Me
Thursday, Jan 15, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I was on Chicago Tonight last night to talk about yesterday’s events. Watch it here.
* And I’m profiled in this week’s edition of the Illinois Times…
Years ago, when I was new in town and causing trouble, Rich Miller phoned me, out of the blue, and invited me to lunch. As I recall, he gave me something like 15 minutes notice to show up at a downtown restaurant. I figured his real lunch appointment must have canceled and I was a last-minute sub, but so what? I wasn’t about to miss a bull session with a guy who has, for the past two decades, devoted heart and soul to covering Illinois politics.
Miller started his career in 1989 here, at Illinois Times, making $50 a week and living in a basement coal bin; he now makes a very comfortable living writing a syndicated column for about 150 papers (including IT), a weekly column for the Chicago Sun-Times and churning out a thrice-weekly hot sheet called Capitol Fax, a subscription-based enterprise he launched in 1993. He also produces a juicy up-to-the-minute blog. Did I say he covers Illinois politics? He’s all over it.
Not surprisingly, lunch with Miller isn’t for the faint of heart. He’s a big, loud, hairy dude with a wardrobe of tie-dyed shirts and a vocabulary that could give Gov. Rod Blagojevich a run for his money on the bleepometer. “Do you mind if I smoke?” Miller asked me. “Because, if you do, you can just go sit way the [bleep] over there.”
So I wasn’t entirely unprepared when I called him the other day and asked if I could interview him for my column. His answer was the word “no” artfully arranged as the thematic motif in a fresco of profanity. I talked him into it anyway.
…Adding… Dusty also managed to get an explanation about that cartoon image I use of myself…
Former Illinois Times cartoonist Mike Cramer penned this portrait of Rich Miller sometime in the early 1990s. “He’s looking at the underside of the Capitol like a kid looks under a log searching for slugs and bugs,” says Cramer, who is now an attorney in the Chicago office of Ogletree Deakins. “I’ve seen Rich recently, and I think it’s still a fairly accurate likeness.”
- Captain Flume - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 11:55 am:
Me. That’s what politics and what passes for journalism is all about.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 12:02 pm:
You seem bitter, Flumey. What up?
- Greg - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 12:03 pm:
“His answer was the word “no” artfully arranged as the thematic motif in a fresco of profanity.’
Rich, wow, you could be governor with language like that. Did you wax poetically?
- OneMan - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 12:06 pm:
What the [bleep] where is the [bleeping] language. It’s the Illinois Times what wrong with an occasional [Bleep]
- Springfield Sceptic - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 12:06 pm:
After reading the profile I have to say, I think he’s got you nailed, Rich.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 12:07 pm:
==he’s got===
He’s a she.
- Anonymous45 - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 12:07 pm:
Aww…I am happy for Rich that he has become a respectable and respected journalist in this world of a multitude of talking heads that look good and say nothing…I do think he needs his mouth washed out with Ivory bar soap, but I guess this is part of his charm…I have never heard him use profanity when his daughter is within earshot…BTW, I saw CT and you and Carol provided a boffo, desd on encapsulation of the strange goings on in the Senate chambers yesterday…I LIKE your gruff exterior when there are no kids or old ladies nearby…
- Speaking at Will - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 12:08 pm:
== He’s a big, loud, hairy dude with a wardrobe of tie-dyed shirts and a vocabulary that could give Gov. Rod Blagojevich a run for his money on the bleepometer. ==
The Bleepometer, gives me thoughts of the old “Shawn - O - Meter” at cubs games that tracked the batting average of Shawn Dunston.
- transplant - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 12:09 pm:
political reporters throughout Illinois stand in awe of Rich Miller.
- He Makes Ryan Look Like a Saint - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 12:11 pm:
WHAT??? No mention of the bleepin White Sox? Your slipping!
Good story Rich, you have been all over this Governor for the past 5 years.
- Ditto - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 12:13 pm:
What the IT didn’t report is that Miller is also very charming, bleeps and all.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 12:13 pm:
She asked about the Sox, but it didn’t make the final cut, apparently.
- VanillaMan - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 12:15 pm:
Well done!
You appeared reasoned, intelligent, and informed. You are a class act!
- You Go Boy - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 12:17 pm:
As a “Kankee” guy, kudo’s to you for some peer props. I respect Dusty, though often disagree with her political bent. I assumed you were more of a Royko, rather than Woodward, type, but I wouldn’t have suspected you’d been at it 20 years.
- vole - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 12:25 pm:
Wow, you fooled me. I had pictured you as another Pat Sajak. “Spin the Wheelers and Dealers!”
- Jake from Elwood - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 12:29 pm:
Is Dusty Rhodes her real name? If so, excellent. Sounds like a great name for a traffic reporter.
- Pot calling kettle - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 12:35 pm:
In the TV interview with Marin, you look especially well groomed. I just hope it doesn’t damage your reputation.
- IrishPirate - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 12:38 pm:
He had to clean up for his Channel 11 Marin interview. It is PBS after all.
Rich if you ever write about this time in the future you can start out: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
Great time to be a political reporter. Bad time to be any number of people.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 12:48 pm:
===He had to clean up for his Channel 11 Marin interview. ===
I was actually very unhappy with how I did. I came back to the Statehouse from a couple of receptions, which probably explains things.
The lighting helped my physical appearance, I think. lol I’m in desperate need of a haircut and a beard trim. Not to mention all the other “issues.”
- Some Other Bill - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 12:55 pm:
In the talking head business, they can’t all look the same. As they used to say, let your freak flag fly….
- Northside Blogger - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 12:58 pm:
FYI - While attending a past Blagojevich fundraiser, I ran into a reporter who resembled you (turned out to be a Tribune reporter, don’t know the name). I went up to this person and asked if he was Rich Miller. He responded by saying he was a real reporter unlike Miller. I then said something in defense of you but was struck by his comment. Have you experienced this kind of treatment openly from other reporters?
- Ghost - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 12:58 pm:
bah you need to add a few twigs, berries and peices of food to your beard, not go the other way!
I swear I heard a woodpecker in there one day….
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 1:05 pm:
Northside Blogger, that would be Rick Pearson with the almighty Mother Tribune.
He’s had an attitude about me for 19 years. That’s his problem. Not mine.
- 47th Ward - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 1:08 pm:
Too funny Northside. Rick Pearson gets that a lot, it must get under his skin.
I remember years ago walking into the press room at the Capitol and asking where I could find Rich Miller. Howls of derision ensued, the gist of which was, “he ain’t here, this is the press room, it’s for real reporters.”
Given Rich’s riches, and the ever shrinking newsroom budgets elsewhere, I understand where the sentiment. It is a high compliment Rich, and well-deserved.
- Just a Citizen - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 1:09 pm:
Must say I have never heard Rich use profanity around me, but I’m his very proud Mother. Nothing like going from a coal bin to living in a very nice house on the lake in Springfield and being well respected around the State and within the family. Way to go kid!!!
- wordslinger - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 1:13 pm:
When I was a kid, there was a wrestler named Dusty Rhodes who used to grapple on Vern Gagne’s All-Star Wrestling show on WREX-TV out of Rockford Boylan High.
But he was a dude.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 1:13 pm:
Also, Northside, Pearson has never had the stones to tell me that stuff to my face. lol Such a tough guy.
- Cheswick - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 1:14 pm:
Rich, thank you for doing all you do and for keeping it all straight for those of us in the peanut gallery. We couldn’t live without ya.
- Rich - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 1:17 pm:
The cartoonist should have included City Hall and the Cook County Building. Miller pretty much covers it all
- Captain Flume - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 1:22 pm:
Flumey is bitter today. Perhaps the catharsis of the past couple days is churning, and the horrible feeling that this is not a new day in Illinois government, just another day, with some new players. I pray I am wrong.
- IrishPirate - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 1:27 pm:
Come on give Pearson a break. It must be annoying to be mistaken for someone else all the time. I get “excuse me, Mr Clooney, are you filming in town” and Pearson gets “R U Rich Milla”.
Plus the second paragraph of Pearson’s obit will probably start out “often mistaken for the better known, more successful Rich Miller.”
Life ain’t fair. We need to lighten up and laugh it off.
- Vote Quimby! - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 1:30 pm:
Great article, and from a ‘real’ reporter. There’s more true journalism on this site than most any newspaper!
What’s the difference between Rich Miller and a ‘real reporter’? One will have an income in six months! One of the upsides of the newspaper carnage is watching deserving folks get their comeuppance…. I know quite a few smug photogs, copy editors and such who I will enjoy watching try to find a job in the real world away from their cubicle domain.
- Barnum and Blago - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 1:33 pm:
If journalism is going to survive the changing business model that the internet has wrought, those journalists will stop being so dismissive of Rich and start emulating his ways. Profanity helps!
- Lurker - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 1:34 pm:
Flume: MEH, everyone knows journalists like to talk about themselves.
- Just My Opinion - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 1:37 pm:
The fact that national reporters are sniffing after you gives you a lot of bleeping credibility. I, too, am surprised that the IT didn’t throw in a bleep here and there. You do a great job Rich. You clean up well too.
- walter sobchak - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 1:39 pm:
I’ve met Rich Miller a couple of times but don’t know him. I feel as if I do a little after reading the article. What’s clear is that he is creating a new media, with a firm business base, that is burying the Trib, the Sun-Times, and cable news. Insight, knowledge of the issues and personalities, context, facts, opinions, interaction with others providing the same, all in real time and, after you discover the blog, necessary. Pearson should volunteer to be an intern…he might learn something.
- Downstater - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 1:39 pm:
While I’ve never met Rich, I’ve always felt close to him…….ever since my brother approached him in a hotel lobby and mistook him for Blago’s bus driver!
To his credit, Rich handled it in a casual, easy manner. It says lot about his character.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 1:40 pm:
===.ever since my brother approached him in a hotel lobby and mistook him for Blago’s bus driver!===
That was a very funny moment.
- The Federalist - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 1:41 pm:
Rich, Don’t this compliment to heart, but I am an OLD politial junkie and getting up 5 days a week to read the CF blog starts the day on a good note.
- The Federalist - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 1:43 pm:
Obviously I can’t complete a full sentence either.
- What's in a name? - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 1:45 pm:
Is it my imagination or does it seem Ms. Rhodes has a thing for Mr. Miller?
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 1:47 pm:
It’s your imagination.
- Bonsaso - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 1:49 pm:
I’ve read numberous columns in the Illinois Times penned by Dusty Rhodes. She is a great investigative journalist. Yes Chicago, Springfield does have talent.
- Obamalac - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 1:50 pm:
I was TOTALLY against Rich going to school to be a journalist! Since grade school he had excelled in every school (and there were many) he ever attended and I wanted him to be an engineer or something that paid big bucks. But his road to success started in that coal bin for whatever reason. Success has destroyed more people than failure and I’m glad he has survived it. Dad
- wordslinger - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 1:51 pm:
Rich, I give you a lot of points for not being a camera moth and going on the national cable yakkers. You’re turning down free advertising for your business (and they pay, don’t they?).
I tuned in a few times the past month because of local events and was appalled.
Whether it’s right or left, Hannity or Olbermann, Reilly or Rachel, or anyone in between, they’re a bunch of ignorant, loud-mouth, self-righteous, flatulent haters.
Who watches these shows and why? They don’t inform. They don’t entertain. What is their point for being? Singing to their hateful choirs?
Read, people, read.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 1:51 pm:
=== Success has destroyed more people than failure and I’m glad he has survived it.===
It ain’t over yet.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 1:53 pm:
===and they pay, don’t they?===
No, which is Reason Number One for avoiding them.
Actually, I can’t say “No,” for everyone, but nobody’s offered me a check yet.
- VanillaMan - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 1:59 pm:
Pearson is like Miller, like Tofu Dogs are like Bratwurst.
Connoisseurs know a real wiener from a fake.
- Six Degrees of Separation - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 2:01 pm:
Whether it’s right or left, Hannity or Olbermann, Reilly or Rachel, or anyone in between, they’re a bunch of ignorant, loud-mouth, self-righteous, flatulent haters.
As opposed to the thoughtful, well-reasoned voices of Bill, Cassandra and Vanilla Man.
- Little Egypt - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 2:12 pm:
Rich, a lot of reporters surely envy the position you are in. You can say no to the national guys and still they come calling. There’s a lot to be said for that kind of independence. One of these days you may get too big for your britches, but it’s not happened yet. We are all on the winning side of this one and we need to appreciate this blog while it lasts (hopefully for a long, long time). At least we can say we knew Rich when………..
- Six Degrees of Separation - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 2:16 pm:
At least we can say we knew Rich when………..
…he would take our e-mails and let us blog on his site.
Thanks be to hizzoner Rich for the hard work, and providing the community a collective place to vent!
- RobRoy - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 2:17 pm:
I agree with all who’ve given RM props for his entrepreneurial success. Another Illinois ‘Trailblazer’, but more so. I’ll admit to also admiring how damn hard he works.
- Levois - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 2:17 pm:
His foul mouthedness wouldn’t bother me. I’ve heard worse in high school. Of course if he was upset at me for some reason or another I would listen.
- Kevin Fanning - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 2:44 pm:
Haha that profile is hilarious. lol…
===“Do you mind if I smoke?” Miller asked me. “Because, if you do, you can just go sit way the [bleep] over there.”===
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 2:45 pm:
K-Fan knows all too well how true that stuff is about me. lol
- VanillaMan - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 2:47 pm:
Whether it’s right or left, Hannity or Olbermann, Reilly or Rachel, or anyone in between, they’re a bunch of ignorant, loud-mouth, self-righteous, flatulent haters.
As opposed to the thoughtful, well-reasoned voices of Bill, Cassandra and Vanilla Man.
Why would anyone hate flatulence? Grossed out by it sometimes, but hate? You can’t live without it.
If taking a stand means being labled a hater, you don’t know hate.
- Kevin Fanning - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 2:56 pm:
Rich I just hope that you were wearing the same gangster suit during that interview as you were on Chicago Tonight. Reminiscent of that shinebox scene from Goodfellas.
- Dan S, a Voter and Cubs Fan - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 2:56 pm:
Nice article by Dusty Rich, congrats. Your op-ed in IT was very good also, only problem is there was to much common sense for Gov Goofy to understand.
- Take It Easy - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 3:12 pm:
It is kinda weird to see Carol interview Johnny Cash.
- A Citizen - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 3:29 pm:
With such an accomplished and varied profain vocabulary at your beck and call, I imagine it is difficult to contain yourself at those “swearing” in ceremonies. Congratulations on the very good press!
- Paul Richardson - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 3:47 pm:
I knew I was going to work for someone special within 3 seconds of meeting Rich…it was at the state fair, he was in a shorts, floppy hat and sandals, and was eating a porkchop on a stick.
- IrishPirate - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 4:21 pm:
Rich has always reminded me more of Rasputin than Johnny Cash.
A well fed Rasputin that is.
- Larry Mullholland - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 4:27 pm:
Kudos Rich, I think you are, clearly, the preferred source for current news and editorial comment for some of us junkies. Well done..
- Laura - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 4:52 pm:
Nice coverage Rich, and well deserved. Your reporting is refreshingly candid yet balanced. When it comes to the scoop in IL politics, the national pundits don’t even come close.
- Bookworm - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 5:17 pm:
As a long time newspaper journalist who had to cross over to the (not so) dark side to make a living, I stand in awe of your abilities. With newspaper and broadcast coverage of state government falling by the wayside, you may soon be the last man standing!
If our elected officials truly loved our state as much as you do, we’d be a lot better off. Keep up the good work!
- Anonymous - Thursday, Jan 15, 09 @ 11:08 pm:
Very cool, Rich! Congratulations and thanks for all the hard work.
And a big “awwwwww” to your parents. How sweet!