* Call…
“If I have one major disappointment in the last 18 months, it’s with the mayor. And that’s not — people say oh, it’s personal and you guys hate each other. We’re friends. We’re always going to be friends. You can separate friendship from what’s good public policy,” Rauner said. “The mayor has stayed behind the speaker and supported the speaker’s position when the mayor should be fighting.”
The governor then listed elements of his much-disputed legislative agenda, including pro-employer changes to the state’s worker compensation system, scaling back collective bargaining rights in local government contract negotiations and a state worker pension proposal.
“(Emanuel) is not fighting, advocating for it with the working groups. It’s my single major disappointment. And it’s not personal, and it’s not personal attacks. It’s just where we are. We’ve got to stand up.”
* Response…
“Last week, I said his rhetoric of division and divisiveness, of targeting one community against another or one group of people against another, was Trump-like,” Emanuel said. “Now it sounds like he’s auditioning to be Donald Trump’s running mate. And I would just say to him that this is not about right-wing ideology, it’s about results.”
* Echo…
Ald. Pat O’Connor (40th), the mayor’s City Council floor leader, was loaded for bear when told that Rauner had characterized Emanuel as his “biggest disappointment.”
“His calculator is a little busted . . . If you haven’t had a budget in two years, that would be my biggest disappointment if my sole job as governor was to pass a budget and have the state of Illinois run appropriately,” O’Connor said.
“If the idea is it’s the mayor of Chicago [who is Rauner’s biggest disappointment], I’m not quite sure he understands his role in government.” […]
“Right now, the concern that he has is that, if he does compromise, he’s lost. That’s not how life works. If you compromise at your house, I don’t think you’ve lost. You and your spouse have worked something out. If it’s win at all costs, that’s not what government is all about. It might be what business can be about. It’s definitely not what government’s about,” the alderman said.
…Adding… Ald. Howard Brookins…
Words matter, and the offensive way that Governor Rauner speaks about Chicago families is just getting uglier and uglier.
First, he accused Chicago families of not contributing taxes and not being hardworking. Today, he’s taking his racist rhetoric even further – saying that Chicago’s schools are ‘crumbling prisons.’
Unlike our Governor, I visit Chicago schools all the time, and I can tell you that our students are hardworking, that they’re making tremendous academic gains and without the progress Chicago students are making, the state’s schools would be on the decline. If the Governor wanted to respect our students, teachers, and principals, he would start funding all our schools equitably instead of punishing poor students throughout the state of Illinois.
It’s time for Governor Rauner to apologize for his inflammatory rhetoric that insults our children and degrades their achievements.
*** UPDATE *** CPS CEO Forrest Claypool and Chief Education Officer Janice K. Jackson…
“Frankly, the Governor’s comments comparing Chicago schools to ‘crumbling prisons’ are disrespectful and beneath his office. In Chicago, our students’ remarkable achievements – in their graduation rate, in their ACT scores, in their college enrollment, in elementary reading and math – have come because of their hard work, and they deserve our support. Instead, their own governor is bad-mouthing them, de-funding them and demeaning everything that they have accomplished.
“We call on the Governor to apologize for his hurtful, divisive and inflammatory rhetoric – and just as importantly, to stop being an obstacle to badly needed education funding reform.”
They also passed along a fact sheet. Click here.
- bwana63 - Monday, Jun 6, 16 @ 1:09 pm:
Spot on, Mr. O’Connor.
- Roadypig - Monday, Jun 6, 16 @ 1:10 pm:
O’Conner sums up why people thinking a businessman is the right choice to run the government are so wrong. Government never Has a single “winner”, and that is all Rauner ( and Trump, et al) think of as their goals. If you can’t work with someone you have little in common with in the business world and you’re the boss, you can always fire them. It just don’t work that way in public life, no mater how many tens of millions of dollars you spend trying to make it so
- Amalia - Monday, Jun 6, 16 @ 1:13 pm:
Ald. O’Connor…spot on.
- @MisterJayEm - Monday, Jun 6, 16 @ 1:16 pm:
“‘We’re friends. We’re always going to be friends. You can separate friendship from what’s good public policy,’ Rauner said.”
Yes, many relationships can be separated from good public policy, e.g. http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20160604/ISSUE01/306049994/diana-rauners-dual-roles-put-her-in-the-eye-of-the-budget-storm
– MrJM
- John Reynolds - Monday, Jun 6, 16 @ 1:17 pm:
If I have one major disappointment its a man who ran for Governor and campaigned solely on the notion that the last guy was bad, ran cute TV commercials starring his wife that said they had no social agenda, and then engages in willful and purposeful destruction of the State of Illinois.
Guess I agree with O’Connor.
- Gerry - Monday, Jun 6, 16 @ 1:20 pm:
In order to compromise I think someone else has to offer you something in return? I think Alderman O’Connor replaced the word “captitulate” with “compromise”…perhaps it was a spell check error.
- Ole' Nelson - Monday, Jun 6, 16 @ 1:22 pm:
“the concern that he has is that, if he does compromise, he’s lost.”
This is why I have no hope for Illinois while this governor is in office. Bruce Rauner, in his own mind, “never loses.”
- Honeybear - Monday, Jun 6, 16 @ 1:23 pm:
Loaded for Bear indeed. Wow
- And I Approved This Message - Monday, Jun 6, 16 @ 1:23 pm:
Has anyone written “Governing for Dummies” yet?
- Chungas revenge - Monday, Jun 6, 16 @ 1:30 pm:
And I approve this message at 1:23
I think Blago is working on that right now in this jail cell.
- Rich J - Monday, Jun 6, 16 @ 1:37 pm:
The main reason Rahm didn’t help Rauner is because he couldn’t — even if he wanted to. Rahm never had the clout to get Chicago members to vote against Madigan or Cullerton. Not when he took office and certainly not now.
As I said before, it ain’t 1966, or even 1996, when the mayor of Chicago could make a few phone calls and flip a bunch of votes in the General Assembly. There used to be a dozen legislators who were on the city payroll for their “full time” job when they weren’t in Springfield. I think there’s only one left today.
Everything Rauner and his frat boys knew about Chicago and Springfield politics they learned from John Kass’ column and Fran Spielman’s City-Hall-is-the-center-of-the-universe reporting. Times change.
- pundent - Monday, Jun 6, 16 @ 1:45 pm:
I guess I didn’t realize that when Rauner ran for governor and promised to shake things up in Springfield that it was premised on getting an assist from the Democratic mayor from Chicago.
- wordslinger - Monday, Jun 6, 16 @ 1:58 pm:
–Has anyone written “Governing for Dummies” yet?–
I think it’s a fundamental mistake to think that Gov. Rauner doesn’t know what he’s doing, and that what is happening is not part of the plan.
Hard to believe, I admit, but at some point you simply have to take stock of his actions and draw conclusions.
Having said that, I think some Superstar should discover his Testicular Virility and take away that shiny new Dog Whistle the governor’s been playing with all week, for his own sake.
I never expected a governor of Illinois would talk like that. Pate, yes, a governor, no.
- Wensicia - Monday, Jun 6, 16 @ 2:01 pm:
I think it’s bizarre that the governor would expect a Democratic mayor to help him push his far right agenda. That he continues to heap criticism on that mayor and Chicago as if this will bring all Democrats involved to compliance is even more bizarre. These Trump like insults won’t get him the votes he needs. When is he gonna face reality and start governing?
- Belle - Monday, Jun 6, 16 @ 2:04 pm:
Wordslinger +1
- Captain Illini - Monday, Jun 6, 16 @ 2:05 pm:
Wordslinger has it right I believe, that Rauner is an old-school type in his speech and mannerisms…but I wouldn’t have thought he’d be as inane as George Wallace. (snark)
- Dismayed - Monday, Jun 6, 16 @ 2:05 pm:
The biggest problem is the Governor campaigned as someone whose wealth would allow him to withstand the pressure of shaking up Springfield. Someone who can withstand the pressure shuts down Government, pays only public safety employees and forces everyone to the table to negotiate a compromise. This Governor ran in to Court to get permission to pay those hated public employees and has agreed to more spending between court orders and appropriation bills than the out of balance budget he vetoed.
He can take the pressure from the unions but he can’t take it from the suburban voters who depend on government functioning to make society function.
- pundent - Monday, Jun 6, 16 @ 2:07 pm:
=When is he gonna face reality and start governing?=
This is Rauner’s reality and he has no interest in governing. What we’re observing is just theater. The message is scripted and the results are intended. It really is the only logical conclusion.
- Michael Westen - Monday, Jun 6, 16 @ 2:08 pm:
Howard, it won’t happen. Pigs don’t fly.
- Steve - Monday, Jun 6, 16 @ 2:51 pm:
Rahm Emanuel, who took $50,000 from Donald Trump , is talking about Trump’s running mate. Imagine that.
- Earnest - Monday, Jun 6, 16 @ 3:05 pm:
More diversion from Rauner’s actions.
- Agricola - Monday, Jun 6, 16 @ 3:08 pm:
==Pate, yes, a governor, no. ==
Thanks for putting your finger on it, that’s exactly who he sounds like! Now I know why his whole downstate tour has felt so deja vu…
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Jun 6, 16 @ 3:51 pm:
Dear Mr. Claypool,
While you may be 100% correct, Goldberg will own the day.
Rauner will double-down. Rauner is beating your messaging.
Do better.
- Anonymous - Monday, Jun 6, 16 @ 3:51 pm:
O’Connor was elected to the City Council in 1983. He has gained power as Emanuel’s floor leader, but it has cost him some popularity. He used to run unopposed, but now he has to contend with CTU challengers. He is rumored to be mulling retirement.
- Arock - Monday, Jun 6, 16 @ 4:00 pm:
Has anyone written “Governing for Dummies” yet? If not it could be the name of Michael Madigan’s autobiography as he has guided Illinois into the can. He has been the chief architect in leading Illinois to the worst credit rating, worst economic recovery, worst unfunded pension system and also in the loss of population. He is a firm believer in continuing doing the same thing and somehow expecting different results.
- A guy - Monday, Jun 6, 16 @ 4:07 pm:
Run, Forrest, run. If you can’t come up with anything better than that, you’re in for some tough times.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Jun 6, 16 @ 4:21 pm:
Oh - A Guy -
How did Ottawa go for the governor, LOL!
- A guy - Monday, Jun 6, 16 @ 4:42 pm:
You know how the old saying goes OW, “As goes Ottawa when the locals show up in town, so goes the nation”.
Really dude?
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Jun 6, 16 @ 4:45 pm:
- A Guy -
So… Ottawa went well… Or complete disaster… Or… LOL
- Elizabeth Jones - Wednesday, Jun 8, 16 @ 1:38 am:
bookmarked, cool site!