52 Comments - Oswego Willy - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 9:57 am: === Retiring state Rep. Barb Wheeler, R-Crystal Lake, said Rauner’s signing of a bill expanding public funds to pay for abortions after pledging a veto was enough for her and many others to write off the freshman governor completely. “Quite frankly, it makes us all free agents in regards to what happens in the veto session,” she said. “This veto session is going to be very different than what he probably could have expected had he stayed with us when we asked him to.”=== Nothing like admitting you were bought, owned, and payed for. You can’t leave the General Assembly quick enough, Ms. Wheeler. You just admitted how you were owned, and betrayed Illinois purposely. How proud you must feel. - Angry Republican - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:00 am: The gospel according to Frank Underwood - vote your district, vote your conscious, no surprises. I think Rauner will be gifted with many surprises in the veto session. - Cubs in '16 - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:02 am: ===“We’re all free agents now.”=== Actually Barb, you were never free agents. You signed a rhetorical contract to play for one team a.k.a. your district but jumped ship to play for Rauner’s team. - Retired Educator - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:03 am: Hang on to your hat Governor, it is going to be a bumpy ride. Even bought and paid for people, can only be pushed so far. It took them long enough to come to a reality check, but I think it is there now. - Bigtwich - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:06 am: “They should represent their district,” What a unique concept. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:07 am: Mr. Barickman? ===“They should represent their district.” That is always good advice, and it would’ve been great advice starting in January of 2015.=== You voted against your district and higher education time and time and time again. Please add… “As a state Senator and utter phony, I vote Raunerite. When my district needed me most, I’d vote against it. Bruce owned my switch” ‘Nember Mr. Barickman when you gave a statement and the Governor’s office pulled you chain and you had to retract it? I do. - Ghost - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:09 am: So the GOP wouldn’t stand up to Rauner to pay for food and healthcare for babies and children. Wouldn’t stand up to him to play for housing and education, child care and day care…. but abortion funding is where they draw the line? So they demand more kids be born but don’t want to fund anything to care for those kids… willing to destroy social services for kids for two years…. but demands an increase in the child population they refuse to help or improve quality of life. That’s some messed up organization - Anon221 - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:10 am: wheeler may be a “free agent” since she’s leaving, but Barickman certainly isn’t unless he’s going to campaign without any Rauner Bucks. Voting for your district is only important to him when it comes time for his district to vote for him. - Thoughts Matter - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:11 am: Yes, they’ should represent their district. Always, no matter who the Governor is. I imagine there will be some surprises. However, I expect the governor still holds sway over many non-retiring legislators. They haven’t returned any of his campaign fun donations yet. - zippo - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:12 am: Republicans have no credibility on Rauner after electing him and Illinois Policy Institute doesn’t either. Pass. - Thoughts Matter - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:13 am: Campaign fund. I doubt any of them are having fun right now. - cdog - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:14 am: Glad to hear this. Wish it would have happened earlier in Rauner’s term. - VanillaMan - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:15 am: If the only comments made on this issue is how legislators like Wheeler or Barickman should have known, were fooled, are foolish or shouldn’t be surprised -are missing the forest from the trees here. This is real. This is a real issue. Rauner didn’t just lie, he struck at a core GOP principle. Perhaps you do not share that principle, but at least be open minded enough to recognize them when a party leader crossed them. ILGOP has been holding their tongues, looking for every excuse in the world to continue supporting Illinois Worst Governor. They’ve taken more arrows than a bull’s eye at an archery competition. All because they imagined that Rauner shared in their core principles. Rauner revealed that he doesn’t. Sure, ILGOP messed up backing Rauner. But realize that with his signing off on the idea that all taxpayers must now fund the ending of human life, Rauner burned down a vital bridge to his last group of supporters. Rauner didn’t even recognize this issue as a principle. The entire situation won’t be resolved by cash, smiles or any other Rauner promises. It’s as if Lincoln cut a deal during 1864 reelection to return African Americans to the plantations and having every taxpayer pay for every trip. Stop picking on ILGOP over this. They’ve joined our party now, so hand them one of the cocktails we’ve been nursing since 2015 and make room to get Bruce Rauner. He’s united us all with his actions. - Cheryl44 - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:15 am: None of these people care about the people whose liveshave been disrupted/destroyed by Rauner literally shutting off the safety net. But horrors! He lied to them. No one in the GA–especially the Republicans–have my sympathy. - wordslinger - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:17 am: Maybe an override of that DHFS managed care audit bill, too? Any time the executive branch doesn’t want an audit, probably a good time for a look-see. - Skeptic - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:18 am: He did say there’d be an f-in’ problem, but he didn’t exactly say whose problem it would be. - Try-4-Truth - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:18 am: Gov. Rauner is still a Republican. No amount of revisionist history can change that. Vote accordingly. - @MisterJayEm - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:19 am: As a man once said, “We have established what you are — now we are simply haggling about the price.” – MrJM - Right To Work Districts - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:25 am: Hopefully that veto will be overridden as a result of the backlash. Would laugh to see him fail on his ultimate goal of hurting unions. - Carhartt Union Negotiating Team - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:25 am: O.W. has it all about right here. These guys are admitting to being cut of the same cloth that they’re accusing every Democrat of being part of…MADIGAN. They’re responsible, in very large part, of eroding Illinois as the “Madigan Democrats” due to their suckling of the Rauner money teat. Difference is, Madigan rarely strings his House members out on bad votes. True, he uses the hammer to hold things back, kill things or advance items that are unlikely to become law, but he doesn’t make a practice of sending lemmings over the cliffs without a parachute. Rauner continues to miss the importance of art in the business of politics. And say what you want, seems (at least today) Madigan comes out ahead. It all could have been sooooo much different if Rauner would have dropped the gimmicks, the threats, the failed ideology, the fear of working in tandem with the GA. Every misstep is making Rauner’s hobby of governing a very expensive adventure. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:26 am: ===Gov. Rauner is still a Republican.=== No. Rauner is a Raunerite that bought the brand “Republican” and the likes of a Ms. Wheeler or a Mr. Barickman. What’s happening “now” is Raunerites trying to be Republicans again, and try to follow real Republican ideology within a former ILGOP party. Rauner has tainted both brands. No amount of revisionist history can change that. ===Vote accordingly=== Yep. I again won’t be voting for Rauner - Honeybear - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:28 am: Hilarious Man they are panicking They know that every Union canvasser is going door to door with specifically how they we Bought and paid for Obedient to Submissive to Governor Rauner Engaged in perfidy And relished the malum in se The “evil itself” Hurting the innocent of illinois Accountability ILGOP Labor holds you accountable For Rauners sins Poorly paid Young College Republicans Are no match for Thousands of Aggrieved Union members Janus vs AFSCME is having the opposite effect Janus vs AFSCME is Unifying us - Real - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:31 am: I think the dems should re-run the AFSCME arbitration bill to be effective for this administration and the next one just in case Rauner wins another term. - 360 Degree TurnAround - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:33 am: I think henceforth, I shall call the governor’s team the “Mighty Ducks”. No more BTIA. They all appear to be lame ducks waiting for the term to expire. Quack (clap), Quack (clap), Quack (clap). - Try-4-Truth - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:34 am: Sorry Mr. Wordslinger… Republicans own him. He’s belongs to them. They can’t run now and say “Bruce Rauner… never heard of him…” Sorry, but it’s true. The party sold out. He won a contested primary where the party faithful was warned about him. Other (better?) Republicans were offered as an alternative. They lost, he won. Then, in the General Election, they all lined up behind him, the entire party infratrcuture. Then, when he was elected, none stood up to him. He’s a Republican, and the entire party is to blame for him. They OWN him. - Last Bull Moose - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:35 am: I have a little more sympathy for the Republican legislators than many on this blog. They bought into the idea that change could be forced if enough pressure was applied. They could live with backing policies they didn’t like if the long term result was good. The combination of seeing the policies fail to produce results AND being directly lied to was too much. During WW1 the Russian and German armies fought bravely for years. At the end, each collapsed. That could be the Republicans this year. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:37 am: ===This is real. This is a real issue. Rauner didn’t just lie, he struck at a core GOP principle. Perhaps you do not share that principle, but at least be open minded enough to recognize them when a party leader crossed them=== Totally, 100% agree. That said, no way will they get a free pass here. “Why?” There’s a whole year. Mr. Barickman will “probably” support Rauner in the end because Mr. Barickman will say… “The map. We need a stop at the map” I see this as honest, deep anger, but I also know the likes of a Mr. Barickman is concerned for himself, not his district, and a Dem map isn’t all to great for his loftier goals down the road. ===Stop picking on ILGOP over this. They’ve joined our party now, so hand them one of the cocktails we’ve been nursing since 2015 and make room to get Bruce Rauner. He’s united us all with his actions.=== “Today” Mr. Barickman is with us, “today”. The Raunerites will flock back by State Fair, 2018… “The map. We must support Rauner for that map” You ain’t wrong - VanillaMan - you really aren’t, honest. I just see 2 weeks of the phony, and a long game of the “healing”… “Because Madigan” - Oswego Willy - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:39 am: ===They’re responsible, in very large part, of eroding Illinois as the “Madigan Democrats” due to their suckling of the Rauner money teat. Difference is, Madigan rarely strings his House members out on bad votes. True, he uses the hammer to hold things back, kill things or advance items that are unlikely to become law, but he doesn’t make a practice of sending lemmings over the cliffs without a parachute. Rauner continues to miss the importance of art in the business of politics. And say what you want, seems (at least today) Madigan comes out ahead=== This is really as good as it gets. Really good stuff. Rauner never cared for building a party, Rauner cared about building a “switch count” and double crossing on anything that might hurt Rauner, party or not, that’s ok. Rauner paid for his hobby, like you said, and paid for those switches too - Try-4-Truth - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:42 am: ==== Sorry Mr. Wordslinger… === Apologies… I meant to address this to Mr. Willy. I got my two favorite commentators mixed up. Again, I am sorry. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:43 am: - Honeybear - Godspeed in your quest to take Rauner. Labor will be critical to turnout as much as plurality. Labor needs a large turnout to make the plurality cover when Raunerites, in the end, with their honest anger, still try to stop that Democratic Map. Turnout. Every day. It’s about turnout. - Michelle Flaherty - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:46 am: “They should represent their district.” That would have been a good approach going back to Jan. 2013, the year she started “representing” that district. I didn’t read the full post, did she by chance continue and offer up a full apology for her failed service in the General Assembly? - Oswego Willy - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:46 am: - Try-4-Truth - As I argue the Raunerite taint on the former ILGOP, and I respect your take, and see it… Tainting - Wordslinger - with me, while I’m flattered, we both know that’s dragging - Wordslinger - down quite a bit. :) - Norseman - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:52 am: So many good comments. I’ll only add that if these GOP whiners had focused on their jobs originally, IL would have less debt, a more robust higher ed system etc. - Chicago_Downstater - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:53 am: @Skeptic “He did say there’d be an f-in’ problem, but he didn’t exactly say whose problem it would be.” *Slow clap* Bravo sir! I almost fell out of my seat laughing. To the post: All I can say is I wish this all could’ve happened sooner. Still if any free agents want to vote for debt transparency I’ll be happy to see them do so. - Nick Name - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:54 am: –So the GOP wouldn’t stand up to Rauner to pay for food and healthcare for babies and children. Wouldn’t stand up to him to play for housing and education, child care and day care…. but abortion funding is where they draw the line? So they demand more kids be born but don’t want to fund anything to care for those kids… willing to destroy social services for kids for two years…. but demands an increase in the child population they refuse to help or improve quality of life. That’s some messed up organization– The GOP is pro-birth but not actually pro-life. In fact the so-called pro-life movement isn’t really pro-life either. It’s pro-GOP. It’s sole purpose is to raise campaign cash and gather votes for Republican candidates. Why would the GOP ever want to do anything to end abortion, with money and votes at stake? “Vote Republican or the baby gets it” has been a successful campaign strategy for the GOP for forty years. The high dudgeon of the GA Republicans is entirely consistent with this. - JB13 - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:54 am: I agree legislators should represent their districts, rather than a party or leader. When will the Democrats start? - zippo - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:59 am: == What’s happening “now” is Raunerites trying to be Republicans again, and try to follow real Republican ideology within a former ILGOP party. = Wrong. Raunerites never cared about the Republican ideology. They need to cover their behinds on Rauner. Is there really a split. I doubt it. If he is re-elected, will they be fine. Yes. Will they help? probably. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 11:05 am: ===Wrong. Raunerites never cared about the Republican ideology=== … which is why Republicans like a Mr. Barickman or a Ms. Wheeler were wholly bought. You forgot that. ===Is there really a split. I doubt it. If he is re-elected, will they be fine. Yes. Will they help? probably=== I know the anger is real and palpable. I also know come State Fair, 2018, the bought and paid for Republican Raunerites in the GA will come home… and the map will be the cover. - the Cardinal - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 11:09 am: The Guv led gop members down a prim rose path, they stayed with him on a host of budget and other issues. However when he couldn’t keep his internal house in order some with backbones decided to take their own tact. That doesn’t make them bought and paid for, that actually makes them leaders. Wheeler et al were well ahead of the HB40 signing. HB40 was just final straw. Sadly for the citizens of Illinois there is not enough independent action on both sides of the aisle or people willing to stand up to leadership and actually get the once great state of Illinois back on track. - DuPage Bard - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 11:14 am: Lot’s of tough talk now let’s see who actually does something about it. Still hearing crickets on petitions. - Chris P. Bacon - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 11:30 am: Unless it’s truly the intent of the Rauners to bury what’s left of the IL GOP, Bruce should do the decent thing and get off the field. His credibility is completely gone and he can never get it back. - Spiro Agnew - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 11:36 am: When I first read “we are all free agents now”…it reminded me of Richard Nixon saying “we are all Keynsian now” in 1971 after imposing wage price controls. - zatoichi - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 11:45 am: “We’re all free agents now”. Now? What kind of agent were you? Is the cash still in the account? - Anonymous - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 11:46 am: I might be wrong but I don’t think Madigan ever back stabbed anybody the way Rauner did. He doesn’t flip flop or tell two opposing sides he with them. You know where he stands even if you don’t agree with or like him. In the fall veto session Rauner has no leverage with out going legislators or with members of his own party. He has made too many enemies and they are waiting for a chance to pay him back. This guy has painted himself into a corner. Paybacks are coming. - walker - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 11:51 am: There always have been natural groupings within the Republican Party loyalists. Some are mostly conservative on business and the economy, some are attracted by ideas of small government, low taxes, less regulation, some are driven by social/cultural issues, and some just grew up in a Republican household. My point is that Rauner tends toward the economic, and not the social/cultural issues. Few hold all these beliefs in equal value; purity standards combining them all will destroy the party. The problematic issues with Rauner ought not be ideological, but rather the integrity and consistency of his dealings. Breen had it right — if I understood him correctly — we could grudgingly tolerate a “pro-choice” but otherwise conservative governor, if we had not been misled. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 11:57 am: ===we could grudgingly tolerate a “pro-choice” but otherwise conservative governor, if we had not been misled.=== This is pretty doggone close. Rep. Breen, who gets more of my respect by the second, admitted openly he enabled Rauner and the destruction and all the phony Rauner is and was, but HB40 is where the enabling has to stop. Reading Mr. Barickman, Ms. Ives, Ms. Wheeler, their phony isn’t predicated with any mea culpa. The Reagan Rule discusses 80% agreement. I never knew destroying higher education, refusing to pay social services like Catholic Charities, eliminating some social services in the meantime, and purposely running up debt to lower bond ratings, when did that become 80% of what a Republican is or was? Good take - walker - - @MisterJayEm - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 11:58 am: ==== Sorry Mr. Wordslinger… === Apologies… I meant to address this to Mr. Willy. I got my two favorite commentators mixed up. He quietly closed his laptop. And as he took the the bottle from its drawer, he wiped away a single tear… – MrJM - Bigtwich - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 11:59 am: “We’re all free agents now”. A free agent is a person not currently getting paid and is busy trying to find the highest bidder. - Roman - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 12:20 pm: - OW, Walker - I agree that Breen has probably given the most intellectually honest denunciation of Rauner since the HB40 signing. Also, Breen made what might be the best argument to unify the natural GOP groups (social conservatives and economic conservative) in a primary effort to jettison Rauner: thanks to his gross political ineptitude, Rauner has utterly failed to check Madigan in even the slightest way. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 12:29 pm: ===…in a primary effort to jettison Rauner: thanks to his gross political ineptitude, Rauner has utterly failed to check Madigan in even the slightest way.=== The real crux is can’t be someone with no one, and that someone needs to be a someBODY. - @MisterJayEm - To say I respect your comments here and laugh and think on them… and… how I throughly enjoy your Twitter… it wouldn’t do the justice I’d hope you’d take from my words. OW - A guy - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 2:34 pm: ==No one in the GA–especially the Republicans–have my sympathy.=== I sincerely doubt that any of them are looking for your sympathy. For those of you who are touting the ‘vote your district’ mantra, it would seem that your party could abide by the same thing. And they haven’t. Not for a long time. Glass houses. Change is absolutely necessary. This Governor simply hasn’t been able to affect the change. It’s still needed. It ain’t like the old way was working just ducky. A pox on both houses (and senates…and mansions) - walker - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 4:30 pm: Really feel for Leader Durkin right now. What does he do now? He might try to create a new leadership role, without alienating himself from either the Party or Governor. He would have to come out and state clearly what he personally believes and stands for, while openly acknowledging and describing what external forces could cause him to make different choices. He could be the key person people look to for guidance, because he is the individual they want to be loyal to for personal and emotional reasons. Big challenge, and not sure it is doable by anyone. But what he has to gain outweighs what he has to lose. The secrets to a successful boss, are the personal connections, not the political ones. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.