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Question of the day
Friday, Apr 15, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller * Gov. Pat Quinn spoke at a recent function for Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky. During his remarks, Quinn talked about his election, saying of his former opponent Bill Brady: “If I wasn’t here we’d have Scott Walker on steroids as our governor.” Watch… The original video is here. * The Question: Should Gov. Quinn start toning down the rhetoric against Gov. Walker and others, or should he continue full speed ahead? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please. Thanks.
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- Ahoy - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 12:10 pm:
He needs to tone it down. It’s become unnecessary, especially since it was a jab at his Republican opponent, who he should be working with in the Senate.
Election is over, be a big boy Governor.
- wndycty - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 12:11 pm:
No he shouldn’t tone down. The Republican party is notorious for being nasty to their political opponents then crying like babies when anyone pokes back. Look at the childish tantrum Paul Ryan is throwing and the the chorus of support he is getting from Republicans because Obama took him to the woodshed in his budget speech this week. The crap thrown at Obama has been amazing and for the most part he just takes it, he swings back once and the GOP cries foul.
In Quinn’s case it rallies his base, shows he can’t be pushed around and makes him exciting (c’mon he can be boring at times). Lets not forget Walker INVOLVED himself in Illinois politics and this applies to a number of other Republican governors as well.
If the Republicans don’t like Quinn going after Walker then they should have told him not to pick the fight in the first place.
- Ghost - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 12:11 pm:
Tone it down.
It really ads nothing, he isnot running against Walker.
I am reminded of our former senate president infamously saying to people words to the effect of, and who are you?
ignoring walker as unimportant makes the strongest statement possible. Otherwise your just buildng up walkers credibility.
- 47th Ward - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 12:12 pm:
Quinn should tone it down. Walker doesn’t need any help making a goof of himself, and Quinn lives in a glass mansion himself. Be careful throwing stones Governor. We have enough problems in Illinois to focus on, let the people of Wisconsin deal with their Governor.
I’m more interested in what Quinn thinks of Madigan and Cross than what he thinks of another state’s leader(s). That’s more relevant to me.
- Coach - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 12:12 pm:
Quinn needs to get over himself. He might just as well have said, “If Brady hadn’t been such an inept candidate, rivaling only me in his total lack of focus, discipline and overall campaign strength, then Brady probably would be standing here today, as governor, talking to you.”
- Then again... - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 12:15 pm:
Forget about rhetoric directed at Walker, this seems to be directed more at Brady. The real question should be “should Governor Quinn stop running against Bill Brady anytime soon?”
- wndycty - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 12:17 pm:
Rich, was this a political event? If so that is another point to make. . .isn’t that what we do at partisan events? Talk trash about the opposition party?
- Wensicia - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 12:22 pm:
I don’t mind his taking pokes at Republican governors, they’re taking plenty at him, but it’s time to lay off of Brady.
- OneMan - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 12:29 pm:
Well it sounds better than him thanking SLC.
Also I think the comment is idiotic on it’s face. Besides a democratic legislature I really doubt that even if he could Brady would not have taken away collective bargaining rights.
Then again I suspect Brady would have done something poltically unpopular before and election instead of waiting until he had a lame duck legislature.
Perhaps Quinn is angry because like him or not at least Walker says he is going to do something and then actually tries to do it instead of changing him mind 20 times.
- so... - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 12:29 pm:
He should tone it down. He’s sounding like a blowhard. Which, I’ll admit, is what I’ve always thought of him as.
- Geek Marine - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 12:36 pm:
He could be setting himself up as a goat for the Repubs. He’s not a Trumpie, he can’t talk himself out of trouble.
- Cincinnatus - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 12:38 pm:
Why would anyone expect executive behavior from Pat Quinn?
- Dirt Digger - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 12:45 pm:
What’s the downside? I submit the only downside is that of our neighboring states, Indiana deserves ridicule the most, not Wisconsin. But Wisconsin is still terrible. Fire away.
- phocion - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 12:46 pm:
Stay classy, Pat!
- Cook County Commoner - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 12:51 pm:
Why should he tone it down? He’s addressing one of his most important future contributors, unionized government employees, especially the teachers. Although his re-election bid is a ways off, he probably, and I believe rightfully, sees continued deterioration in Illinois. He’ll need every friend he can find, and starting early to tell them he’s their guy is just good business.
- Justice - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 12:52 pm:
Tone it down and focus on our own problems. Trying to make the other guy, or state, look bad really does nothing to help our cause.
If however you have nothing constructive to do, or you lack leadership qualities, by all means try and turn everyone’s attention elsewhere.
- Rahm's Parking Meter - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 12:59 pm:
Come on Governor, you won. Its over, move on.
- Throwing Stones - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 1:00 pm:
Turn it up, he’s just telling it as it is.
- wordslinger - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 1:04 pm:
Full speed ahead.
The other guys took the first shots and still take them. I’m no pacificist. You get hit, you hit back.
Quinn’s remarks were at a political event where you fire up the troops. It’s the flip side of governing. At least the remarks had some relationship to differences in policy.
There’s a myth that there was once a time when there was a civil level of discourse in partisan politics. It’s not true. The only political figure who ever got anything resembling a free ride was George Washington. Adams’ and Jefferson’s crews went after each other in the most vicious and personal terms. It’s been that way ever since.
- lawyerlady - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 1:18 pm:
Mentioning Brady seems petty after so much time has passed since the election. As for the continued jabs at Walker, etc., it does seem that our leadership should be focused on our own state’s problems rather than poking fun at others.
On the other hand, I suppose there is a need to “dance with the one that brung ya”. Since public unions won him the last election, and since he will absolutely need to garner strong union support in the next election to win, it makes sense to pander.
- Palatine - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 1:23 pm:
Tone it down and focus on Illinois problems.
- siriusly - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 1:25 pm:
Its political rhetoric at a political event. Walker is a polarizing figure for the liberal Dems. I see no problem with him being used in that context. Just like the GOP has been bashing Illinois for raising taxes nationally, it is what it is.
- zatoichi - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 1:31 pm:
It’s a mixed process. For the other Governors taking shots, fire right back. At home the need to build concensus never really stops, but neither do the continual implcations that Quinn is a weak, inept leader. So the Gov takes a stand, talks tough and people complain. No winning. He needs to keep pushing and make the tough choices that are coming.
- Logic not emotion - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 1:31 pm:
Tone it down. The election is over. Show class, take the high road, and focus on Illinois problems like work comp, the debt and the budget. It’d be nice to actually have an approved state budget in May or early June.
- vole - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 1:37 pm:
Down. Pride cometh before the fall. Similar to the US boasting about the fall of communism and winning the cold war while we whistle past the graveyard of extreme capitalism and continue to bury ourselves under mountains of defense debt.
- Pat Robertson - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 1:41 pm:
Full speed ahead. If it were an option, I would probably have picked “Pace yourself.” Like his predecessor in office, all he knows how to do is campaign, so he might as well keep doing it.
- King Louix XVI - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 1:45 pm:
Full speed ahead.
Last week, Bill Brady, in a GOP Senate video attacked Quinn for the Health Alliance decision, claiming–barely intelligibly–that the governor is playing games with employee health insurance like Gov. Rod Blagojevich had in the past.
Brady can’t get past the campaign.
Quinn stand like a mope, say nothing, while Bill Brady and the GOP Senate caucus demonize him 24/7.
Good for Quinn.
- Cincinnatus - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 1:45 pm:
If Petulant Pat would at least pay of his bet with Walker he’d look better than he does now.
- King Louis XVI - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 1:47 pm:
“Quinn CAN’T stand like a mope ..”
- Downstate Illinois - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 2:00 pm:
Of course he should tone it down. After all, he hired Gov. Walker’s son-in-law as his budget chief. He’s just stirring up trouble in the family.
- Hickory - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 2:01 pm:
Turn it up. It shows how out of touch our Gov is with reality. I would give a $1,000 to have Scott Walker as our Gov.
- mokenavince - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 2:05 pm:
Tone it down Gov,and man up and take it up with
Cullerton and Madigan. These two guy’s make you look inept. Then it causes you to FLIP-FLOP, you don’t and never did have a mandate, show some guts
now . The next time you run, I’m sure the GOP will run a stronger canidate than Brady.Plus look out for Young Dems to take a shot in the primary.
As my old English teacher used to say,Tend to Business.
- downhereforyears - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 2:11 pm:
He needs to tone it down. He must be forgetting the condition this state is in. The notion that we should be criticizing any other Governor, republican or democrat, at a time like this in our history suggests that he has no idea just how serious our situation is. It’s golne from being sad to frightening!
- Rich Miller - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 2:12 pm:
===It’s golne from being sad to frightening! ===
The frightening part is over. Try to restrain your emotions, please.
- Jim - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 2:26 pm:
He should keep running his mouth. What else can he do. Democrats in legislature mostly ignore him. How else can he get any attention other than by throwing insults at phantom or past foes?
- Bring Back Boone's - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 2:36 pm:
I actually think that the Gov deserves some credit on this one. For God’s sake you have all the biggest blowhards, pun intended for Chris Christie, from around the country trying to snipe at us and our business climate. You need the Gov to put things into perspective and point out the factual inaccuracies so our state doesn’t continue to get walked all over. I say keep up the good work and tell it like it is with these pompous demagogues. Give em hell.
- Anonymous - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 2:43 pm:
Give it a rest. Does it help the lives of the people of Illinois? Only feeds his ego - another Blago in the making.
- Louis Howe - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 3:07 pm:
Tone it down…When you have just passed the largest income tax increase in forty years and still are billions underwater, that’s not the time to open your mouth about another Governor’s problems.
- Richard Afflis - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 3:16 pm:
The election has been over for six months. Brady conceded defeat and has gone back to what he was doing before the election. The people in the 98 counties that Quinn did not carry have accepted the results. We as the people of Illinois need to come together to solve our problems and that shot at Brady only served to unnecessarily alienate. I have no problem with the shots at Walker, but the shots at Brady are below the belt.
- wordslinger - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 3:25 pm:
Apparently, with some, Quinn can’t win for losing here.
He was put in an unprovoked, unusual and hostile situation by a bunch of gasbag governors from other states trying to build themselves up, deflect attention from their problems and poach business by trashing and the state in the national media and paid advertising campaigns.
You can google and find a number of instances early on where Quinn said, paraphrasing, “I don’t think governors should to that, I thing we should work together,” lblah, blah, blah.
Lot of good that did. The attacks kept coming. After that, I would expect any Illinois governor, of any party, at any time, to knock them silly.
Who takes that kind of stuff lying down?
- Bemused - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 3:49 pm:
I think he was well within his right to point out a major difference between himself and the other side. Let’s be real here folks the run for the next election starts the day after the votes are counted. Both partys start sniping almost the next day. Often just little things. I once heard of a torture called ” The Death of a Thousand Cuts”. Not sure if it were ever really used but the idea is about the same. Try to cut the guy a little every time you can until by the next cycle he is bleeding like a stuck hog. Oh and both sides play that ” Get over it” bull to some effect.
- Southern Illinois Voter - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 4:32 pm:
Tone it down - I’d keep my mouth shut….especially when I hadn’t paid off my debt to Gov. Walker.
- Jake From Elwood - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 4:49 pm:
The forum matters. We expect this kind of amped-up rhetoric at political rallies. If he made this same talk in the Capitol, I would have a bigger problem with it.
Depends on the audience I suppose.
- stiguy - Friday, Apr 15, 11 @ 4:51 pm:
Ramp it up, Guv! You’re looking like a bigger fool everyday.
- jake - Saturday, Apr 16, 11 @ 7:16 am:
I am a bit of an anti-rhetorical extremist perhaps, but I think all of that stuff such as that comment contributes to the public not taking elected officials seriously. If it is in the service of actually illustrating a point, fine, but if it is just what Rich might call a “drive-by shout out” then it is pollution in the stream of political discourse.
- Meknitter - Monday, Apr 18, 11 @ 12:46 pm:
I don’t think Quinn’s comments are all that extreme. The Republicans are nasty cry babies who say vile things about their opponents & then whine & cry when their opponents don’t just lie there & take it. Both Walker & Christie waged cpaigns to steal jobs away from Illinois when Quinn did the responsible (& politically difficult) thing & raised the state income tax. (Incidentally, both lied - even after the increase, businesses & individuals still pay less in taxes in Illinois than in Wisconsin or New Jersey.) Quinn’s response is absolutely accurate & justified.