Can you negotiate with cancer?
Friday, Feb 9, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Gov. Bruce Rauner at Crain’s Chicago Business yesterday morning about avoiding yet another stalemate during the upcoming session and state budget talks…
“I will negotiate in good faith, make compromise, find common ground in every way that I possibly can. And I’ve done that so far.”
* Gov. Rauner speaking at the annual Sangamon County Lincoln Day Dinner last night…
Rauner said the main goal for Republicans this year is to defeat longtime Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, calling him a machine politician who was destroying the state.
“It is a cancer that is eating us from the inside, sucking our vitality, sucking our quality of life to enrich himself and his friends inside government,” Rauner said.
…Adding… This is what the governor told the Sun-Times earlier this week about President Trump…
“I’d say my biggest concern is the rhetoric. The rhetoric, the tone, the words.”
Perhaps he could take his own advice for once?
- Da Big Bad Wolf - Friday, Feb 9, 18 @ 9:48 am:
Running out of metaphors, is he?
- Amalia - Friday, Feb 9, 18 @ 9:49 am:
everyone just stop calling things that are not cancer, cancer. each time I hear that word used in a non medical way I am unhappy.
- Retired Educator - Friday, Feb 9, 18 @ 9:50 am:
The Governor can really turn a phrase. If he keeps talking, he will simply beat himself. Very poor reference.
- wordslinger - Friday, Feb 9, 18 @ 9:53 am:
“I can no longer sit back and allow Madigan infiltration, Madigan indoctrination, Madigan subversion and the international Madigan conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.”
https://f4.bcbits.com/img/0006592031_10.jpg
- XDNR - Friday, Feb 9, 18 @ 9:53 am:
Rauner at his hypocritical finest.
- XDNR - Friday, Feb 9, 18 @ 9:55 am:
The Madigan melanoma syndrome.
- Anonymous - Friday, Feb 9, 18 @ 9:58 am:
It wasn’t cancer that killed those veterans.
- Red Rider - Friday, Feb 9, 18 @ 9:58 am:
First you need a Dr. Costume to practice medicine. Or maybe you need a doctor.
- Moe Berg - Friday, Feb 9, 18 @ 9:59 am:
The words of a man who values only one thing: money. That’s all there is to Bruce Rauner. He is an empty soul and empty suit, utterly lacking in character and a moral sense greater than his own needs and desire to dominate others.
- Bobby T - Friday, Feb 9, 18 @ 10:00 am:
Yeah, I’m taking a breath.
Cancer is cancer. A “nemesis” is not a cancer. It’s an opportunity. Rauner is simply refusing to take it.
- don the legend - Friday, Feb 9, 18 @ 10:02 am:
Those in attendance at the Sangamon County Lincoln Day Dinner must have a strong stomach to pay big bucks and have to listen to Rauner say the things he says.
Pass the Tums please.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Feb 9, 18 @ 10:06 am:
John Dean used the cancer metaphor.
John Dean was deemed complicit in that cancer.
John Dean went to prison.
I’ve yet to find an honest broker in any industry that referred to their opponent as a cancer, and they were also trying to find common ground.
Rauner isn’t honest about his wants.
Rauner wants Illinois destroyed or Madigan destroyed.
Rauner is soulless to his honestly
- Anonymous - Friday, Feb 9, 18 @ 10:07 am:
“- Retired Educator - Friday, Feb 9, 18 @ 9:50 am:
The Governor can really turn a phrase. If he keeps talking, he will simply beat himself. Very poor reference.”
I am happy that you joined the discussions. I always look forward to your comments that so far I have agreed with 100% of the time. I am sure that I will not always agree with you but that doesn’t matter. You are a valuable addition to the Capitol Fax comments.
- Professor - Friday, Feb 9, 18 @ 10:07 am:
As Captain Ahab chasing the white whale, the governor has lost his mind.
- Back to the Future - Friday, Feb 9, 18 @ 10:09 am:
Really tired of “because*****Madigan”. Wouldn’t it be nice to have just one day where candidates talk about their record ( if they have one)?
I don’t work for the Speaker, don’t live in the 13th Ward, work in Government, support his candidate for Governor or have any relationship with Mike Madigan other than seeing him perhaps a few times at lunch or dinner spots in the city where he actually seemed very pleasant.
I am not suggesting a “I like Mike Day”, but really tired of the blame game.
- Anonymous - Friday, Feb 9, 18 @ 10:10 am:
The only commenter that I look forward to more is RNUG but RNUG is in a class by himself so don’t feel bad.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Feb 9, 18 @ 10:12 am:
I miss the days when Diana Rauner called destroying social services and social services fighting back a mere “business decision”
Compared to this… Diana really showed some serious empathy back then.
===“It is a cancer that is eating us from the inside, sucking our vitality, sucking our quality of life to enrich himself…”===
I guess families battling cancer… “you think that’s tough, try taking on Madigan, like me”
- Demoralized - Friday, Feb 9, 18 @ 10:22 am:
You can’t claim to want to negotiate in good faith while at the same time calling the party you wish to negotiate with a cancer.
And, he really needs to set goals that are achievable. Madigan is not going to be defeated. He continually sets himself up for failure.
- Retired Educator - Friday, Feb 9, 18 @ 10:22 am:
Tip of the hat to Anonymous. Thanks for the kind post.
- Skeptic - Friday, Feb 9, 18 @ 10:24 am:
“As Captain Ahab chasing the white whale,” and I don’t think even Ahab described his nemesis as a “cancer.”
- Grandson of Man - Friday, Feb 9, 18 @ 10:30 am:
Rauner called public employee pensions tumors and said he and his partners made lots of money off of these pensions for 32 years.
For uber-coastal-liberal Rauner, the public sector is sweet and enriching. When it comes to middle class public workers, it’s cancer. This guy…
- Montrose - Friday, Feb 9, 18 @ 10:34 am:
I just want to acknowledge that Rich is killing it with his headlines lately.
- Anotheretiree - Friday, Feb 9, 18 @ 10:36 am:
I just hope our four year nightmare with him will end. We’ve had three failed Governors’ in recent past. Rod’s two terms and now Mr No G’s. The damage they have done is immense. I don’t give the people of Illinois’ a pass. They made three bad choices. Makes me worry about them being on juries or operating heavy machinery.
- Christopher - Friday, Feb 9, 18 @ 10:50 am:
If Rauner can take his own advice, he better first advise himself he is going to lose.
- Moe Berg - Friday, Feb 9, 18 @ 10:55 am:
Rauner’s view of Trump is so amusing. They are exactly alike in their willingness to say anything in the moment if it helps them. Nevermind if it totally contradicts something else they’ve said.
Like cancer, Rauner also has a pathological condition.
- Anonymous - Friday, Feb 9, 18 @ 10:55 am:
“As Captain Ahab chasing the white whale, the governor has lost his mind.”
And it ended badly for Ahab when he finally caught the whale.
- DuPage Dave - Friday, Feb 9, 18 @ 10:59 am:
I think it helps to think of Rauner not as a Governor but as a high concept performance artist, calling attention to the absurdity of modern life. When you begin to think of Rauner’s performance as Governor as inherently absurd, the artist has proven his point.
- Dude Abides - Friday, Feb 9, 18 @ 11:22 am:
“I will negotiate in good faith, make compromise, find common ground in every way that I possibly can. And I’ve done that so far.”
When the state went two years without a budget, whenever members of the two parties seemed to be making progress towards compromise our good Governor stepped in, dropped some of his old demands and added new demands. He is anything but a compromiser, negotiator and a leader.
- @misterjayem - Friday, Feb 9, 18 @ 11:25 am:
“It is a cancer that is eating us from the inside, sucking our vitality, sucking our quality of life to enrich himself and his friends inside government,” Rauner said.
Hmm…
– MrJM
- Sir Reel - Friday, Feb 9, 18 @ 11:36 am:
I know he was speaking to Republicans at a Republican function, but it’s sad his “goal was to defeat Madigan. Not to improve the State’s economy, fix the State’s infrastructure or any other goal of government. Just beat the other guy.
- Tommydanger - Friday, Feb 9, 18 @ 11:47 am:
New campaign slogan for the Governor:
“Governor Rauner, giving new meaning to the word, ‘Disingenuous’.
- amalia - Friday, Feb 9, 18 @ 12:24 pm:
“can you negotiate with cancer?” well, no. you fight it because if you do not it willkill you. cut it out. poison it. does that sound like what one must do with policy making? once again, stop using cancer as a metaphor for politics.
- Keyrock - Friday, Feb 9, 18 @ 1:51 pm:
Mr JM — you da man.
- Rabid - Friday, Feb 9, 18 @ 3:11 pm:
crassitude