40 Comments - Anon - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 12:34 am: Hopefully they miss the part where money was funneled to political friends, ineffective programs at best and shell programs at worst. That sounds like a slap in the face to me. - Anonymous - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 2:04 am: i don`t want a slap in the face, i want to be punched,(in the mouth) and have my arm twisted and broken (tough love) a real hands on candidate - Mighty M. Mouse - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 3:11 am: Considering the first day of NRI hearings seem to have amounted to no smoking gun, no fire, and not much smoke, yes the hearings could backfire and be a net plus for Quinn due to this very message that Brown describes being sent to the black community. It completely undermines the argument of the black ministers who insist blacks should vote for Rauner because those Democrats always ask for their votes but then they forget about them between elections. As if Quinn’s black radio ad alone isn’t enough to get blacks to vote for PQ in overwhelming numbers. - QCLib - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 3:11 am: I’ve never understood these complaints. If they’re popular among a certain community and do good work, why call it pandering? It’s called good politics. Now if it was administered corruptly as previously commented, that’s a different story. - Mighty M. Mouse - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 3:32 am: If it doesn’t COMPLETELY undermine their argument, it’s certainly at least an example of serious money being spent to assist areas in black neighborhoods. - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 6:23 am: Coming off as callous to the plight is also missing the point by the ILGOP GA members. This hearing is about mismanagement, and the US Atty and the Audit. The scope is to question the program parameters, not the groups, or the people they are trying to help. Optics. The Inquisitors are failing(?), but even more Dopey, they “asked” to be seen this way. Ignorance of optics and messaging. - low level - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 7:08 am: Absolutely correct. The ministers who have said the Democratic Party hasn’t done anything for the African American community? Well, OK go with that but it may truly be one of those things that you don’t recognize something until it’s no longer there. If Rauner is elected he will want to make drastic cuts to all of those programs the Democratic Party had tried to put in place to help impoverished areas over the years. - Anonymous - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 7:12 am: i see the gop starting up the old bus and driving around the aa block showing it off - Anonymous - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 7:35 am: yeah,i would vote for bruce,this caring thing has gotten out of hand?no worry when rauner wins? - Adlai - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 7:50 am: @OW, Are the inquisitors “failing”? With the exception of guys I’m predisposed to not liking, I thought most of the legislators did well. But the witnesses, so far, have done well, too. I’d argue it’s been a studious, useful hearing, just not the kind of explosive revelation that some Republicans were promising. - Pot calling kettle - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 8:00 am: The inquisitors are, indeed, failing. The best sign of that is the length of the questioning. Extended questioning means they are fishing unsuccessfully. If they found anything yesterday it was lost in the weeds of minutiae. - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 8:10 am: - Adlai -, Good question. With respect. This was sold as Quinn’s Waterloo, and frankly, the brain trust of Rep. Reis going toe to toe with Mr. Holland, because sounding like a parliament of owls didn’t work…is a failure. Further, the backlash of the optics, like the Brown grab above, reminds many voters, not just AA voters, that My Party is sanctioning a Benghazi style hearing, that really can be seen as callous to the problems people face… …and that is both, 100% fair, while being 100% unfair to the idea of looking at a failed program that has two US Attrorneys looking into it. Optics. Rich made such a pithy comment last night that was pure genius. Al Capone’s vault. That’s why it a failure, yesterday; over promised, completely under delivered. Period. Yesterday. But I got hours of “emails”, I got my Animal Kingdom too… “Who…who…who…who…” You, Inquisitors, you. Now the backlash may begin. It was so pristine. It was so perfect for Ads, for hammering and shaking in the ambiguous. The moment you take to “hearings”, a non delivery of fact…fails. - Wumpus - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 8:21 am: Baghdad Bob meet Bagdhad Brown - anon - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 8:57 am: If the purpose of the committee hearing was to shed light on a poorly implemented government program with the hope that others could learn from it when implementing future programs, I would say this is a good use of time. However, its so obvious that this is a republican witch hunt on a democratic governor. Its really difficult for me to respect in any way the entire republican party. What a pathetic demonstration yesterday. - Walter Mitty - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 9:03 am: I for one was expecting more than came out yesterday. I think the game is at halftime and maybe Brown has a point at halftime. I suppose so does the perspective that the other voting blocks have the equal reason to not support Quinn for the very reason he explains. Will the AA come out because of this? Seems like the same stretch that folks like me thought more would come out yesterday. Is it enough to come out this time? Or is there a what have you done for me lately? Because that is also one of the many ways it can go.. The second half may prove interesting. - wordslinger - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 9:08 am: The promise here was vote buying. If twe don’t get that today, the GOP will have muddied up those real federal investigations as a campaign issue. They would have been better off leaving it alone and let the ongoing investigations speak for themselves. - VM - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 9:21 am: “I’m not sure African-Americans ever realized how far Quinn stuck his neck out to try to help their communities.” This is the case on a whole slew of issues for Quinn. People who complain that we skip pension payments don’t know that Quinn is the first Governor in decades to actually make payments with no gimmicks. People who complain about those free-spending liberals don’t know just how much spending was cut and how much smaller government is under Quinn. People complaining about the state of the economy in Illinois don’t realize that jobs are actually growing (except government jobs) and we have a pretty decent labor participation rate. And so on, on issue after issue. What I really don’t understand is where the grandstanding Pat Quinn, who invented the Sunday morning populist press conference, went. Quinn’s biggest problem, IMO, is that he is not touting his biggest accomplishments for fear of being attacked for them. It’s weird, and he’s paying for it in his approval ratings. NRI programs are just another example of this bigger problem of perception. - Soccermom - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 9:34 am: I don’t think this helps Quinn with the AA community because I can’t imagine that many people in the community have been following this closely. this looks and feels like a partisan witch hunt, and i don’t think most of his base give a hoot. - walker - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 9:51 am: Reis launched this as a political issue in late 2010 or early 2011 when he publicly “suspected” that taxpayer money was directly or indirectly paid to people to go door-to-door with campaign literature and to literally get out the vote on election day. He called those who didn’t see that “naïve.” That was met with laughter from those who had actually worked retail politics in Chicago. The more general claim was that votes were somehow bought and sold in some communities. A lot of water under the bridge since then, and if there’s any wrong-doing, it has nothing to do with that initial GOTV charge. The Feds, as Word points out, are probably not working on that scenario. They are the ones with the heavy hand here. To be fair, Reis’ suspicions clearly have evolved, and he did well at the hearing yesterday. - MrJM - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 9:51 am: “I don’t think this helps Quinn with the AA community because I can’t imagine that many people in the community have been following this closely.” The individuals in the AA community didn’t need to follow for there to be an effect. If the woman running your kids after school program phones you and says that Pat Quinn stuck his neck out for that program, and that Pat Quinn needs your vote on election day, and that someone will be by with a minivan to take you to the polls, I suspect there is a good chance you’ll cast a vote for Pat Quinn. I may be wrong, but I believe that casting aspersions on life-long organizers who do important work and who have deep personal connections in the AA community will have a multiplier effect exponentially greater that then number of folks who followed this hearing. But as always IMHO, FWIW, YMMV, etc. – MrJM - walker - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 9:55 am: This will end up hurting Quinn slightly, but not enough to turn anything around. - Nonplussed - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 9:57 am: Kwame Raoul, who is no big fan of PQ’s, called this a “gotcha” hearing and a GOP “witchhunt”. Quinn will come out of this with more AA votes. - Casey - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 10:07 am: As an African American I find it offensive to think that Mark Brown seems to say that black folk will tolerate Quinn breaking the law because it will help us. As if there is a propensity of black people will look aside at these ill-gotten goods. Pat Quinn is being like Al Capone and other mobsters that gave to the Catholic Church or the Black Panthers that had a free breakfast program in the community as a means to cover up their lawless activities. For Mark Brown, who writes from the comfy environs of Oak Park, IL where he lives, to make this assumption is an insult. - Del Clinkton - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 10:09 am: I find it extremely offensive that Bruce portrays himself as “Joe the Plumber” from the confines of the Wilmette Mansion. Ha! - A guy... - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 10:12 am: ===Soccermom - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 9:34 am:- I don’t think this helps Quinn with the AA community because I can’t imagine that many people in the community have been following this closely. this looks and feels like a partisan witch hunt, and i don’t think most of his base give a hoot.=== ===walker - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 9:55 am: This will end up hurting Quinn slightly, but not enough to turn anything around.==== I tend to agree with Walk and SMom on this. (S-mom, because I’m smitten-lol) Actually neither the Sunday story on Rauner has any legs, and this only has short legs because it’s ongoing. Mark Brown is a good guy, self admittedly very partisan. It’d be different if this came from someone else. It’s still a federal investigation, and that will mean something to some voters. I don’t think the AA community, nor the Anglo community are riveted to this. Didn’t lead or come in second or third on any 10pm broadcast last night. Lot of clutter in the air. At the moment, it’s even fodder for another commercial or two for Rauner. - Ucster - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 10:17 am: ==Quinn will come out of this with more AA votes.== He already gets more AA votes than there are AA people. - Team Sleep - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 10:18 am: Having worked on both the federal and state legislative sides, I can truly type this without feeling a smidge of snark or a hint of hypocrisy: programs like this are in the eye of the beholder. Rural areas LOVE renewable energy (i.e. ethanol and biodiesel) tax credits and Farm Bill spending. Trade unions and road contractors LOVE transportation funding. People who support charter and private schools LOVE vouchers. People who support mostly public education LOVE increased spending on preschool and K-12 spending. And, in this instance, the black community and leadership (especially in Chicago) LOVE programs that are designed to help quell violence and keep kids off the street. I guess my point here is that Republicans should not always scream bloody murder (no pun intended - I promise!) on programs for at-risk youth and communities. Along the same lines, Democrats should not immediately criticize Republicans who are opposed to such spending and protest the optics. - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 10:20 am: ===He already gets more AA votes than there are AA people.=== Example? - Ucster - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 10:23 am: St. Clair and Cook Counties. The homes of voter fraud in Illinois. - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 10:29 am: Really? Can you cite cases, with Quinn, in those counties, specifically? - Langhorne - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 10:32 am: Brown is right, quinn stuck his neck out–with an ill conceived, poorly administered, program throwing money at a problem. The script writes itself, if they stick to the audit findings. Make them explain that stuff - Soccermom - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 10:45 am: Uester, that’s a lie. - LincolnLounger - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 10:46 am: I can’t abide either candidate for Governor; however, this is really getting to be a stretch. Only in Illinois would we celebrate that horrible mismanagement and wasting money was a wholesale criminal enterprise. I have a lot of respect for Mark Brown, but I hope he didn’t injure himself turning into a pretzel to try and spin this ugly situation Quinn’s way. - Rich Miller - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 10:52 am: Ucster, I hope you’re not double exempt. Just sayin… lol - Jimbo - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 10:54 am: E has trouble comprehending that populated counties, especially thouse with large minority communities carry the state. Boo hoo. Most people living in urban areas are progressive. Deal with it. There is essentially zero vote fraud. Fraud on a scale massive enough to make any kind of difference would have been caught by “voter integrity projects” of the right wing, but oh, that’s right, they exist to intimidate minorities, not actually find vote fraud. Go listen to some more Rush buddy, I think he comes on in four minutes. - Precinct Captain - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 11:03 am: ==- Casey - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 10:07 am:== You might want to crack open a history book about the Black Panthers buddy. ==- Soccermom - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 10:45 am:== It’s not a lie if you’re a racist, like Uester most likely is. - LinebackerII - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 11:32 am: Looks like the longer these hearings drag on, the more undecided choose Rauner. As it stands now , Rauner is going to ride on in for the win on the back of the NRI hearings and a lot of personal cash. - walker - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 11:47 am: After a day and a half: ==”Looks like the longer these hearings drag on, the more undecided choose Rauner”== Have the polls been changing in these 24 hours? They do seem to drag while nothing striking is being discovered or confirmed. Maybe your guess will turn out to be right. We’ll know their impact if they really do drag on for days. - AlabamaShake - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 12:05 pm: **I find it offensive to think that Mark Brown seems to say that black folk will tolerate Quinn breaking the law because it will help us. ** There is still zero evidence that Pat Quinn, or anyone else, for that matter, broke any law. - Keyser Soze - Thursday, Oct 9, 14 @ 12:05 pm: The premise is that the (monolithic) black community supports wasteful government spending as long as that spending is on the black community. Huh? That’s insulting. 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