research, but no can do. While Ms. Duckworth jumps on the issue, Mr. Roskam dodges it. “There are bigger issues going on in this campaign.” says spokesman Ryan McLaughlin, declining to make the candidate available despite several requests over two days. That’s strange. Just last month, Roskam had this to say to the Daily Herald: “We cannot leave our moral obligations at the laboratory door and take one human life and cast it aside for the benefit of another.” He even talked to the now defunct Illinois Leader when asked about Comptroller Dan Hynes’ attempt to pass a $1 billion stem cell research proposal. “His proposal’s not going anywhere,” State Senator Peter Roskam, who led the opposition to stem cell research on the Senate floor last week, said Wednesday. He also had this to say in a June 13 press release, which responded to a Tammy Duckworth press conference on stem cell research: In matters such as these, we cannot leave our moral obligations at the laboratory door. According to the Wall Street Journal article, Roskam had this to say in 2004: “We are asked to pit one life against another.” He even talked to the WSJ earlier this year. In an interview with the Journal earlier this year, Mr. Roskam called his views “well within the mainstream” of the district. Those voters who do disagree with him, he added, support him because they share his views on keeping taxes low and other issues. So, why not now? Is the issue polling that badly? Meanwhile, the dodging and weaving from the Roskam camp displeased conservative activist Fran Eaton, who wrote today: Senator Roskam, I implore you to pick up the standard you’ve been proudly waving for so long and energize weakening troops back to the front. Don’t retreat, or allow your campaign manager to evade the issue as he is quoted as doing in the WSJ today.
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Question of the day (what’s left of it, anyway)
Friday, Jul 21, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller Sorry for the late blogging. My back is killing me. Seen any good blogs lately? Use this as an opportunity to point us in that direction. New bloggers, tell us about your blogs. Established bloggers, tell us what you’ve been up to lately. UPDATE: Um, y’all haven’t seen any blogs lately? What’s up with the response?
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Release the records, Governor
Friday, Jul 21, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller Attorney General Lisa Madigan ought to force the governor’s office to release all of this information. Gov. Blagojevich’s administration has been hit with new subpoenas in a federal probe of its hiring practices but is concealing them from its own department heads and voters as election season heats up. I wrote a column about this topic a few weeks ago, but without the Lisa Madigan stuff. So, let me say this now: Lisa, it’s time to step in to this mess and let the public know what’s going on!
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Talk already
Friday, Jul 21, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller They could solve these problems if they just talked to each other, but I don’t think they’re much interested in talking. The candidates for Illinois governor both say they want to debate a dozen times. Now they just have to agree on when and where. Until the campaigns sit down and talk, none of this means anything. UPDATE: Looks like they did talk some. So far, the two campaigns said they have agreed to three debates sponsored by WTTW-TV in Chicago, the Southern Illinoisan/WSIU-TV and the Rockford Register-Star/WREX-TV. The camps also agreed to a radio forum sponsored by the Illinois Radio Network and a debate hosted by the Associated Press.
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Mid-morning shorts
Friday, Jul 21, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller · Editorial: This drumroll of cases, convictions and allegations hasn’t yet reached a thunderous intensity. But our hunch is that it’s coming. Even on the days when the bass drums fall silent, you still hear the powerful cadence of the snares. · Obama plan to visit Iowa steps up White House buzz · Post Office Comments Create Backlash For Natarus · Tollway lease foes urge state to reconsider · Background checks find 1,000 felons living at state nursing homes · Law protects health insurance for veterans · CTA: Brown Line rehab a mess · Suit: Halting work on house is political payback · Editorial: Cooked County · Kass: A tortuous path to not blaming Daley · Congressional Democrats plan $30 million-plus ad buy in fall, including in Illinois
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Diversion(ary?)
Thursday, Jul 20, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller So, I finally got home from Detroit and discovered that the electricity was out. Big storms last night, eh? Let’s see, what else is going on? Some guy named Ahnold is providing $150 million in California state loans for stem cell research, while Gov. Rod Blagojevich, never one to miss out on an opportunity, diverts $5 million in state funds for the research, bypassing the General Assembly again. Gov. Rod Blagojevich today again used his executive power to spend millions of state dollars on stem-cell research despite repeated objections from state legislators. UPDATE: Apparently, nobody cares about this minor technicality. The legislative, executive and judicial branches are separate. No branch shall exercise powers properly belonging to another. […]
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Question of the day
Thursday, Jul 20, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller I’m in Detroit at the moment. Came in last night for the White Sox game. I thought I’d try blogging with my Treo instead of lugging my laptop. Big mistake. So, this will be it until later this afteroon. Thankfully, there isn’t much in the papers at the moment. But maybe I missed something, so point us to stories in comments and blog your thoughts about them.
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