47 Comments - Reading between the lines - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 9:47 am: Mike Madigan is hoping that Patrick Fitzgerald comes to our state’s rescue and soon. Indicting and then imprisoning Governor Blagojevich and his cronies for a long, long time. I am proud of this legislature standing up to this charlatan! Blago gotta go, it’s that simple. - Anonymous - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 9:48 am: Continue to help set Lisa up for 2010 gubernatorial primary. - wishful thinking - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 9:49 am: I’ve been a state employee for over 25 years, but never much of a political junkie, so this is just based on observation over the last four years. From where I sit, our current governor is all about PR and appearance and could care less about substance - for employees, for clients of state services, for recipients of state funding - regardless of what he says when he is performing for the media. So I’m hoping that Mr. Madigan’s end game is to show the citizens of Illinois the “real” Rod Blagojevich - and possibly help the feds give Rod and all his friends exactly what they deserve. - reflector - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 9:50 am: I don’t know what his end game is but I am sure glad he is there and doing what he is. - Weasel Factor - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 9:52 am: How about, Mike will play ball once Snakes Eyes makings all those subpoenas public. - sangamo girl - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 9:57 am: Governor Lisa Madigan - so-called "Austin Mayor" - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 9:58 am: Rich, I am starting to suspect that Mr. Madigan is to lower our expectations for the office of governor for his daughter. If Lisa gets to follow this guy, she will look like a genius by comparison. And then off to the White House. You heard it here first! – SCAM - Esteban - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 10:00 am: Pin Blago to the mat and keep him there to clear the way for Lisa to run next time….. - OneMan - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 10:04 am: At this point it is more than just for Lisa to be set up to run, I think at one point that was just it. Now I think he wants to completely destroy him. - A Citizen - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 10:19 am: Madagin’s “End Game” is to accomplish a state budget without grandiose new taxes (grt) or programs this state can ill afford. He is doing what he was elected to do. The gov on the other hand . . . . and Emil is waiting to see which way the wind blows. The gov’s namecalling and temper tantrums are childish at best and counterproductive and destructive at worst. - Esteban & OneMan - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 10:21 am: Amen. He’s gonna do the legal thing. Ask the questions that will back old hot rod into a corner he can’t get out of. I am soooooo looking forward to it. - To Esteban and OneMan - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 10:26 am: I think you’re correct. MM will do the legal thing and let hot rod talk himself right into a corner that he can’t get out of. I can’t wait. - anon - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 10:33 am: Its perfectly clear, as the governor has told us, that Madigan’s endgame is to take health care away from children, take services away from senior citizens, and cut education. - Esteban - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 10:34 am: Where’s George Ryan when we need him? - Name/Nickname/Anon - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 10:37 am: I think Rod talked himself into that corner a long time ago when he started that ‘moral imperative’ bilge. Anon: Shouldn’t you be preparing your bosses’ latest press release? Or are you floating it here as a trial balloon? Get back to work Sheila. - Missing Summer Fun - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 10:41 am: To Anon- You should really stop drinking the Governor’s Kool-Aid and come back to reality. It’s just embarrassing. - Downstater - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 10:45 am: I think most people would agree that Madigan is trying to do the right thing by passing a budget that does not sink this state into more and more debt. Although Lisa will benefit as Blago doesn’t have a clue how to govern effectively and use common sense. What it comes down to is blago is nothing but a school yard bully and the further MM pushes him the more inept and ridiculous this governor looks. - Squideshi - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 10:54 am: It seems obvious to me that Madigan’s hands are full right now trying to establish primacy over Blagojevich. - Levois - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 11:04 am: Humiliate the governor and force him to capitulate. - bored on 1 - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 11:05 am: Speaker Madigan does not have to do anything to further making Blago look inept. He does a fine job himself. This whole thing…”my dad can whip your dad, I can out throw you, I have more friends”, has become a joke. Our governor needs to grow up and realize he is going down as the worst excuse for a politican this state has ever had. - anon - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 11:06 am: Missing Summer Fun…I’m sorry you didn’t pick up the sarcasm of my post. I don’t even like Kool-Aid - Gregor - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 11:36 am: Madigan is riding the tiger: he’s trying to hold Rod back while preserving the party and it’s majority. And somewhere in there, I believe he is also doing this becauise he feels he’s doing what’s best for the state too. He’s gritted his teeth and allowed a LOT of nonsense and malfeasance from this governor, in the name of unity, but there comes a point where he has to look to the good of the party, the majority, and his speakership. The math is, if Rod continues his course, it’s the ruination of the state and dems will be exiled statewide for years. It reminds me strongly of the film: “The Caine Mutiny”. All Rod needs is some ball bearings to fidget with. That guy is totally losing his mind. Madigan mostly can just sit back and watch Rod self-destruct. But he’s probably spending the bulk of his time right now sweet-talking Jones into what effectively would be a co-governorship of Illinois for the rest of the term, sort of a regency. - zatoichi - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 11:42 am: Madigan really does not need an end game. It is being given to him on a platter with little real effort on his part. Like it or not, he presented an option that was voted on. All he is doing is waiting for something of substance, in writing, with details, to be counter presented. What comes back is a 3 year old having a tantrum on the floor. Tough to vote for broad concepts and vagueness for real problems, but easy to watch the opposition tangle themselves in the breeze. - GLT - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 11:43 am: I think Mike Madigan’s political end game is to prevent the governor from obtaining the resources he needs to create huge PR opportunities, level the playing field for Lisa and, just as importantly, humiliate and destroy the governor as a viable political opponent in the future. Someone’s got to do it, and we can’t wait for the Feds. I think Mike Madigan is just the guy Illinois needs right now. - Name/Nickname/Anon - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 11:45 am: Gregor: The Caine Mutiny is the best analogy I have heard yet. All we need now is for Governor Queeg to call for a full scale investigation of the missing strawberries and to demand that all lawmakers tuck in their shirt tails. This is certainly no less relevant than the minutia Rod babbles on about now! - Anon - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 11:48 am: Hopefully his plan is to destroy the Governor. Last week this was embarrassing. We’re on to humiliating now. As long as the Governor is talking he’s digging his own grave. The Legislature just needs to sit back, cross their t’s and dot their eyes and smile as the Governor is led away. - Rudy - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 11:49 am: My question is what is with the Senate President? What is with the Senate Democratic members, why aren’t they standing up and conducting the business of the State of Illinois - AsAMom - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 11:51 am: MM’s reputation and resolve as a great strategist should not be mis-defined as a motivation for power but rather as his first, most basic motivation - his loyalty to the state of Illinois & his complete commitment to the people of Illinois. If the Gov would take the energy spent in his efforts to thwart Madigan and pool it towards a solution to the budget crisis we would be done by now. (Sounds like an argument I used on our son in high school in regards to his homework.) - Squideshi - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 12:13 pm: I think that this is creating a terrific opportunity for the Illinois Green Party. I’m sure that people are even more fed up now than they were in 2006; so that means that the Green vote goes even higher than 11%, and that’s extremely relevant seeing as the Green Party is now running candidates for Congress and other partisan offices here in Illinois. I think that Illinois voters will appreciate a party who’s platform calls for a different kind of decision-making. The idea of a less competitive, less violent consensus-based decision making process is even more likely to appeal to people. Even Republicans have something to gain, as unlike Madigan and Blagojevich, Greens are strong supporters of democracy, support proportional representation, and always seek to mitigate the concerns of the minority when making decisions. - bored on 1 - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 12:32 pm: This is perhaps the most fun I have ever had listening to debate on the House floor. Listening to Rep. Hoffman was almost like watching the Admirals in the early Star Wars movies in their attempt to appease Darth Vader. He needs someone to walk up and just give him a purple nurple so he stops trying so hard. the invitation for all the House members to go to the leaders meeting sent a nice group to the second floor but the meeting was moved to the house where the Gov is supposed to live but does not? so we wait for more fun at 2. - Ilrino - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 12:55 pm: QOTD for Sunday: Where, oh where, has little Emil Jones gone? For a leader who was determined to show he had he-man cojones, he sure has been invisible lately. Has he once again been made irrelevant by the Speaker…or is he waiting for just the right moment to broker a deal, save the day and get what he’s after? - NRA Endowment Life Member - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 12:57 pm: Sorry Squideshi: The Greens also support gun-control, radical environmentalism, one-world economics and voting for 16 year olds. No sale. A weak Republican party is better than ANY Green party. - Capitalist Pig - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 12:59 pm: The greens are a re-packaged socialist choice. I, as a Republican, love the fact that the leftist democrats (MJM) and the far left socialists (HotRod) are clashing. But it is akin to the choice of dieing by torture slowly or quickly. The greens are somewhere in the political philosophy of the other two. The real difference, as I see it, is that the greens are still naive enough to think that they can get their socialist Utopia up and running without any corruption. It’s just funny to me. The rest of the current game in Springfield would be funny if I thought the outcome might be a smaller government with less programs. But whoever wins this fight it will not result in smaller government less regulation or better business opportunity for the average guy. That’s a guarantee. To answer the question…the Lisa M angle is obvious, but I agree that there is something more here. Which side is The Chicago Machine (union bosses etc.)going to support. Can MJM get RB far enough in a hole that the bosses will lift Lisa et al to prominence? Rod has counted on them at election time and we know where he would be without them. - Little Egypt - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 1:04 pm: It is now to the point where Rod is not going to claim any victory without doing what he always does and that is to misrepresent the facts. I double over laughing at posters on here when they say Madigan wants to deprive seniors of services, take away health care for kids, and take away money for education. ROD IS CLUELESS. If he wasn’t, he wouldn’t be in a huge political and legal mess. He doesn’t even realize he has no image left to save. I agree with 99% of the posters here and their take on Madigan’s motives. He has many and I agree with all of them. Rod is getting thoroughly and brutally spanked, soon to turn into a public beating, and I simply can’t stop watching it all play out, and I’m enjoying every single minute of this. I just can’t figure out why the national media hasn’t caught on to this yet. To all of you die hard dems who thought Public Official A was better than JBT, do you think we would be in this very costly special session had you voted differently? My bet is the redhead would have been a far better negotiator and it would not have taken OT to get it done. - Little Egypt - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 1:46 pm: Rich, thanks for spending your weekend, and the week you were supposed to be off, giving us the “news we can use”. - Squideshi - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 2:32 pm: “The Greens also support gun-control, radical environmentalism, one-world economics and voting for 16 year olds. No sale.” The platform of the Illinois Green Party says nothing about gun control; and if you recall, Rich Whitney, the party’s candidate for Illinois Governor in 2006, supported open carry here in Illinois. I don’t know what you mean by “radical environmentalism” unless you are talking about common sense use of the precautionary principle. I also don’t know what you mean by “one world economics” but in today’s world of globalization, multinational corporations, and offshore outsourcing, it seems foolish to deny that there is a global economy. It is true that the Green Party is international with parties and elected officials in more than 70 countries worldwide; but decentralization and community-based economic are also two of the party’s Ten Key Values. (Greens believe in small business AND small government–local control.) I don’t know where you got the voting age thing. Regardless, as I said before, it doesn’t matter what the party platform says–the bigger issue here is that Greens in power would be willing to listen to, work with, attempt to mitigate the concerns of, and attempt to achieve consensus with Republicans like yourself who hold different views. - Squideshi - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 2:47 pm: “The greens are a re-packaged socialist choice.” This is absolutely false. The Green Party is not a socialist political party. The party strongly supports small, local, independent, community-based, and family-owned businesses (As opposed to large, remote, excessive, and bureaucratic larger corporations.) For example, the platform of the Illinois Green Party provides: “We support reducing the self-employment tax, which presently imposes a disproportionate tax burden on individual producers and small business owners, discouraging small enterprise in favor of large corporations.” Another example is that Green support Single-Payer Universal Healthcare, which perhaps would come at the expense of large insurance companies, would be a significant boon to small businesses in helping them to both retain healthy and productive workers while completely eliminating a major rising cost. - Six Degrees of Separation - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 3:42 pm: Where do the Greens stand on the issues REALLY important to small business, such as: Raising the minimum wage The enactment and enforcement of myriads of rules and regulations requiring massive amounts of paperwork, including FMLA, EEO, Workers Comp. etc. Reforming the tax code and generally lightening the tax burden on small employers - Chicago Cynic - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 4:16 pm: Make the governor cry uncle…. - Squideshi - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 4:19 pm: “Where do the Greens stand on the issues REALLY important to small business…” “Raising the minimum wage” The Green Party supports a “living wage” that pays enough to support a family (at least 125% of the federal poverty level for a family of four, plus health-care benefits.) Experience shows that small businesses prosper when employees have more disposable income to spend on their products and services. “The enactment and enforcement of myriads of rules and regulations requiring massive amounts of paperwork, including FMLA, EEO, Workers Comp. etc.” The platform of the Illinois Green Party provides: “America needs to change farm programs and tax and fiscal policies that presently place small and family farms in a disadvantaged position compared with that of large, corporate farms.” “We support reducing the self-employment tax, which presently imposes a disproportionate tax burden on individual producers and small business owners, discouraging small enterprise in favor of large corporations.” The platform of the Green Party of the United States has a full section on small business and the self-employed with several positions, such as: “The tax system needs a major overhaul to favor the legitimate and critical needs of the small business community.” “Government should reduce unnecessary restrictions, fees, and bureaucracy.” “One-stop offices should be established by government to assist individuals who want to change careers or go into business for the first time.” “Home-based and neighborhood-based businesses should be assisted by forward-looking planning, not hurt by out-of-date zoning ordinances. Telecommuting and home offices should be aided, not hindered, by government.” - Rich Miller - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 5:54 pm: Enough about the Green Party, please. Squid gets the last word. - Bender Bending Rodriguez - Saturday, Jul 7, 07 @ 7:30 pm: End game? It’s somewhat obvious, but it bears repeating… After the talent agent picks his jaw up off the floor, he says to the Speaker, “That’s a hell of an act. What do you call yourselves?” “The Aristocrats!” says Madigan. - Silent Majority - Sunday, Jul 8, 07 @ 8:44 am: Madigans end game? The same as always, to stay in power and enhance his power while having no real idological interest other than power. - By Thy Rivers Gently Flowing - Sunday, Jul 8, 07 @ 8:53 am: I second Silent Majority. Remember “It’s My Money…?” Most people don’t. - The Cardinal - Sunday, Jul 8, 07 @ 11:54 am: Lou Lang got it right the G has united the house in one thing; This is a rudderless ship about to crash on the rocks. The amazing inability of our G to focus and not actually do any work for the people continues to astound. Thanks again to the 48% that put this twit in office. G-rod acts like a spoiled little brat, “Well Its time to grow UP now little Milorad and take responsibility for your actions” ( or inaction as the case may be) I think we learned that in like 3rd grade. Mean while thanks GA for not raising taxes and keeping offices open. - msmms - Sunday, Jul 8, 07 @ 12:58 pm: Blago as Pinky Madigan as Brain Pinky: “What’re we gonna do now Brain?” Brain: “Same thing we do every night…Plan to take over the world!” - Jerry - Monday, Jul 9, 07 @ 9:03 am: Madigan wants his daughter to be governor. He’s doing the dirty work for his daughter. White House? Perhaps…We’ll see what happens when Lisa is the Governor. She’ll have to be able to stand up to Daddy Dearest. And Madigan is the Boss. He wants Rod to know who calls the shots. He wants to break the Governor’s power. 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