The mystery deepens
Friday, Jun 14, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Phil Kadner follows up on his story about the disappearing House staffer during the gaming negotiations. Let’s go back a few days to Kadner’s earlier column…
[Gov. Pat Quinn] said he had reached agreement on “language I could live with” with state Rep. Robert Rita (D-Blue Island), the chief House sponsor, and it was given to the Legislative Reference Bureau to be placed in the bill.
But the night the legislation was supposed to be written, Quinn said, “the LRB staff member got himself lost.” I asked what that meant, and Quinn repeated, “he got lost. He couldn’t be found.”
* But Rep. Bob Rita, the gaming bill’s sponsor, tells Kadner that the governor’s story isn’t true (although I heard the same thing the night session ended). The governor’s office stands behind the contention that the staffer went missing with the negotiated gaming language…
During an interview this week in his Blue Island office, Rita rejected as “ridiculous” a contention by Gov. Pat Quinn that the gambling bill, which would’ve created five casinos, was not called for a vote this spring because a House staff member who was writing the bill “got lost.” But Quinn spokeswoman Brooke Anderson called me to say that despite what Rita says, the House staffer “did get lost.”
Rita said there were several staff members working on the bill, that his amendment to a Senate gambling bill was eventually filed, but that he decided not to call the measure for a vote because “I still had a lot of questions I wanted answered.”
* And it deepens further…
Rita said Quinn telephoned several times in the final days of the session, urging him to call the measure for a vote.
That seems strange because Quinn opposed gambling expansion in each of the past two years — once by simply letting it be known he didn’t like the bill and the second time by actually vetoing the measure.
In addition, the governor told me (and Rita) that he would not have signed a gambling expansion bill unless the General Assembly passed pension reform, which it did not.
I think Quinn believed he was gonna get a pension deal by the end of session. He also wanted to get Mayor Emanuel off his back.
- 47th Ward - Friday, Jun 14, 13 @ 11:12 am:
Rita is trying to take one for the team but Kadner and Quinn won’t let him. Odd.
- Norseman - Friday, Jun 14, 13 @ 11:14 am:
Time for a show like Histories Mysteries to investigate.
- Formerly Known As... - Friday, Jun 14, 13 @ 11:15 am:
If this is the chaos that ensues during crunch time when all parties involved HAVE a cell phone and email, I shudder to think what happens among those who do not.
Might hamper communication a bit on some pressing issues while the clock is ticking.
- Formerly Known As... - Friday, Jun 14, 13 @ 11:21 am:
Get the NSA’s phone location logs. Track down that staffer’s whereabouts on the eve of May 31st!
Then, and only then, will the truth be known.
- Langhorne - Friday, Jun 14, 13 @ 11:37 am:
So was it an LRB staffer who went missing? Or a house (dem?) staffer? If LRB , someone else coulda filled in. If LRB lost the language, the requestor shoulda had a copy. Strange and unclear
- wordslinger - Friday, Jun 14, 13 @ 11:38 am:
The old newspaper guys in Chicago would claim “the bridge was up” when they’d “get lost” during long liquid lunches.
- Commonsense in Illinois - Friday, Jun 14, 13 @ 11:41 am:
As anyone in Springfield knows, staffers don’t get “lost” and Brooke Anderson is among the best in the business. Sorry Governor, but getting “lost” just doesn’t pass the snicker test at all.
- Around long enough to know - Friday, Jun 14, 13 @ 11:45 am:
Rich, it needs to be clarified whether the alleged disappearance was by a House staffer or an LRB staffer. As you know, if an LRB staffer was playing politics, it would be a much bigger scandal …
- Rich Miller - Friday, Jun 14, 13 @ 11:47 am:
===it needs to be clarified whether the alleged disappearance was by a House staffer or an LRB staffer===
It was a House Dem staffer, I’m told.
- Commonsense in Illinois - Friday, Jun 14, 13 @ 11:49 am:
Sorry I also confused Brooke with the HDS person (although I think Brooke is a top drawer person as well). At any rate, staffers don’t get “lost”…
- 47th Ward - Friday, Jun 14, 13 @ 11:51 am:
===It was a House Dem staffer, I’m told.===
They don’t get lost by themselves. They are usually ordered to take a walk. Rita is the accountable official willing to take the blame for the bill’s status. No sense in hanging some poor staffer out to dry when everybody knows someone else made the decision.
- dupage dan - Friday, Jun 14, 13 @ 12:02 pm:
I prefer the sausages made in Wisconsin. More fireworks but less lies.
- Jake From Elwood - Friday, Jun 14, 13 @ 12:03 pm:
I say bring Squeezy the python in for questioning about this mysterious missing persons case.
- the Patriot - Friday, Jun 14, 13 @ 12:07 pm:
Anybody consider sending a FOIA to the NSA for any data they have on this person’s whereabouts during the time in question?
- soccermom - Friday, Jun 14, 13 @ 12:57 pm:
Don’t people take notes in meetings any more?
- Dirty Red - Friday, Jun 14, 13 @ 1:11 pm:
Have we since been able to locate the staffer? I haven’t seen an Amber Alert or picture on the milk carton yet.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jun 14, 13 @ 1:32 pm:
Isn’t this the time the “Mystery Machine” Crew sets the trap, and Shaggy and Scooby-Doo get chased by the “Ghost”…
“And I would have gotten away with too if it wasn’t for these meddling kids …”
- wordslinger - Friday, Jun 14, 13 @ 3:45 pm:
“Old Man Madigan?”
“And I would have gotten away with too if it wasn’t for these meddling kids …”
- Cincinnatus - Friday, Jun 14, 13 @ 3:54 pm:
Oh, old man Madigan, he ain’t what he used to be,
Ain’t what he used to be, ain’t what he used to be.
The old man Madigan, he ain’t what he used to be,
Many long years ago.
- walkinfool - Friday, Jun 14, 13 @ 4:16 pm:
Staffers don’t “get” lost at crunch time, they are lost to higher priorities.
(Sometimes they think they’re losing their minds, when multiple people claim that theirs is the “absolute highest priority”, to be done “right now!”)