42 Comments - Stones - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 9:25 am: Not surprising. - Imjustabill - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 9:27 am: I wonder what Edgar had to say about the pension mess he created. I can’t think of Amores irresponsible politician than Jim Edgar. - Ducky LaMoore - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 9:28 am: That last shred of respect I had for the good ole Republican moderate guard of the past… is now gone forever. Thanks Jim. - Streator Curmudgeon - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 9:29 am: Does Jim Edgar have anything to recommend him other than the fact that he didn’t go to prison? - VanillaMan - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 9:30 am: It is about time the GOP honchos start publically supporting the GOP candidate. Rauner needs to get Edgar into an ad and put it on television. Rauner needs to stop the complaints being heard from RINOs and oldster GOP country clubbers who have been kvetching endlessly about the New Guy. The GOP needs to tell these Rauner complainers to shut up or support this candidate. If Rauner loses to Quinn, ILGOP is toast. Anyone with a modicum of interest in a bipartisan Illinois needs to know this the time for them to either poop, or get off the pot. There will be no Dillard governorship. There is no other GOP candidate on the ticket this November that looks like they will beat Pat Quinn. Get on board. Edgar and Thompson and the rest of the retired oldsters need to put out the backfires these Rauner complainers are starting. It is about time Little Jim. Now get the rest of that crew on board with you and go public. - Nearly Normal - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 9:30 am: What did you expect? There are lots of R’s who are not thrilled by Rauner but see this as a chance to retake the governorship. It’s time to put the clothespin on the nose and get to work for the Party. - The Captain - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 9:35 am: The guy hasn’t been a candidate for any office in 20 years and he still has almost half a million in his (still active) campaign fund. His former Chief of Staff has twice just narrowly missed the chance to be the Republican nominee for Governor and he still has almost half a million in his campaign fund. I don’t think he defines “all in” the same way the rest of us would. - walker - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 9:35 am: Gut punch. Will hurt Quinn with independents. - Anonymous - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 9:38 am: now more than ever,bring back the jim and george years - Yep - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 9:39 am: If PQ thought he was going to woo Edgar to stay neutral in this race he was fooling himself. Edgar has been out of high-level public office so long I just don’t see his endorsement helping BR with the electorate who probably considers Edgar to be an historical figure at most by now. And did Kirk say anything publicly this week supporting Oberweis against Durbin? - William j Kelly - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 9:39 am: STOP THE PRESSES! Nobody saw this coming! I wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t see it with my own eyes! This changes everything! Shakin it up! This date in history will forever be known as edger supports rauner day! In related news flees like garbage. - wordslinger - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 9:39 am: Surprised Edgar got roped into this, or that Rauner wanted him. Kind of off-theme, what with all that failed leadership of the past stuff, and the need for a good shakeup and such. If anyone’s a poster boy for historic business-as-usual Springfield, it’s Edgar. - Norseman - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 9:42 am: My fear is that a Blagojevich-Quinn-Rauner governership will continue to be disastrous for the state of Illinois. The only two scenarios that I can see to breaking this cycle is for us to elect Oswego Willy or for Rauner to pull a Big Jim and renege on his rhetorical promises and learn to work with people on a solution. Including taxes at the higher rate for a longer phase-in than the folks would like. - JS Mill - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 9:43 am: No surprise, Edgar has not been supportive of what is going on. I would think he would lay low though, he is very vulnerable on the pension mess. I would rope-a-dope him with that one. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 9:43 am: “I’m not a career politician or a highly paid educator, or even one of the architects of the IL Pension crisis of the past 30 years. Hello, I’m Jim Edgar…,” Great Ad, if you love hypocrisy(?) - Dirty Red - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 9:45 am: I get why this is newsworthy, and yet I don’t think it’s that big of a deal yet. It’s not like he was going to endorse Quinn, and a reporter was eventually going to ask him who he was backing. So far it seems like Edgar is being a good team captain. He isn’t saying Bruce is the savior of the party nor the office. I would be surprised if he does radio and TV ads for Rauner. I don’t see Rauner’s anti-union rhetoric as having sat overly well with Edgar and his people. - The Colossus of Roads - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 9:47 am: I’ll go one further and say when one party controls everything ( Gov, Sen and House) you will always have a mess. There is no compromise and too many big heads. - Rich Miller - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 9:47 am: ===and yet I don’t think it’s that big of a deal yet=== What? Sorry, but comparing Quinn to RRB is a big deal, no matter how you slice it. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 9:48 am: ===The only two scenarios that I can see to breaking this cycle is for us to elect Oswego Willy or for Rauner to pull a Big Jim and renege on his rhetorical promises and learn to work with people on a solution. Including taxes at the higher rate for a longer phase-in than the folks would like.=== Shhh. We are working on that plan, off a napkin we writing the release on, ala US Cellular. Between us, leak this to Sneed. - MrJM - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 9:49 am: And yet, as many men went to prison from the Edgar-Ryan governorship. – MrJM - Bill Smith - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 9:49 am: Jim Edgar helped ‘birth’ George Ryan. Edgar was Thompson’s SofS, Ryan was Edgar’s SofS. If Edgar didn’t know what SofS Ryan was up to, Edgar should never have been in IL politics, anywhere. If he did know, he was complicit, and should have played a little rock hockey himself. - Dirty Red - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 9:50 am: No doubt. I was referring more to Edgar backing Rauner. I should have been more clear. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 9:54 am: ===The GOP needs to tell these Rauner complainers to shut up or support this candidate.=== That will make me ignore Raunerite ways. “Shut up.” If you believe that, than anyone who “shut up” and supported Rod, they were “heroes”, stopping Comptroller Topinka or Sen. Brady? - VanillaMan - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 9:58 am: Jim Edgar helped ‘birth’ George Ryan. What an incredibly silly thing to think. Ryan was no one’s protégé. He is actually older than Edgar. Ryan was the Illinois Speaker of the House when Edgar was Secretary of State. Ryan was a Lt. Governor. Ryan was Secretary of State after Edgar was elected. Ryan had wanted to be governor since 1981 - probably earlier. By the time George became governor, he was an old man with decades of experience. To think that Edgar made Ryan is downright ridiculous. - Rich Miller - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 10:00 am: ===What an incredibly silly thing to think.=== Agreed. - Apocalypse Now - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 10:01 am: Jim Edgar needs to quietly go to the shady oaks home for retired politicians. He is old news. - walker - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 10:27 am: VMan calls out Ryan as another “old man.” Is Quinn (65) next for the epithet? Tryin’ to drive a youth movement VMan? - Norseman - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 10:29 am: === What? Sorry, but comparing Quinn to RRB is a big deal, no matter how you slice it. === I don’t interpret “The Blagojevich-Quinn governorship has been a disaster for Illinois,” as a comparison between Blago and Quinn. Rather it is a note that the terms of office for these two have been terrible for Illinois. As I’ve noted earlier, I fear this string of bad hits will run another four years even with a Rauner victory. Talking about comparisons with Blago, I see more parallels between Blago and Rauner than Blago and Quinn. - Anonymous - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 10:30 am: Maybe Edgar can pass on his expertise on how to lowball funding the pension funds for his entire term. He was the architect of kicking the can down the road That is the hallmark of the Edgar “legacy.” - Norseman - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 10:33 am: Bill Smith, here’s a little history lesson for you. Thompson made Ryan his Lt. Gov. Edgar wasn’t Thompson’s SOS, he was his own SOS. Since Edgar was better placed to run for Gov, Ryan went for SOS. I know from personal experience that Edgar’s staff and Ryan’s staff did not get along. - Arizona Bob - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 10:44 am: @apocolypsenow =Jim Edgar needs to quietly go to the shady oaks home for retired politicians.= Except for this few times every year he goes to U of I to be a “lecturer” for a handful of talks for which we’ve been paying over six figures per year for him for a LONG time. It’ll alos give him ANOTHER fat public pensin in a few years. One thing about Edgar. He may have been a lousy Governor and a self centered politician, but he sure was an expert at using political clout feathering his own bed. - Living in Machiaville - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 10:53 am: All due respect to your quotable from Edgar, I prefer this one: “She ought to say she’s sorry to a bunch of cows,” Quinn said. Got to be worth a few dozen votes downstate. But hey,it made several news outlets so it must be worthy. - Rich Miller - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 10:57 am: ===so it must be worthy. === Which is why it’s in another post. - wordslinger - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 12:01 pm: If I recall correctly, Thompson plucked Edgar out of the chorus and appointed him SOS to fill out the remainder of Dixon’s term after he was elected to the Senate. That was a major career bump. And it seems to me there was a lot of talk back in the day that a big reason Thompson tagged Ryan for l.g. after Dave O’Neal bailed was to get him out of the House, where his leadership of the GOP caucus had been rather chaotic. I’m going from memory, so apologies if I’m off. - Colossus - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 12:19 pm: Norseman: If I remember correctly, there was a marriage between an Edgar and a Ryan staffers. Yes, Edgar is an old man to the younger electorate. No one under 35 (maybe 40?) was paying attention to state politics when he was governor, he’s just a name now - unless you’re a geek. Like us. - Anonymous - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 12:24 pm: I spoke in generalities. I’m not going staff person by staff person. I had extensive contact with both staffs, not every staff person. - Skirmisher - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 12:26 pm: I am not an Edgar fan, but it is more than fair to talk in terms of a Blago-Quinn governorship. From the standpoint of state management, I can’t see much difference other than the fact that Quinn claims to be squeaky clean and Blago made no such pretensions. - Anonymous - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 1:20 pm: but does the last gop gov.get behind the standard bearer? - Arthur Andersen - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 1:34 pm: The Netsch-Edgar pension plan would have been much more successful had it not been burdened with a) the Ryan era ERI and b) the raids, resets, and other nonsense inflicted upon it by the Blago/Quinn team led by Vallas’ paymaster John Filan. - Anyone Remember - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 2:21 pm: So Jim Edgar, who basically made state pension funding a 3 alarm fire by having 15 years of negative amortization, is now endorsing the guy who would, but for the Constition, get rid of those pensions and replace them with 401(k)s? Better wording than I’m capable of is necessary to accurately describe that. - Wumpus - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 2:51 pm: St. Jim Edgar is always all in. - Just The Way It Is One - Friday, Aug 15, 14 @ 3:47 pm: Uncharacteristically extreme for JE to put it that way, and somewhat unfair (trying to tie PQ so tightly with the Felonious ex-Governor when PQ has instituted SO many Gubernatorial Reforms since then), but everybody knows he’s going to vocally tout the GOP Ticket no matter what…! Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.