33 Comments - The Fox - Tuesday, Mar 16, 10 @ 6:53 am: Marin and Phil appeared a little too smug with their scripted and antiquated questions. The guv done good and left with no one the wiser on how to fill the $13 Billion budget shortfall much less the education red ink without the 1 percent tax hike and don’t give me that cut bunk. - The Fox - Tuesday, Mar 16, 10 @ 7:08 am: Another plaudid for Brother Quinn on Chicago tonight for refusing to demagog the senior free transit ride benefits and reaffirming his continued support for seniors. A few over the hill shysters and some occasional gray hairs are not bankrupting the CTA and demands by some demagog to tank free rides and editorial writers is nonsense. - vole - Tuesday, Mar 16, 10 @ 7:18 am: Quinn: “Low priority items have to go.” The budget proposal again does not reflect his rhetoric. I would like for Mr. Quinn to outline specifically which low priority items he has actually eliminated in the budget proposal. And I would like for his Republican opponent to list his low priority items. - cassandra - Tuesday, Mar 16, 10 @ 7:26 am: Isn’t there a bill in the legislature now to end free rides for seniors? Is the guv signaling that he won’t sign it if passed? Why would our not-terribly-busy-at-the-moment legislators even bother with the bill if the guv is clearly opposed? Which constituency are they trying to appease—CTA employee unions again? - pingu - Tuesday, Mar 16, 10 @ 7:35 am: Unfortunate slip of the tongue at 21:08. - Rich Miller - Tuesday, Mar 16, 10 @ 7:37 am: Yeah. I spit out my coffee at that one. But let’s move along, shall we? lol - wordslinger - Tuesday, Mar 16, 10 @ 7:46 am: Calling Dr. Freud! - (Formerly) Angry Republican - Tuesday, Mar 16, 10 @ 7:46 am: Brady’s campaign tactic should be to go into hibernation until two weeks before the election and let Quinn self-destruct on his own. Quinn has zero leadership ability; Brady can probably use a lot of clips from this interview in commercials. The only thing I heard from Quinn was deny, deny, deny; it’s not my fault, it all George Bush’s fault, I didn’t do it, yadda yadda yadda. The only thing Quinn admitted to is he didn’t do anything as Lt Guv the last six years but wants to be elected governor anyway. We’re all doomed - Bongo Furry - Tuesday, Mar 16, 10 @ 7:48 am: No matter if you like or dislike the Governor, you have to give him credit for sitting down and answering the questions. It would be nice if his opponent is offered and accepts the same opportunity. - Chicago Tonight - Tuesday, Mar 16, 10 @ 8:07 am: Sen. Brady has been invited to be a guest on Chicago Tonight and we hope to have him on the program soon. - Amuzing Myself - Tuesday, Mar 16, 10 @ 8:11 am: “…We’ve cut everything.” Really? The neww $500,000 lease for Dept. of Aging comes to mind first. Amazing. He really has no clue as to what he’s doing other than he has a huge mess to clean up that’s gotten worse under his watch, and if we would just pass his income tax increase, it would all be better. What a platform to run on for Governor! - (618) Democrat - Tuesday, Mar 16, 10 @ 8:14 am: Governor Quinn did quite well. Carol Marin seemed angry. - vole - Tuesday, Mar 16, 10 @ 8:17 am: Bongo: “answering the questions” Mr. Quinn did not answer the tough ones as registered by the facial expressions and vocal tones of the questioners. This only adds to our frustration that no one in Springfield is accountable to anyone. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Mar 16, 10 @ 8:27 am: carol marin and phil ponce did excellent, hardhitting interview. There is an old saying, “Power corrupts” man is this true of Quinn. He cant handle this job. DId quinn actually say he was picking lt. gov? How arrogant? what happened to transparency and the people? Does he just discount the committee? Quinn took no responsiblility for anything. He once was a man of principle what happened. this man is a mess but brady may be worse. what does one do when there is no leadership in a state? - GDI Chancellor Richard Herman - Tuesday, Mar 16, 10 @ 8:30 am: The lights are on but no one is home with this guy. Pat Quinn, if anything, is incompetent. The fact of the matter is that you can only have the “progressive” government that he embraces if you have the means to pay for it. We don’t. We’re broke, spent, bankrupt. Also he balked at the question on the UI Board of Trustees. His inability to eliminate Frances Caroll and Jim Montgomery only highlight his inability to lead unbeholden to special interests or racial politics. - Anon - Tuesday, Mar 16, 10 @ 8:32 am: Pat Quinn: “I dont believe in coffee — I’m a tea drinker.” Well, there goes the coffee drinker vote. - Springfield - DB - Tuesday, Mar 16, 10 @ 8:35 am: @ Anonymous As the great Monty Brewster once said, “Vote none of the Above” - Anonymous - Tuesday, Mar 16, 10 @ 8:46 am: springfield that looks to be option many of us so called “progressives” will do come November. Hate to sit out an election and may try Green. Lots of my friends and associates are so fed up with quinn b/c of no leadership, arrogance, Lt. Gov fiasco, that is racist at the core as Kass has written. Quinn didnt cause this mess but he sure as hell hasnt done anything to correct it. - ABCBoy - Tuesday, Mar 16, 10 @ 8:48 am: Quinn: “Low priority items have to go.” “…We’ve cut everything.” Amuzing Myself: === Really? The neww $500,000 lease for Dept. of Aging comes to mind first. Amazing. === The Fox: === Another plaudid for Brother Quinn on Chicago tonight for refusing to demagog the senior free transit ride benefits and reaffirming his continued support for seniors. === Granted, some of these proposed cuts wouldn’t necessarily save THAT much money. But free rides to wealthy city-dwelling seniors? An un-necessary $500K real estate expense? Come on man. A million here, a million there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money. Certainly not enough to close any sort of budget gap, but if the political will or competence isn’t even there to get the low-hanging fruit, what hope do we have that he’s able to make, you know, HARD decisions? As I recall, part of the reason for impeaching Blago was that he instituted unconstitutional state programs without the consent of the legislature. If those programs were such an outrage as to justify booting Blago, why not axe them as being improperly instituted? Those programs were all done since 2003, and clearly the state wasn’t in anarchy or chaos back then. If those programs were to be rolled back, the state won’t descend into anarchy or chaos now. - cassandra - Tuesday, Mar 16, 10 @ 8:48 am: I thought Ponce and Marin did well, but let’s face it, no politician is going to do much more than recycle and further embroider previously established talking points when interviewed during election season. And that’s what our Pat did in this interview. They could have cut him off sooner on some of his mini-political speeches but hey, they can hardly wrestle him to the floor and hold him there until he really answers a question, says something of substance or at least says something we haven’t heard again and again and again. - Finger Pointing - Tuesday, Mar 16, 10 @ 9:05 am: Carol Marin is a know-it-all. Why doesn’t SHE run for Gov., so she can just solve all the state’s problems HER way? - vole - Tuesday, Mar 16, 10 @ 9:08 am: cassandra: All true. But, for Quinn to say he is a man of the people, above politics, etc. just does not jive with the political posturing and obfuscating. Quinn comes across as more of a man mired deeply in a messed up political system that needs shaking to the core. Not much evidence yet that Quinn is going to be the dude to find that pony buried under the pile. So, consoling words don’t ease the frustration or garnish the hope that he might rise above our low expectations. - ok - Tuesday, Mar 16, 10 @ 9:23 am: ABC - there was only one state program Blago implemented unconstitutionally - a relatively small familycare expansion. - Responsa - Tuesday, Mar 16, 10 @ 9:28 am: I liked his line “custodians of the future”, a serious concept which calls into focus the need for active sacrifice based on critical planning and competent execution. However it did not seem that he has a road map, or is even able to envision a road that will actually accomplish that future–just platitudes. (He wants to “help the people”, “education is the way to go” and “we need to replace federal money” with a surcharge. Cuts in spending??? Biting the bullet???He won’t even contemplate the easy ones like ending free rides for seniors. The six and seven year olds need a good education to get jobs later on—-all right, fine. What about the businesses which are necessary to provide such jobs today *and* in the future, yet which are closing/leaving the state in droves? What about that, Pat? It was a very disturbing interview on many levels. I usually find him personable and charming. Even those characteristics did not come through last night as he babbled and fought to interrupt Phil and Carol before they could get a tough question out. - irish - Tuesday, Mar 16, 10 @ 9:29 am: Bottom line, this was an appearance by a politician. He can’t voice a plan “B” because that dilutes Plan “A” which is what he wants. I have always been a fan of Carol Marin because she asks the tough questions. I admire her stand against Channel 5 way back when. I don’t think she was angry I think she was frustrated that Quinn was making political speeches instead of answering questions, but she also understood that was what he had to do. I think she almost made the point that people are fearful that the 1% surcharge would go the same way the Lottery money did, but Quinn dodged that one. I think she did make the point that people don’t trust him. I think the whole problem in Illinois is summed up in the conversation about the Lt. Gov. Quinn who is the Governor and who will be running with this person makes the statement that he will pick his running mate. Then he gets questioned about it by two people who know he isn’t the real power in Illinois. Then he remembers that Mikey might hear about this so he backs off of his statement. Sad isn’t it? - 47th Ward - Tuesday, Mar 16, 10 @ 9:37 am: Marin and Ponce were a tough double team. If Brady sees a tape of this, no way is he going to want to sit for a similar interview. Sure, Quinn degenerated into his talking points, rambling through his answers and stalling, but he sort of held his own. For all the arm chair media consultants here, performing that well is much harder than it looks. That was the toughest interview of his career and he didn’t screw up. Good for him. I hope Brady gets the same treatment, if he has the guts to show up for the interview. - Bill - Tuesday, Mar 16, 10 @ 9:57 am: I told you so. - Brennan - Tuesday, Mar 16, 10 @ 10:08 am: Dear Jason Plummer, Watch this interview. Sincerely, Jason Plummer From the Future Seriously, is there a government spending program that isn’t popular? When elected officials argue that a spending program is popular I immediately tune out. It’s ridiculous. Almost every spending program is popular to some degree. It’s an argument that says just about everything is off limits. - GetOverIt - Tuesday, Mar 16, 10 @ 11:08 am: I loved it. Carol and Phil were excellent. Let us not forget, Quinn wants to get reelected; no one supports a tax hike; no one has a “plan b”. Hence, we only get the talking points. Then again, the only “plan b” I know of involves severe cuts, layoffs and God knows what else. Let’s pretend: id we have less people working, that means less money people have to spend, which means the need for government intervention grows, which also means business’ don’t make a dime because unemployed workers don’t spend on clothing, restaurants, entertainment, etc., that may very well mean unemployment does not only rise, but may very well spike; and business’ may go belly up. So about that Plan B? Oh how I love slippery slope arguments! As for Jason Plummer - [insert long bumbling pause] then [insert creative resume writing prologue] then [insert ghost ownership in company]….and it goes and goes. - Mighty M. Mouse - Tuesday, Mar 16, 10 @ 11:31 am: Speaker Madigan was quoted right after the Scott Lee Cohen debacle as saying he thought that the governor would get who wanted as his running mate, so here’s a suggestion for tomorrow’s “Question of the Day”: who do you think is Gov. Pat Quinn’s preferred choice for Lt. Governor, and why? - Will County Woman - Tuesday, Mar 16, 10 @ 11:46 am: Um, Bill, I should get some, if not all, of that ‘I told ya so’ credit. I haven’t seen the Chicago Tonight interview yet, but come on…if you were alive last year and paying at least an ounce of attention during the primary you know Quinn is no good in the governor role. On top of that he came out with his state of the state that said nothing of value to illinoisans or spoke to what he planned to do for illinois. the man has no clue. and this also evident by the fact that it took him 3 EXTRA weeks to come up with a budget proposal and it’s STILL A FAILURE. did he learn nothing from his failed budget last year? so, he got 3 weeks extra weeks this year to be that much more of a failure! the fact that he got 3 extra weeks in the first place was insulting/bad enough. i mean seriously, who governs like that! david paterson (gov of new york) sneezes out loud and he’s freakin’ ripped to shreds by the media et al. mayor daley was totally consumed by the 2016 olympics for 2-3 years, but he still gave his budget addresses on time. the truth of the matter is he has no back up or plan b because he is such a poor leader and planner. his failure to strategically execute, not only last year, but by all appearances this year as well, has (and will) cost this state dearly in terms of lost time and wasted revenue and resources. let’s not make any excuses for quinn. at this point he is a 30+ year career politician. he likes to talk about he’s held this office or that office, yet he doesn’t have much to say when it comes to what he has actually done. holding offices is not that big of deal when you don’t actually do much with the offices held, and let’s face it up to now the offices that he held did not have much repsonsibility in the grand scheme of things. pat quinn as governor is unacceptable. he really should do the honorable thing and just step aside by announcing he doesn’t want to seek a term of his own. - Amalia - Tuesday, Mar 16, 10 @ 12:31 pm: normally I think that carol marin is excellent. last night she was impatient, angry, and not professional. I don’t think this made it particularly difficult for Quinn or unfair. just painful to watch. - QRBNST - Tuesday, Mar 16, 10 @ 1:53 pm: Considering all the flack that Brady has caught for his 10% across the board budget cut proposal, I think we can expect to see and hear him use this quote against Quinn in the coming months: “There’s plenty to cut. We’ve cut everything and I think that’s the only way to go when you’re in a tough time.” Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.