Tone it down, avoid u-turns
Friday, Jul 10, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tribune…
Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Thursday said he’s encouraged by facets of Gov. Bruce Rauner’s proposed pension bill, but cautioned the Republican to tone down his political rhetoric against House Speaker Michael Madigan if he wants to strike a deal to overhaul the state’s pension woes and end a budget standoff with Democrats.
The remarks illustrated the role Emanuel is playing during the state stalemate — publicly trying to bring Rauner and Madigan together while continuing to negotiate in private on the city’s interests. […]
At an unrelated CTA event Thursday, Emanuel applauded Rauner for trying to address pension funding problems for the state, Cook County, Chicago, Chicago Public Schools and downstate law enforcement in a single package. But the mayor, who has a fiery political reputation, offered Rauner an “unsolicited piece of advice.”
“There’s merit to having one pension bill where all the interests are addressed, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to have your politics get in the way of your policy. What I mean by that is, by personalizing somehow that the speaker is the holdup doesn’t help advance the proposal that at least deserves merit, a discussion, and is a way of addressing a serious problem that both Chicago, suburban and downstate communities and the county all face together in one way or another,” Emanuel said. “I constantly want to urge to lower the personal temperature, keep the conversation and dialogue and trust-building exercise so serious issues like a pension proposal can be heard without the politics getting in the way of progress.”
* There was another warning discerned by the Sun-Times, however…
Between the lines, Emanuel seems to be saying that Rauner has backed himself into a political corner. Now that the governor is on record as supporting Chicago’s ambitious wish-list, he can’t renege without looking like he’s flip-flopping and turning his back on the city.
“The governor now is in favor of the police and fire pension [reforms]. That is a good thing. The governor is now in favor, publicly, of a Chicago-based casino to pay a portion of police and fire pensions,” Emanuel said.
“The governor is now in favor of things we have talked about for decades about equity on teachers’ pensions so students and teachers in Downstate and suburbs are not treated better than teachers and students here in Chicago. He’s supportive of some of the things we’ve proposed for Chicago Public Schools … and also the notion that the rest of the state has a role to play in creating fairness and equity across the system where Chicago taxpayers are not responsible for paying for everybody else’s teachers pension and our pensions.”
* Now that the mayor has mentioned it, the governor needs to watch out for that flip-flopping meme. From Madigan’s press conference…
“He said he wouldn’t sign the appropriation for elementary and secondary education either, and if you follow the governor’s actions day by day there’s a lot of u-turns, a lot of u-turns in a row,” says Madigan.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jul 10, 15 @ 10:44 am:
===Between the lines, Emanuel seems to be saying that Rauner has backed himself into a political corner. Now that the governor is on record as supporting Chicago’s ambitious wish-list, he can’t renege without looking like he’s flip-flopping and turning his back on the city.===
Fundamental. Rookie. Mistakes.
The problem is you learn about backing yourself into political corners and keeping your word and trust building in government at lower levels, to build on the learning later.
The governor skipped all that, we get to see the learning up close, raw, and in real time.
Excuse me, Governor, if your personal battle(s) with Madigan get(s) in the way of what Rahm wants, sorry, expects now, you didn’t paint yourself in a corner, you are left on an island… surrounded by sharks… which is far worse. OW
- Norseman - Friday, Jul 10, 15 @ 10:48 am:
Agreeing to police and fire pension reductions is yet another u-turn as I recall from Rauner’s campaign pronouncements. When you make repeated u-turns, you end up going in circles. That makes him look like a Republican Pat Quinn.
- From the 'Dale to HP - Friday, Jul 10, 15 @ 10:51 am:
Rahm’s right. Rauner really is in a big bind here. Someone needs to tell him to stop digging, because the hole is only getting deeper, and the deeper it gets, the harder it is to get out of.
Madigan is right. Rauner is going in circles (because of all the u-turns!). Rauner isn’t getting anywhere with any of his agenda because no one knows where he stands on any issue on a particular day.
It is kind of like watching someone race alone on a race track, promising something new to the major players who are watching along the sidelines each time he goes by. Only at the same time, he’s running over his own supporters trying to win a race… that only he is racing in.
The longer this goes on, the worse it gets for Rauner. Maybe he isn’t getting destroyed in the papers yet, but that’s only going to make it worse down the line.
What would really worry me if I was Rauner, is that I’m not even winning the little battles. And I’ve got next to no shot at winning the war. So what’s the point of all this?
- Stones - Friday, Jul 10, 15 @ 10:54 am:
Rather than starting his first political office by listening, learning and building trust the Governor chose the hyper-partisan rhetoric route. It hasn’t served him well.
- How Ironic - Friday, Jul 10, 15 @ 10:56 am:
So has the Turnaround agenda become the ‘Turnincircles’ or ‘U-Turnagenda’?
- Wensicia - Friday, Jul 10, 15 @ 10:57 am:
Basically, I think Emanuel is saying, “We can’t trust this governor.”
Both Madigan and Emanuel can offer advice, but I don’t think Rauner is ready to listen, yet. I don’t know what will have to happen to break his obsessive focus on taking down the unions and eliminating collective bargaining, but sooner or later he’s going to have to prove he can work with the Democrats, all of them, prove he can govern. He can start by actually communicating with them, not just saying he does for the cameras.
- walker - Friday, Jul 10, 15 @ 10:57 am:
Pretty hard when you’re simultaneously criticized for not compromising, and for changing your positions.
What Rauner needs is to learn to be more careful in what he says in the first place.
- Anonymous - Friday, Jul 10, 15 @ 10:57 am:
What’s the difference between a u-turn and turnaround?
- AC - Friday, Jul 10, 15 @ 10:57 am:
If Rahm “dead fish” Emanuel says you need to tone it down, it’s time for some serious soul searching. Bruce Rauner should tell his staff that all mail from Rahm Emanuel should be forwarded unopened to Evelyn Sanguinetti.
- DuPage - Friday, Jul 10, 15 @ 10:57 am:
Long story short:
Rahm is going to have to raise Chicago taxes. He can’t avoid it much longer.
Rauner is going to have to raise state taxes. He can’t avoid it much longer.
End of story.
- PolPal56 - Friday, Jul 10, 15 @ 11:04 am:
So far Rauner hasn’t displayed the nerve he needs to do what he says he wants to do. He makes absolutist statements about things such as his ten agenda items, the Good Friday Massacre, and the budget, but when faced with a consequence for which he’d end up taking serious heat (schools not opening on time, state offices and services closing), he tries to weasel out of the responsibility for that consequence. So he flips and funds or he flops and tries to do some weird back door thing when he could have funded in the first place.
- RNUG - Friday, Jul 10, 15 @ 11:08 am:
== I don’t know what will have to happen to break his obsessive focus on taking down the unions and eliminating collective bargaining ==
His 1% friends calling him and telling him to back off because Rauner has brought the robber baron agenda / class fight so far out in the open a public backlash is starting to threaten the 1%.
- CharlieKratos - Friday, Jul 10, 15 @ 11:09 am:
Rauner came into his job with a simplistic view of how things were done, “great ideas” about how to force his policies, and an ego too big to ask for help, or change his ways, when he started floundering.
How’s that working out for you, sir?
- Juvenal - Friday, Jul 10, 15 @ 11:09 am:
Two wrongs don’t make a right, but three lefts do. So, by my count Rauner is only one left short of a right.
Dan:
Yes, Rahm is going to have to raise taxes, but you can bet that if he doesn’t get everything that he wants, Rahm and the City Council members are going to be blaming Governor Rauner for that property tax hike.
Why? Because 80 percent of Chicagoans are already against Rauner, so it is the easiest story to tell. Plus, someone thought it was a great idea to send the governor to the Chicago city council to take ownership of the city’s financial mess.
- PublicServant - Friday, Jul 10, 15 @ 11:11 am:
===the Governor chose the hyper-partisan rhetoric route===
Maybe because the Governor is hyper-partisan?
Rhetoric: language designed to have a persuasive or impressive effect on its audience, but often regarded as lacking in sincerity or meaningful content.
This.
- Aldyth - Friday, Jul 10, 15 @ 11:12 am:
DuPage, you are an optimist. I daresay there are several chapters yet to go in this story.
- @MisterJayEm - Friday, Jul 10, 15 @ 11:20 am:
“Ra⋃⋂er’s T⋃r⋂aro⋃⋂d Agenda”?
– MrJM
- skeptic - Friday, Jul 10, 15 @ 11:24 am:
“you didn’t paint yourself in a corner” Of course not…Madigan and Emanuel are all corrupt! (That Big Chicago Machine you know.(/snark)
- Politix - Friday, Jul 10, 15 @ 11:33 am:
I think a lot of these mistakes could’ve been avoided with a sharper communication team. Their brand of PR doesn’t work here. Rauner is well on his way to joining the right-wing kook club with Christie, Walker and Trump (yeah I said it), and he has his knee-jerking, diplomacy deficient DC-seasoned press shop to thank for it.
IL Republicans also haven’t done him any favors by failing to convince him they can lead, failing to educate him on what actually works in IL politics. Instead they’ve turned to jello, waiting to be told what to do next. This was made embarrassingly obvious by Davidsmeyer yesterday.
Good Governors surround themselves with good people. His superstars are failing him.
- AnonymousOne - Friday, Jul 10, 15 @ 11:33 am:
==public backlash is starting to threaten the 1%==
There are quite a few more of us than them. (1%). Angry people
when made angry enough, take steps.
- Stopped Making Sense - Friday, Jul 10, 15 @ 11:48 am:
I think the Governor needs to sit quietly and think things over with a nice glass from the July installment of his Napa Valley Reserve.
- dupage dan - Friday, Jul 10, 15 @ 11:50 am:
When you go ALL IN, your are ALL IN. To back out now is to look flippy floppy and weak.
How is Rauner gonna do that?
Rauner as the voice of calm and reason brokering a truce between Rauner and Madigan.
This could be interesting.
- dupage dan - Friday, Jul 10, 15 @ 11:53 am:
Lots of “DuPage”s out there. DuPage, dupage dan, DuPage Don, DuPage Dave.
Even I need a scorecard now.
- Precinct Captain - Friday, Jul 10, 15 @ 11:54 am:
Rauner is shakin’ all over!
- Politix - Friday, Jul 10, 15 @ 11:59 am:
“Rauner as the voice of calm and reason brokering a truce between Rauner and Madigan.”
If there was someone who could broker a truce, who would it be?
- RNUG - Friday, Jul 10, 15 @ 12:15 pm:
== If there was someone who could broker a truce, who would it be? ==
An angry mob storming the Governor’s Mansion …
- Wordslinger - Friday, Jul 10, 15 @ 12:22 pm:
How can the governor avoid flip- flops? He demonstrated no popular support for his original agenda and it had no base of support in the General Assembly. It was unattainable this year.
Everry time the heat is turned up — autism grants, school funding, salaries — he flips. That’s been noticed.
Same goes for the overall budget. If he wanted to reduce spending and live within current taxation, the GA presented him with a dream option — use his range of veto powers to reduce and excise line items from 20 approp. bills.
But he didnt do that, either. He wants higher spending and higher taxes. That’s been noticed.
He needs to find an out so he can declare victory and get on with his very important job. The bluffs havent worked. Poker player, he ain’t.
- Jack Stephens - Friday, Jul 10, 15 @ 1:25 pm:
Bruce,
You won the election but with no mandate. You stated that everyone is corrupt, yet you are bribing yiur caucus with $20,000,000.00. Governing is the art of compromise. Nobody wins and nobody loses. If yiu feel you are incapable of doing this….the resign. Otherwise the advice that Rahm is giving you is very poignant.
Respectfully,
Jack