19 Comments - Ravenswood Right Winger - Friday, Feb 28, 14 @ 12:49 pm: Definitely an odd quote from my State Rep. Further, I disagree with it. Why should a Republican, if one is elected Governor in November, be forced to keep a Cabinet member whom he didn’t appoint and otherwise has no relationship with? - Rich Miller - Friday, Feb 28, 14 @ 12:52 pm: ===be forced=== Re-read what he said. Nothing about forcing anyone. The idea would be to pick a gold standard director. - Veritas - Friday, Feb 28, 14 @ 12:55 pm: Hey - how about Bruce Rauner ?? He’s looking for a job and he’s a Democrat, Republican, Whig & a Tory!! - Formerly Known As... - Friday, Feb 28, 14 @ 1:04 pm: === launched a national search to try and correct his completely botched appointment of the resigned-in-a-huff DCFS head === Sure, why not? Quinn has only had 5 years of on-the-job training. Maybe he’ll get this one right. To the comments by Rep. Harris? He is correct. If they somehow find a gold-standard national-type leader, then it will be readily apparent to whomever the next governor is. They should be kept on and given a chance. The only problem, as someone pointed out yesterday, is that your odds of luring such a stellar prospect are slim-to-none when there is an election 8 months away. Quinn sure does talk a good game, though. - dupage dan - Friday, Feb 28, 14 @ 1:17 pm: Hey, maybe Sheila Simon could step in. - wordslinger - Friday, Feb 28, 14 @ 1:18 pm: Is Henry Clay or Benjamin Disraeli available? - RNUG - Friday, Feb 28, 14 @ 1:19 pm: IF you found someone that good, it would be obvious they should be kept on. But how are you going to get that quality of person to come here with no guarantees? Since Rauner is such a fan of referendums and committees, maybe Quinn should take a page out of Rauner’s book and form a committee to select the next DCFS director, with both gubernatorial candidates pledging to retain the selection for at least two or more years of their next term. - Anonymous - Friday, Feb 28, 14 @ 1:23 pm: “the right person would be the right person” unless he or she is a person that nobody sent, in which case, he or she would be the wrong person, regardless of ability. Why do a national search for a hack when so many already live here. It’s really a search for the fool’s gold standard. - Meanderthal - Friday, Feb 28, 14 @ 1:25 pm: I think at this point it might just be best to hope the person doesn’t have a long list of prior criminal convictions. The performance of DCFS under Quinn has been shameful. - Cassidy - Friday, Feb 28, 14 @ 1:35 pm: There have been 4 directors in 4 months at DCFS. This is shameful. They still can’t keep track of where all their children are. We may have to wait for the new Governor to clean out the ineffective management at that place. - Demoralized - Friday, Feb 28, 14 @ 1:45 pm: DCFS has been a whipping boy for years. They have a very difficult job. I’m not excusing anything - don’t misunderstand me. But it’s frankly not a job I would want. They are woefully understaffed for the amount of children they have to keep track of. As for the director search, I can’t imagine anyone wanting to come to the job knowing that an election is coming in November and the guy that hired them may be booted out of office. It would be nice if they could find somebody that is a rock star but I’m still not sure the next Governor (if it’s not Quinn) would keep them around. It’s not unheard of for Directors to stay on but it’s pretty rare. - Anonymous - Friday, Feb 28, 14 @ 1:48 pm: If I didn`t know any better,I`d think dcfs is running some kind of child ring. - A guy... - Friday, Feb 28, 14 @ 1:49 pm: They really ought to consider a Bull Moose as long as they’ve opened it up to Whigs and Tories. All kidding aside, this is serious business. If PQ were to get a sterling resume, it would be novel but exceptional to have every candidate sign off on him/her. It will likely happen after the primary, so you’d only need to seek out one person on this. Or if the Green, Federalists, or Illinois solidarity folks show up, it might take a lunch at the mansion to get this done. - Anon. - Friday, Feb 28, 14 @ 1:57 pm: Why not Blago? He won’t use state assets for personal or political campaign purposes, won’t campaign on state property, won’t have any unexplained absences or fancy junkets, and won’t hire any of his current buddies. - Small Town Liberal - Friday, Feb 28, 14 @ 1:58 pm: Cassidy, with all due respect, think about why there have been 4. The former director stepped down after being diagnosed with a terminal illness. An acting director was appointed. A permanent director was appointed, and after problems from his past came to light he resigned. Another acting director has been appointed. I’m not defending any of these individuals because I don’t know much about them, but the number doesn’t mean much. - Timmeh - Friday, Feb 28, 14 @ 2:00 pm: I don’t know if you can trust Rauner to keep Quinn appointees, even if they were good. He might just oust everyone he can’t control, good or bad, in a ploy to make himself look good (clearing out the mess). - Just The Way It Is One - Friday, Feb 28, 14 @ 4:05 pm: They proven that they can, and did, a relatively decent job with Rich Calica before (although obviously some entrenched problems didn’t, even then, magically disappear within such an embattled Agency). But my gut tells me, particularly now that he had to take the Public hit with the Bishop flap, they’ll come up with a superb choice again…! - Just The Way It Is One - Friday, Feb 28, 14 @ 4:38 pm: Oh, and as to the Column, br needs Roeser far more indeed than the other way aroun. And as to the MJM-BR weak connection heretofore/lack of Communication, Rauner’s been looking WAY down the road too MUCH in my view on that one, and as Stu Rothenberg has accurately assessed at this point, this Race is more akin to a “toss up” this point, and, will reMAIN so for the next several months as well–assuming br does get out of the Primary ok, and in some ways, br COULD actually be trailing among voters a bit, when taking into consideration the “silent” Democrat Majority in this State, who, like it or not, know that they WILL be electronically punching (or manually marking) the ballot for the Imperfect, yet ‘Ol Reliable ‘n On the Whole Decent and Honest, Pat QUINN in the end, so Madigan may be thinking that way ALso at this point, and feels NO real need to reach out to chit-chat any more than necessary with the Baron–i.e. the Honorable Republican Opponent on his way inevitably to Gubernatorial Defeat…! - Just The Way It Is One - Friday, Feb 28, 14 @ 4:43 pm: As I so often must correct, it was MEANT to be spelled above, “…other way around.” I just never know when our esteemed BlogMaster is goin’ to shut us DOWN on a Friday, so I find myself hurrying with the typing WAY too much, thus leading all the MORE to my (all-too-often ANYway) misspellings!! Have a good (and no doubt VERY wet/icy freezing-Cold, but hopefully fun and for a Good Cause, Plunge into the Mighty Michigama!) Weekend!! Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.