48 Comments - Ex-Democrat - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 6:59 am: The current Democratic triune is a Potemkin village because they all take care of each other, so the question is moot. What do you have to say Bill? - Yellow Dog Democrat - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 7:47 am: Great idea, Rich. Put the guy under federal investigation in charge. Blagojevich is the single most divisive elected Democrat in Illinois today. Why the heck would we want him to take the helm of the party? Who has Rod Blagojevich ever looked out for except himself? - Pat Hickey - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 7:52 am: Speaker Madigan should allow Gov. Blagojevich to ‘announce’ Speaker Madigan’s choice of leadership. That would be nice. The Speaker does have a pretty good eye for leadership abilities. The Governor certainly could use that help. - Patriot - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 8:07 am: Madigan would be wise to continue to keep Blagojevich on a “short leash.” - 105th Blues - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 8:08 am: It should be the choice of the county chairmen - Democrat - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 8:13 am: I think he should be able to appoint someone. Madigan is what’s wrong with the Democratic party in Illinois. - Way Northsider - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 8:15 am: Madigan should go. The decision about a replacement should not be the Governor’s to make. The county chairmen sound like a sensible group to make the decision. - Mr Brown - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 8:43 am: To me, it doesnt matter who appoints the replacement as long as Madigan is replaced. You cant be leader of the state party and speaker of the house. Just ask any local candidate, county political party, ward organization how much money they have EVER gotten from the Dem Party of Illinios. The answer will be NOTHING. The state party is supposed to use its power and money to build a statewide organization yet evn though Madigan demands money from locals (and how can they say no?) they only people that ever see the money are Madigans “approved” House candidates. No state senators, no other statewide candidates, no county candidates, and no city candidates. Its disgraceful. - Mr Brown - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 8:45 am: I may be incorrect, but I believe it is the county chairmen who elect the head of the party, not the Governor. - Anonymous - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 8:46 am: No one works harder than Madigan. As far as political savy, he is in a league of his own. He does have some weaknesses in regards to intra-party infighting. Nevertheless, this is a no brainer. He should stay. - Am I missing something? - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 8:49 am: I guess I’m too much of a political novice to understand, but why should Madigan go? Tell me please what exactly has he not accomplished since becoming Party Chair? Are we not now considered a blue state? Did we not give our 21 electoral votes to a Democrat in 2004 and 22 electoral votes in the 2000 Presidential election? Both U.S. Senators are Democrats. Every Illinois Constitutional Officer is a Democrat. Control of Illinois House and Senate, once again, belong to the Democrats. Yeah…He’s really done a bad job. Geez. - VanillaMan - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 8:55 am: No way should Madigan let Blagojevich “help”. The less Blagojevich appears in the news, the better for everyone. - fedup dem - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 8:56 am: Perhaps the best solution would be to have Blagojevich and Madigan square off in a log-rolling contest held over a tankful of alligators. In fact, the contest could be shown on pay-per-view, with the proceeds used to balance the state’s budget. Who knows… if we are really lucky, they both slip off the log! - Bill - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 8:58 am: Rep.Jay Hoffman would be an excellent choice for party chair. - Bill - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 8:59 am: …or Speaker for that matter. - John Paul Jones - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 8:59 am: The Speaker has shown through his actions in this last election that he is not the right person to lead the party. He should have supported Alexi after he won the primary, and he shouldnt have referred to Senator Obama as “the Messiah.” However, I dont know if the Governor should be able to appoint the new chairman. This is a democracy and many voices should be heard. However, the vote should be weighted to give Cook County more say since the democratic vote in Cook County constitutes the majority of democratic votes statewide. - babs - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 9:14 am: It’s the State Central Committee who do and should elect the Party Chairman - unfortunately they are as spineless as the County Chairs. - John Lee Pettimore - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 9:19 am: The county chairmen do not select the state party chair. The state democratic central committeemen and committeewomen select the chair. There is one female and one male committeeman from each congressional district, if I am not mistaken. - Dave - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 9:19 am: Madigan is smarter, more focused, more issue oriented, more experienced, better able to deal with the R’s, a better coalition builder, stronger, more decisive, and an all around better leader than anyone else that might be considered for the job, especially the other guy you mentioned. - a Republican - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 9:29 am: Dave has it exactly right. As a partisan R who has had many years of experience with the Speaker, I can tell you that as Democratic leader he is the thing we fear most. He is just better than we have been, and are likely to become unless we get rid of some of our arch rightest “conservative” nuts. - Bridget Dooley - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 9:30 am: Absolutely not. Blago should not be allowed to select our new party chair. That is the job of the committeemen. - Mr Brown - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 9:31 am: The reason Illinois is a blue state is because of Chicago. You get rid of the city, and we are red, red, red. It has nothing to do with Madigan. - Rich Miller - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 9:32 am: JLP, you are not mistaken. Thanks for clearing it up so I don’t have to. - Team Sleep - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 9:36 am: Although Madigan should not allow Blago to simply pick his own party chairman, MJM should work with Dem leaders in the state such as Blago, Emil Jones, Dick Durbin, Obamabananaramalamadingdong, Luis Gutierrez, etc., and pick a chairman they can all agree upon. While Illinois is a blue state, indictments, a budget implosion, national issues and poor leadership can reverse that trend in a heartbeat. MJM is a strong and intelligent leader but after the Alexi debacle he is certainly slipping in his control and he could use some input. - Cook Dem - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 9:40 am: All you madigan boosters listen up, he’s going to go one way or another, so it might as well be with grace. Too many people feel way too slighted by his “screw the rest of you, I only care about the house” mentality. Plus, with an Obama presidency on the horizon, he will ultimately get to decide who leads the party. There are homestate responsibilities that need to be dealt with. Plus, with a slew of statewide officials that actually care about party building (namely durbib), all we need is one alternative choice and Mike is forced down. He can’t run the party while Lisa runs. So, just a matter of time guys, better start thinking of the graceful exit. - Carl Nyberg - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 9:55 am: Madigan may be the consummate insider. He may be a practitioner of machine politics. But Blagojevich largely has the same qualities/drawbacks. Madigan has a history of managing the Democratic Party taking into account the interests of diverse constituencies. Blagojevich has less of a history of taking care of diverse portions of the party and its supporters. Also, Madigan has been making insider deals for decades and has gotten in less legal trouble than Blagojevich. Why would it make sense to switch responsibility for the decision making from MM to RB? - Ivote - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 10:07 am: Well, let’s see. . . keeping in mind that Blago has failed to make required appointments to many many State boards and commissions, even failed to appoint or reappoint cabinet members after the initial 2-year terms have expired, failed to act on hundreds of recommendations from the Prisoner Review Board, etc., etc., etc., probably we ought to give the Guv the authority to appoint the Dem Chair knowing that with his laziness and lack of interst in governing he won’t get around to it and Madigan will continue by default to be the party Chair. - NW Side - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 10:07 am: Mike Madigan has, and will continue, to use the Democratic Party for his personal purposes and his personal purposes alone. It’s an embarrassment to be an Illinois Democrat. - Squideshi - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 10:19 am: It’s undemocratic for one man to have so much power that he can essentially, unilaterally decide what bills make it out of the House Rules Committee for debate and a vote beofre the full House. - Chicago Jason - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 10:25 am: None of the above. I don’t like Madigan in charge–there’s zero attempt to connect with grassroots, rank-and-file members, and I don’t like his use of the party apparatus as a personal weapon to wage petty wars (e.g. Giannoulias)–but I wouldn’t trust anybody Blagojevich sent either. Sigh. - ArchPundit - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 10:37 am: There’s plenty to criticize Madigan for in terms of how the party operates, but given the alternative, Mike Madigan needs to stay where he is. I’d offer all sorts of advice right now as to how to make the party better, but I’ll save it until the Speaker decides he’s done. And while I can be critical, it’s also important for Democrats to remember the man was the bulwark against Republicans for several years. He’s not perfect, but he saved Dems butts many, many times. - HGOP - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 11:24 am: abso-freaking-lutely - Little Egypt - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 11:25 am: It makes no difference if Madigan is replaced, when, or by whom. Everyone who gets into a leadership position has their own personal agenda and ego. Do any of you think anything in Illinois politics will really change (except the name) if someone else is put in MJM’s place? - Punley Deiter Finn - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 11:33 am: If Obama runs, he should support Obama and stay. If he doesn’t support Obama, he should go…and will. - Snark - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 11:35 am: Under this chairman there was no coordinated campaign in 2002 and 2006, he actively opposed the Democratic nominee of his own party for Treasurer, he extorted a cut of the money for himself that was passed from the DCCC to the Duckworth, Bean and Seals races that legallly had to go through the state party committee and won’t help anyone other than his handpicked house candidates. That’s not party building. - a Republican also - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 12:19 pm: I couldn’t agree more with a Republican’s comment. If the dems get Madigan out as their Chairman I hope he applies as the Republican chairman post because we could sure use him. - RAI - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 12:41 pm: Republican 9:29am Name one Right Wing Nut who has EVER had power in the ILGOP. You can’t blame someone who has never been in power for the failure of “Moderates”. - Anonymous - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 1:09 pm: Squideshi - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 10:19 am: It’s undemocratic for one man to have so much power that he can essentially, unilaterally decide what bills make it out of the House Rules Committee for debate and a vote beofre the full House. —- Welcome to legislative politics, Squideshi. Madigan may use it more shrewdly, effectively or mysteriously, but his ability to control the legislative process isn’t on its face remarkable. There’s a myth that Madigan is some all powerful goon. His power is about the same as speakers elsewhere. His real power comes from the combination of electoral political organizing and legislative power in one mind, like Daley had. - howard - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 1:15 pm: bill, Hoffman sucks. How about someone with some integrity. Say Dan hynes. - Larry Mullholland - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 1:21 pm: NO. NO way. Occasionally, Madigan seems to have the best interests of Illinois in mind when creating public policy and the party politics. Some one who has the power needs to be able stand tall against Blago Combine…I begin to shiver when I think of a Blago/Jones dominated world… - Sango Dem - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 3:14 pm: Madigan does not play well with others. I’d rather see Durbin and Obama pick a party chairman. - Bill - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 4:14 pm: Howard, Hynes would be great. - Snidely Whiplash - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 5:56 pm: MJM is about the best there’s ever been. Allowing Vladgo to pick his cronies to run the state party would weaken the heck out of it. Hey, wait a minute, maybe you’ve got something there … - Squideshi - Saturday, Jan 6, 07 @ 10:16 am: Anonymous - Friday, Jan 5, 07 @ 1:09 pm: Welcome to legislative politics, Squideshi. Madigan may use it more shrewdly, effectively or mysteriously, but his ability to control the legislative process isn’t on its face remarkable. There’s a myth that Madigan is some all powerful goon. His power is about the same as speakers elsewhere. His real power comes from the combination of electoral political organizing and legislative power in one mind, like Daley had. —- This is a perfect example of a point that I have been trying to emphasize for quite some time. In comparing the Democratic and Green parties, the Green Party isn’t just a more liberal version of the Democratic Party–there are core differences like this one. Two of the Green Party’s Ten Key Values are Grassroots Democracy and Decentralization. - Angie - Sunday, Jan 7, 07 @ 6:20 pm: Squid, I just took a pol-sci class last quarter (first pol-sci class I ever took), and I’m wondering why you think the Greens stand a chance? Median Voter Model? Hello? How can they win anything? Don’t get me wrong, as I think third parties are great for (ahem) getting the attention of the major parties when they manage to siphon off large numbers of votes (whoa–look at how Whitney did!), but as far as actually winning anything? I don’t get it. - Squideshi - Monday, Jan 8, 07 @ 11:56 am: Angie, when people talk about the political center, they’re often only looking at those people who are already actively involved and engaged in voting–those people who are registered to vote. That pool of people is shrinking every year. Why? People aren’t interested in politics. Why? There’s nothing interesting in politics. People don’t like the choices they are getting–nothing presented is exciting or interesting to people. To find the true political center, you have to look at all eligible voters–not just the current voters. The Green Party is energizing new voters, who would not have otherwise voted, and who certainly would have never voted Democratic. This is just one of the many reasons that the whole spoiler myth is a lie. - Squideshi - Monday, Jan 8, 07 @ 11:58 am: Angie, also, I’ve seen the trend both here in the United States and with the Green Party internationally. Remember, the Green Party has overcome election barrier hurdles not only in the United States but throughout the world. I base my opinion on precedent–I’ve seen it happen elsewhere. - Ambu 1 - Thursday, Jan 18, 07 @ 8:53 pm: Madigan should step down. He has outlived his usefulness. He is a divider not a bridge builder. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.