* Have a fantastic Mother’s Day, whether you are a mother or have one. Make sure to stop by Illinoize for more commentary and check out our new project InsiderzExchange - classifieds, calendars and more. We’re still giving it a few minor tweaks, but it’s ready for a weekend run.
* This was my mother’s favorite song when I was a kid, and it was recently given an update by Vanessa Amorosi…
It’s been kind of a raucous day on the blog, what with all the craziness in Springfield, so let’s change gears a bit this afternoon.
I wrote about a fond memory of my mom the other day. Now, it’s your turn. Since this is a state politics site, I’m wondering how your moms influenced your political beliefs, practices, etc. Or, you can just say something nice.
* I received one of those chain e-mail jokes today. I don’t get many of these (please, don’t “help” me get more) so I don’t know how old this one is, but I thought I’d use it as the setup to our Question of the Day. It’s been edited for length…
Why did the chicken cross the road?
BARACK OBAMA:
The chicken crossed the road because it was time for a CHANGE! The chicken wanted CHANGE!
JOHN MC CAIN:
My friends, that chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the road.
HILLARY CLINTON:
When I was First Lady, I personally helped that little chicken to cross the road. This experience makes me uniquely qualified to ensure — right from Day One! — that every chicken in this country gets the chance it deserves to cross the road. But then, this really isn’t about me…….
PAT BUCHANAN:
To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.
JERRY FALWELL:
Because the chicken was gay! Can’t you people see the plain truth?’ That’s why they call it the ‘other side.’ Yes, my friends, that chicken is gay. And if you eat that chicken, you will become gay too. I say we boycott all chickens until we sort out this abomination that the liberal media whitewashes with seemingly harmless phrases like ‘the other side.’ That chicken should not be crossing the road. It’s as plain and as simple as that.
BILL CLINTON:
I did not cross the road with THAT chicken. What is your definition of chicken?
COLONEL SANDERS:
Did I miss one?
DICK CHENEY:
Where’s my gun?
* Question: How would our state’s leaders answer the eternal question: “Why did the chicken cross the road?”
…Adding… Notice, I said “leaders” with an “s.” Try to come up with answers for as many people as possible, please. Thanks.
Forby said he doesn’t know why the administration would announce a move without a site in mind.
“That’s the governor’s office,” he said. “I don’t have a clue.”
Neither do we, Gary. Neither do we.
* Meanwhile, on another topic - the governor’s absence from the annual Holocaust memorial service - but on the same frame of reference, the State Journal-Register admits…
We have given up trying to figure out this governor’s motivations.
* Pretty funny, but then they try again anyway…
We have a fairly good idea why he couldn’t be bothered with Wednesday’s Holocaust ceremony. The Hall of Representatives in the Old State Capitol does not provide a secret exit through which the governor could make a hasty retreat and avoid questions from pesky reporters. The governor these days rarely appears in venues where he can’t conveniently avoid any unscripted public contact.
* Meanwhile, the governor has said a capital bill is his top priority, but Sen. Dale Risinger claims the guv has been shafting the state’s Road Fund, which means less cash now for roads and bridges…
About $370 million typically used to be diverted out of the road fund each year and into the budgets of agencies that deal with roads, such as the Illinois State Police or the Secretary of State’s Office, Risinger said.
But he said the Blagojevich administration has made $4.2 billion worth of road fund diversions between fiscal years 2004 and 2009. If road fund diversions had remained at their typical level, the combined amount in that period would have been about $2.2 billion, he said.
The AFSCME report claimed [state] employees are overworked to maintain minimal operational integrity at 24-hour facilities. The report also disclosed that the Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Human Services and Department of Corrections collectively spent $62 million in overtime in a year. “When our members came to work in the state of Illinois, they signed up for public service, not for servitude,” said Henry Bayer, executive director of AFSCME Council 31. “All too many of them are forced to work two and even three 16-hour shifts in one week’s time.”
Kelley Quinn, budget spokeswoman for Gov. Rod Blagojevich, said the governor’s office is trying to recruit for positions such as nurses at veterans’ homes.
“We aggressively try to fill those positions, but they are difficult to fill,” Quinn said.
She forgot to add “they are difficult to fill because we don’t have any political friends with those qualifications,” or something like that.
Quinn does have a point that the state can operate more efficiently with less workers. I’d like to see a study, however, of how many contractors were hired - and at what cost - to fill the gaps created by that 2002 early retirement deal which emptied out so many state offices.
* Somewhat related…
* Union for state workers wants mandatory overtime eliminated - Members of AFSCME throw support behind contract clause, legislation…
* Republicans propose moratorium on closing Illinois prisons
A Senate panel unanimously approved a ban on “pay-to-play” for state contractors Thursday despite a last-minute threat from Senate President Emil Jones to add a provision proponents said would derail the legislation.
Jones (D-Chicago) wants to amend the bill to make it impossible for all statewide officials to get campaign cash from contractors that do at least $50,000 in business with any of the state’s six constitutional officers. Under Jones’ version, a company that gets a contract from the governor couldn’t give campaign cash to the treasurer, for example.
That would be a change from a bipartisan agreement lawmakers announced last week after more than a year of dickering. The lawmakers’ version would ban companies that hold or seek at least $50,000 in business from contributing to the campaigns of the office-holder who actually awards the contract.
* And a congressional candidate was put in the middle…
Senate Majority Leader Debbie Halvorson (D- Crete), who helped negotiate the pay-to-play deal, said she has no intention of letting Jones tinker with the bill.
“He knows better,” said Halvorson, a congressional candidate whom Jones recently kicked off the powerful rules committee. “[The amendment] will not be put on there because that kills it over in the [House], and I wouldn’t vote for it over here.”
Cindi Canary, director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, believes Jones is just making noise to ensure the Senate gets proper credit for its contributions to the legislation. The House adopted the idea more than a year ago but it has been intensely negotiated between the chambers since.
Saying he’s tired of the House “pimping” the Senate, Sen. Rickey Hendon (D-Chicago) said he’ll try to change a bill so lawmakers who vote against raises won’t get the extra cash.
Hendon said it’s unfair for House members who vote against the raise to get the extra pay if the Senate allows raises to take effect.
Hendon also took issue with state Sen. Susan Garrett, a Lake Forest Democrat who was leading the push to reject the raises.
“People should not miss out on the fact that she’s a millionaire. She don’t need it. Have you seen her house? Mind-boggling,” Hendon said. “So it just blows my mind how the filthy rich are always the ones saying, we don’t need the raise. No, she don’t.”
In the middle of Garrett talking to reporters, Senate President Emil Jones Jr., a Chicago Democrat who supports the raises, walked past and loudly quipped that he needed to get some food stamps.
* Would you like some audio? You would? Well here you go. Click on the links if the audio player doesn’t work for you…UPDATE: Y’all were killing my server, so I’ve moved the files to a new server and deleted the audio player…
[Thanks to the Daily Herald for the audio clips. The paper now has the audio files on its own site as well.]
Try to avoid just teeing off on individual legislators in comments. It gets boring after a while and we’ve all heard it before. Be a bit original, please. Thanks.
*** UPDATE *** Per a request by a commenter, I’ve trimmed Jones’ “foodstamps” comment and converted it into some ringtone files. Click to download…
* Stroger scheduled to attend bioterror drill at Sears Centre
Cook County Board President Todd Stroger backed out of a appearance in Palatine last week, but he’s got another Northwest suburban visit on his calendar for next week.
* Would the capital city be able to gamble on racing?
Harness racing up to nine months a year at the Illinois State Fairgrounds could help raise money for fairground improvements and the Sangamon County emergency dispatch system, according to Rep. Raymond Poe
A former Illinois treasurer’s office employee accused of embezzling $750,000 in taxpayer funds - a good portion of it Pekin Hospital’s money - pleaded not guilty Tuesday in federal court in Springfield.
Morning Shorts will be a bit late today because I’m doing it myself. My intern Kevin Fanning is graduating from the University of Illinois (Champaign) this weekend. He’ll be back Monday.
Paul Richardson, my intern from last year, is also graduating this weekend with a master’s degree. He’s heading to Loyola Law School this fall, and he may be in Springfield next week for a visit.
I’ll leave comments open so you can congratulate them both.
[I’m taking the subscriber protection off because other outlets are now covering the issue.]
* 3:13 pm - Senate President Emil Jones has agreed - for now - to not call a hostile amendment to the supposedly agreed ethics bill.
Jones introduced an amendment late this morning that would have barred all contributions from most contractors to all constitutional officers and candidates.
In other words, if someone had a $50,000+ contract with the comptroller’s office, they couldn’t contribute to Treasurer Giannoulias’ campaign committee.
It also would also appear to mean that legislators, including Speaker Madigan, the chairman of the Democratic Party of Illinois, would be prohibited from raising money from state contractors.UPDATE: Misread of the amendment on my part in conjunction with Jones’ explanation below. According to Jones’ spokesperson, the amendment would only apply to other statewide officials, not legislators. Sorry for the confusion. But it would prevent Giannoulias, Lisa Madigan, Dan Hynes, etc. from raising money from contractors under Blagojevich’s control in anticipation of a far-off and still undeclared bid for governor.
Jones just said that he would hold the amendment today, but a few hours ago there was some concern that the ethics package might be dead - a week after it was apparently made an agreed bill.
The Senate won’t vote on the bill today, partly because there’s a bit more work to be done on other issues. More on that and other stuff in tomorrow’s Capitol Fax.
Senate President Emil Jones — a Chicago Democrat — says the money ban has a “gaping loophole.” He says it simply means people will give money to political parties to distribute to candidates.
*** 4:24 pm *** I had these stories posted below but I’ve moved them up to this post for easier viewing…
Lawmakers and other state officials are likely to get pay raises because the Democratic leadership in the Illinois Senate does not plan to let members vote on whether to block the increases, lawmakers confirmed Thursday. […]
State Sen. Rickey Hendon, a Chicago Democrat, said he thinks the rejection effort is flawed and claims state House members are using the Illinois Senate as a political fall guy on the issue. Hendon said the Illinois House votes to reject the raises all the while expecting the Senate will block rejection and everyone ends up with more money. […]
As chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, Hendon controls whether the plan to reject the raises ever sees the light of day. […]
“People should not miss out on the fact that [Sen. Susan Garrett, a pay raise opponent, is a] millionaire. She don’t need it. Have you seen her house? Mind-boggling,” Hendon said. “So it just blows my mind how the filthy rich are always the ones saying, we don’t need the raise. No she don’t.”
Hendon’s comments came after Garrett told reporters he would not let the House-passed resolution advance in the Senate. Hendon said he never told Garrett he was blocking the House resolution. But he made it clear he intended to improve it, pointing to his role in changing a House-approved measure calling for a constitutional amendment on recalling officials. The Senate killed that version last week.
Hendon said lawmakers should consider applying his pay raise approach to other issues, such as a statewide construction program lawmakers are negotiating.
“If people aren’t man and woman enough to take the tough votes, then they shouldn’t get it anyway,” Hendon said. “But every time, they’re the first one in the line.”
* Another non-reason to vote against the constitutional convention in November…
Former candidate for governor Dawn Clark Netsch cautioned against holding a convention, saying she fears hot-button social issues like abortion or stem cell research would monopolize the debate because special interests are frustrated that the issues are not being debated by the state Legislature.
If the issues aren’t being debated, perhaps they ought to have a hearing at a Con-Con. Where’s the harm in a debate?
* Here are a couple of points that are never really explained in these debates over calling a constitutional convention…
The people - voters - get to vote up or down on the elected degates’ finished product;
Delegates don’t have to write an entirely new Constitution. They could just propose some amendments and ask voters to vote on each one individually.
The Convention shall prepare such revision of or amendments to the Constitution as it deems necessary. Any proposed revision or amendments approved by a majority of the delegates elected shall be submitted to the electors in such manner as the Convention determines, at an election designated or called by the Convention occurring not less than two nor more than six months after the Convention’s adjournment. […]
The vote on the proposed revision or amendments shall be on a separate ballot. Any proposed revision or amendments shall become effective, as the Convention provides, if approved by a majority of those voting on the question.
The fear-mongering by “reformers” like Dawn Clark Netsch is just reprehensible.
* Normally, pay raises for legislators doesn’t bother me all that much. They went years without one and got a ten percent bump last year. But the latest pay raise looks horrifically stupid to me because the public is so up in arms these days. No recall/impeachment/etc. of a breathtakingly unpopular governor, no progress on the budget, health care, capital plan, and on and on and on. Pick an issue, it’s stuck.
In my opinion, being a lawmaker is a pretty good gig. If it isn’t, why are incumbents sticking around year after year?
As McQueary notes, if this pay raise takes effect
[legislative pay would rise] more than $7,000 to nearly $73,000 by July 2009.
Legislators work a lot harder than most people give them credit for. They put in some seriously long days and weeks last year and this year looks ominous as well.
* Question: Should Illinois just move to a full-time General Assembly and prohibit outside income?
* This comment was posted last night and it’s one of the more thought-out and funny posts I’ve seen in a while, so I thought I’d promote it to the front page…
Blagojevich story generator. (Bee eSS Generator for short)
Just pick one item from each section to generate a typical Rod Blagojevich story.
For brevity, you can just write your story as a string of the resulting numbers.
Today Governor Blagojevich’s office announced a
1 new program
2 variation on a previously proposed program
3 impotent condemnation of the Federal government over policy
4 sympathetic “me-too” press statement riding the tail of a national issue
5 new lawsuit
6 no-bid contract for a friend
7 re-named version of a previous governor’s program
that met with
1 skepticism from the General Assembly over implementation
2 howls of derision from members of his own party
3 non-committal responses from state leadership
4 a call for his impeachment by Jack Franks
5 complaints of unfunded mandates and frivolous expense by civic/business groups
6 unanswered questions about accountability from experts in the field
His new idea is to provide:
1 free healthcare for pets
2 singing lessons to Miley Cyrus
3 free trips out of the country for anyone who is of Syrian extraction or named Madigan
4 generous retirement plans for prosecuting attorneys and judges
Blagojevich said there would be enough money for all the programs he proposes and to pay off the state deficit by way of:
1 GRT tax
2 a value-added tax on general revenue
3 a previously rejected funding plan
4 just not looking too closely at the books
5 a truckload of new gambling expansion
6 auctioning off everything not nailed down
7 a TRG tax
8 removing “corporate loopholes”… in campaign funding restrictions
.
The governor, thru a spokesperson, dodged questions about
1 a current racketeering investigation in which his name is prominent
2 a lack of detail on the implementation of the new initiative
3 the absence of funding mechanism for the proposal
4 the fact that insiders and campaign contributors would be involved
5 a new law suit / counter-suit
6 a previous, related suit of his being dismissed as frivolous or without merit
7 his taxes
.
Later, on his way
1 to a fundraiser
2 from a fundraiser
3 to his home
4 to a Hannah Montana concert
5 to a Cubs game
6 to a Hawks game
7 to an intramural Jai ali contest
8 to Winston & Strawn
9 from something that most definitely was NOT a fundraiser
the governor was accosted by reporters demanding an explanation. The governor
1 ducked into his state airplane
2 ducked into a black Suburban
3 gathered a protective ring of schoolchildren from a passing field trip
4 began quoting 1970’s Cubs batting averages
5 demonstrated his recall of state area codes
6 blamed George Ryan for everything
7 said whatever it was, he didn’t do it, unless it was for “the people”
8 reminded everyone he got bad grades in school
9 blamed Mike Madigan for not doing enough
10 asked Emil Jones to run block for him and ran for the sidelines
11 told the elephant struck by lightning/ boy digging in horse stall story
and reiterated that he was:
1 the son of immigrants
2 the son-in-law of a powerful Chicago alderman
3 a man of the people
4 not a big reader or mathematician
5 not a “process” guy
6 not wearing lifts
7 not yet indicted
8 not using “just for men”
and that details would be
1 forthcoming from a press aide
2 forthcoming from private lawyers on state payroll
3 open to negotiation, if he felt like it
4 something Lon and those guys would take care of
5 George Ryan’s fault
.
A spokesperson for the governor clarified his comments by saying:
1 we don’t do business that way
2 we never knew this was going on
3 we were always in the forefront of preventing/promoting this exact kind of thing
4 we have never heard of this person (or organization)
5 this was something that was done by low level-underlings
6 accused is not indicted
7 indicted is not convicted
8 convicted means nothing until after an appeal
9 this is all a plot by Madigan
10 we will study the issue and appoint a task force headed by a relative or friend
11 it was an “up” day
Gov. Rod Blagojevich was absent Wednesday for the 27th annual Days of Remembrance Holocaust Observance, which was held at the Old Capitol State Historic Site.
* Check out who they sent instead…
Louanner Peters, the deputy governor, gave a brief speech in Blagojevich’s place.
This is the same person who worked for former Congressman Gus Savage….
Deputy Gov. Louanner Peters was former Congressman Gus Savage’s chief of staff for 10 years. Savage was the guy who blamed his 1992 Democratic primary loss on the “white racist press and the racist, reactionary Jewish misleaders.”
Yeah, smart move.
* So, where was the governor during the Springfield event? Why, he was appearing on Chicago TV shows to promote his new anti-violence program that doesn’t yet exist, and getting hammered by the usually friendly morning anchors…
Governor Rod Blagojevich joined us on “Good Day Chicago” this morning and talked about a lot of things. No, he doesn’t think he’ll be indicted. Yes, he wants to lease the state lottery to raise money for state projects.
Senate Majority Leader Debbie Halvorson (D-Crete) was removed as chairperson of the powerful rules committee Wednesday by Senate President Emil Jones (D-Chicago) after she clashed with Republicans over her handling of a bill that could have allowed voters to create a recall provision for elected officials.
Halvorson said she believes she was replaced by Sen. Rickey Hendon (D-Chicago) because she had become a “distraction” and had publicly broken with Jones on several major issues, including recall.
* Halvorson offered up this explanation to her local paper…
[Halvorson] noted that she favors the “pay to play” legislation, voted in committee and on the Senate floor for the elected officials recall amendment, and against the automatic legislator pay raise.
“Maybe that’s causing a lot of heartburn,” she said.
That’s not quite it. She’s a distraction because she’s so vulnerable to political attacks as chair of the Rules Committee.
* More response from the Martin Ozinga campaign, Halvorson’s Republican opponent for Congress…
The sad part of this is that Halvorson has lost an influential chairmanship which she could have used to help her constituents. But because she has used that chairmanship for years to rubber-stamp the Blagojevich/Jones agenda, and because that is hurting her campaign, she is being removed.
That’s a bit harsh, but it is a campaign, after all.
“It wasn’t until I got an opponent a couple of weeks ago that people started taking all this garbage out of context and putting it into their own context, and again, that was stopping us from focusing on the real issues of what needs to be done,” she said.
That’s true, but she should have seen it coming. I can’t understand why she didn’t resign that chairmanship months ago.
* Unsurprisingly, Illinois Review says this is “great news for Ozinga.” But today is May 8th. The November election is a long, long way away. This issue is now off the table.
* As I told subscribers this morning, Michael Mahoney’s acquittal was big news in Springfield last night for obvious reasons…
A federal judge on Wednesday acquitted Michael J. Mahoney, a nationally known corrections expert, on charges that he schemed to bribe Illinois’ former top prison official to win lucrative state contracts for his lobbying clients. […]
Federal prosecutors alleged that Mahoney used a former business partner as a “bag man” to deliver about $20,000 in bribes to Donald Snyder Jr. while he headed the Illinois Department of Corrections from 1999 to 2002. […]
But U.S. District Judge James Zagel, who heard the case without a jury, found that prosecutors had not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Mahoney participated in the scheme.
Zagel said the evidence showed that, at most, Mahoney suspected Robinson of paying bribes and chose not to interfere.
Zagel said he discounted the testimony of one key witness against Mahoney, former Illinois Corrections Director Donald Snyder, and had doubts about another, former Cook County Undersheriff John Robinson. […]
But Zagel said Snyder’s repeated memory failures on the witness stand rendered his testimony unreliable and Robinson’s demeanor on the stand suggested he might be ‘’inflating Mahoney’s role.'’
Snyder and Robinson have pleaded guilty and await sentencing.
A star witness with a bad memory, no direct link between the defendant and the alleged payoffs… Hmmm.
The big difference is that this was a bench trial, not a jury trial. Jurors have shown of late to be very willing to believe whatever the feds put in front of them in corruption cases. In this case, the judge wasn’t buying the line.
While meeting with lawyers in a jury instruction conference this afternoon, Judge Amy St. Eve said it wasn’t a certainty that witnesses who pleaded guilty will receive shorter prison time. “There’s no guarantee any of them will get reduced sentences,” St. Eve said. […]
Her comment is particularly interesting when it comes to main witness Stuart Levine. Levine faced up to life in prison but negotiated a 67-month sentence with prosecutors.
As one commenter over there pointed out…
Wow. Makes people really want to run right up to Fitz et al and confess. If St. Eve is going to take a hard line on those who confessed wonder how she’s going to feel about sentencing Rezko if found guilty…?
Yep.
* Other stuff…
* Blagojevich should ‘clear the air’ on Rezko, Quinn says
“Our objective is to respect the landmark ordinance and to keep the iconic nature and historic nature of Wrigley Field,” he said. “So when we’re all said and done, I would expect the preservation community to be in favor of our plans and to strongly support them.”
“I have constituents that call universities and ask, ‘Do you have a police force that’s armed?’” said the Aurora Democrat, herself a former security guard.
Kirby allegedly ordered a wire transfer of $750,000 into an account she created and used a scheme of paperwork transactions to account for the money. An investigation was launched after one of the entities she used, the Internal Revenue Service, questioned the transactions.
