* It’s posted below, but just in case you missed it…
House members have been sent a memo by Speaker Madigan saying they should prepare to return to Springfield next Wednesday at 11 o’clock, with committee hearings at 11:30. They are also being told to prepare to stay overnight for Thursday business. That business will include the Lottery lease, a funds sweep and veto overrides.
Phil Ponce, host of WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight,” and a journalism professor at Loyola University Chicago, will examine the role of political bloggers at a forum starting at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, September 16, at the university’s Water Tower Campus.
Ponce will moderate a panel of bloggers featuring: Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune, Rich Miller of capitolfax, Georgia Logothetis of dailykos, Fran Eaton of illinoisreview, and Blake Dvorak of realclearpolitics.
Please join us for this event at Kasbeer Hall, 15th Floor at 25 E. Pearson Street, at the corner of Pearson Street and Wabash Avenue.
* It’s hard to fathom how Sen. Dick Durbin could be this stupid…
Nor does Durbin agree with the characterization that Palin’s experience as governor means she is more prepared than the Democratic ticket of Barack Obama and Joe Biden to take over as vice president or, if needed, as president.
“How you could possibly draw a parallel between that experience as Alaska governor and being a vice president or even president of the United States is a stretch, as far as I’m concerned,” he said.
That’s just a blatant insult to Alaska. Yes, it has fewer residents than Lake County. But remember what Barack Obama said just last week in Denver? “Change doesn’t come from Washington, it comes to Washington.” This tack by Durbin just doesn’t jibe with last week’s message.
* The Republicans were obviously woefully unprepared to defend their nominee in the face of this crazy storm of criticism, innuendo and probing. And they’ve flip-flopped completely about “experience” since just last week.
If you don’t feed the Beast, the Beast will feed on you. The Beast is now feeding like crazy on Palin.
But Durbin walked right into it. His party has a standard bearer with zero administrative experience (not counting his so-far impressive campaign), and Durbin wants to talk about the experience issue?
* Billy Dennis pointed to this Andrew Sullivan piece the other day…
Palin looks to me like a lovely person and a good local politician, with some inevitable rough spots. I’d be delighted if she took a leadership role in the GOP in the future. But in the same league as Obama?
Do Republicans really think that little of him?
I guess they do. We are looking at a different person.
* As somebody wrote the other day (can’t remember who, but I think it was Larry), this is the same sort of mindset about Obama that Illinois Republicans had in 2004. Just get a well-spoken black guy to run against the Democrats’ well-spoken black guy and things will cancel themselves out. Big mistake.
It’s also, obviously, at least some of the mindset behind Palin. Hillary supporters are unhappy? Well, let’s throw a woman out there. No matter that her political beliefs are completely the opposite. She’s got the right chromosome arrangement.
* But local and state leadership is way too often dismissed by the Beltway crowd (including, as we can plainly see, Dick Durbin) as insignificant and irrelevant. It’s part of the problem with that town. Anything or anyone outside of their tiny radar screen just isn’t worth examining. Obama was almost universally dismissed at first because nobody in the punditocracy had apparently ever attended a cocktail party with him. That goes quintuple for Palin.
As a result, the Palin pick has caused one of those oh so special media frenzies that the DC establishment press revels in like pigs at the trough. It’s fascinating to watch, of course, but completely goofy. We’ve got the teen pregnancy thing, the secessionist thing, the Ted Stevens thing, the Abramoff thing, the car wash thing, the book banner thing, even the wacky preacher thing. It’s all coming at us faster than we can comprehend, and without the proper context or perspective, it’s just an infotainment blur.
Because of this gross overreaction, the bar has now been set exceedingly low. A decent convention speech by Palin tonight - one that defies the media portrait of a backwards, white trash mountain woman (which should be pretty easy to accomplish, since she isn’t) - will likely settle things down quite a bit. After things have calmed, a follow-up press conference should do the trick. Reporters will look like raving lunatics, and if she keeps her cool and answers the questions, she’ll come off fine.
* Let’s do our very best in comments to keep the multitude of goofy DC talking points out of our discussion. Try to be original, please. I know this story is like crack cocaine, but we can attempt to rise above.
*** UPDATE 12:30 pm *** House members have been sent a memo by Speaker Madigan saying they should prepare to return to Springfield next Wednesday at 11 o’clock, with committee hearings at 11:30. They are also being told to prepare to stay overnight for Thursday business. That business will include the Lottery lease a funds sweep and veto overrides.
* I told subscribers about this development yesterday. Not sure why nobody picked up on the interview this past weekend…
Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan plans to call the chamber back into session this month to consider leasing the Illinois Lottery as a way of paying for a public works construction program.
Appearing on WBBM Chicago radio’s “At Issue” program over the weekend, Madigan said he told Gov. Rod Blagojevich at the Democratic National Convention in Denver last week.
“My plan is to go back to work in September with the idea of passing a bill that would authorize a long-term lease of the lottery where the money could be used for a construction program,” Madigan said.
House Speaker Madigan says his staff has made great progress on a bill to fund news schools, roads and bridges across the state, and it would be funded by leasing the Illinois State Lottery. There could be a vote in Springfield by mid- September. That’s what Madigan and Governor Blagojevich were seen discussing, even before their much ballyhood unity in Denver.
* Madigan was asked about a possible rapproachment with the governor in the wake of the infamous “Denver hug.” Here’s some of his response…
“I plan to take whatever good can come out of it, and I’d recommend that to everybody else. People send us to the Capitol Building in Springfield to be productive… We ought to do that, and if disagreements are standing in the way, then we ought to eliminate at least some of the disagreements so we can show some progress.”
That seems reasonable. Madigan has worked with Blagojevich in the past. It’s been frustrating to see him refuse to do anything with the governor over the past couple of years. We no longer have a government. It’s beyond even a parody of government. So a modicum of cooperation is welcome news, as long as it’s done with open eyes and extreme caution.
* Remember, however, that right now Madigan is only talking about the revenue stream for the capital bill, not the actual spending portion. And there’s no guarantee that the Senate will return, either…
“We passed a lottery bill through the Senate (in the spring),” said Cindy Davidsmeyer, spokeswoman for Senate President Emil Jones, D-Chicago. “We have no information about what the House may or may not consider. Right now, we are not scheduled to be in (Springfield) until the veto session” in November, after the election.
* Also, here’s something else I told readers about yesterday…
If the House does return to Springfield this month, it doesn’t necessarily have to limit its business to a lottery-lease bill. It could also decide to deal with bills vetoed or changed by Blagojevich, including legislation limiting campaign contributions from state contractors.
Brown said no decision’s been made on that. If the House did take up vetoed bills, it would force the Senate to return within two weeks to also consider the bills or they will die.
I think there will be an override of the monster ethics bill AV. Stay tuned.
* The Peoria paper editorialized about that infamous hug today…
The skeptics in us question how a brief embrace can erase months of bitter battling, especially between Blagojevich and Madigan.
Still, it seemed genuine enough. If a little brotherly love can make Illinois government functional again, we’re all for it.
* Some Illinois Republicans think their party needs a daddy figure, and they’re looking to former US House Speaker Denny Hastert…
“I think we need to have in this next election cycle, as we get to 2010, someone who has the respect of everyone in the Republican party, to make sure that we have civil primaries and that we support whoever wins,” said state Rep. Jim Durkin, of Western Springs.
Illinois Republicans, Durkin said, have self-destructed during the last two elections by demonizing one another in intense, post-primary battles.
In order to capitalize in 2010 on Illinois Democrats’ own internal feuding, Durkin said, Republicans need “basically someone with that big stick who is going to be able to institute party discipline and who’s going to make sure we’re on the same page.”
Hastert fits the bill, Durkin said, because he’s widely respected and because he holds no office himself.
This is somewhat bizarre, considering that Hastert couldn’t even stop the intra-party bickering in his own congressional district between Sen. Chris Lauzen and Jim Oberweis. Democrat Bill Foster ended up winning the special election this year, which is not exactly a great resume padder for Denny.
Also, Hastert is one of the prime motivators behind helping the spectacularly unpopular Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s push for a gigantic, multibillion dollar infrastructure program.
* House GOP Leader Tom Cross comes out of Denny’s political organization (which is one reason why he’s so gung-ho about the capital bill), but he’s not too keen on Durkin’s party daddy idea…
“I think, and this is not a negative comment, that it also is time for others to kind of step up to the plate and build the party and grow the party and bring it back,” Cross said. “I think [Hastert] will help when asked. I also think he realizes that it’s other people’s time.”
Cross is considering a statewide bid in 2010, possibly for governor or attorney general. The “it’s other people’s time” comment makes more sense in that context.
Thoughts on a party daddy?
* Meanwhile, the IL Repubs had a bit of a messaging problem at the convention this week. Frank Donatelli, the deputy chairman of the Republican National Committee, was speaking to the state’s delegates yesterday morning and lit into Barack Obama’s slogan…
Donatelli belittled the mantra of change being pushed by Democratic nominee Barack Obama, though without mentioning the Illinois senator’s name.
“The key point in John McCain’s public service, in addition to serving a cause greater than himself, is one word: Reform,” Donatelli said. “That’s a different, I would argue, a different concept than change. What does that mean? Change from what to what? It’s just a word that you throw out. reform is a much meatier topic.”
Donatelli was apparently unaware of the sign on the lectern from which he addressed the Illinois Republican delegation. The sign read: “Change for Illinois.”
Oops.
Then again, it’s a valid criticism. What does “Change for Illinois” really mean?
At the Republican National Convention, former Illinois Governor Jim Thompson is promoting his choices for Governor in 2010. Thompson says Bloomington State Senator Bill Brady, along with House Minority Leader Tom Cross and Congressman Mark Kirk are all viable candidates to replace Governor Blagojevich. […]
Meanwhile, a top ally of John McCain is also considering running for governor. State Representative Jim Durkin is the co-chairman of McCain’s state campaign in Illinois.
Chicago Public Schools chief Arne Duncan, who criticized Meeks’ boycott, seems content to merely whine ineffectively about the need for more state aid for local schools.
Almost without exception, CPS students said they were treated warmly by their hosts.
In fact, Kathy Miller, a New Trier parent, said she and other North Shore residents had formed a group to explore the issue of school funding inequities.
Suburban educators, though, say such a “tax swap” would force them to cede some of their resources and control to the state, something they vehemently oppose
The recommendation came despite Infrastructure’s $298,000 bid being 32 percent more than the lowest proposal of $225,615, by Dynasty Group Inc. of Chicago. It was 22 percent higher than a $243,675 proposal by another vendor.
ABC7 counted about 80 buses at Meek’s House of Hope church from which most of the students were supposed to be leaving. It appears only about 20 of those buses carried any people of 5-10 people each. The other buses were empty.
More than 1,000 Chicago public school students boycotted the first day of classes Tuesday in a protest over school funding and instead rode buses more than 30 miles north to try to enroll in a wealthy suburban district.
CBS 2’s Dorothy Tucker estimated that a total of about 700 students and 300 parents made it to the Northfield freshman campus at New Trier.
* Sen. Meeks told me a while ago (my Internet was down so I couldn’t post) that he believed 1,000 students and 1,000 parents made the trip - an estimate backed up by another attendee I spoke with.
Meeks called again a few moments ago to say that New Trier counted 2,500 students.
* But Meeks, himself, may be the cause of the reporters’ apparent confusion…
After arriving at the row of microphones and some opening remarks [Meeks] said that he is always a “friend of the media” but in the end would not disclose the number of participants in boycott. He did say that he was pleased with the showing of support so far and pointed out that there are eight other churches involved in the boycott.
When Pioneer Press asked him how many student boycotters there were today he avoided the question saying “you have cameras” and gestured behind him to his crowd of selected supporters.
When Pioneer Press asked him to estimate and asked him where it fell on a scale of 100-500, he would not answer. “You print 100 and I will say 3,000 and we will see who is right,” he said.
“We’re actually shining the light on this – you live in a poor district, the district that you live in is under-resourced, and then the law traps you in that district by saying that there’s absolutely no way you can escape because you don’t live in this district,” Meeks said. “That’s a system of apartheid.”
“We are being forced to get an inadequate education and that’s not fair. We ain’t missing nothing by one day,” DeNeal said. “We need to say something and they need to hear us and we’re making noise today.”
Meanwhile, also on the South Side, Mayor Richard Daley blasted Meeks, accusing him of using children for political purposes by leading a boycott of the first day of classes at Chicago Public Schools.
“It’s very selfish,” the mayor said at the opening of a new school on the South Side. “It does not serve anyone.”"
Cook County Board President Todd Stroger also attended the opening of the Sir Miles Davis Academy, 6740 S. Paulina St., and agreed with Daley’s criticism of the boycott.
“It’s very selfish. Children have to be in school and if they’re not in school the first day, don’t blame the teacher. You should not use children dealing with a political issue of all Democrats in Springfield that can’t make up their mind. It’s as simple as that.”
Tuesday, June 10, 2008 | 4:58 PM: Chicago Public School students attended a rally at Soldier Field along with hundreds of faculty members and teachers to send a strong message to Springfield for more state funding.
In a press release, the district said the rally was organized by students. But ABC7 learned that the adults - school administrators and politicians - were the ones who made the rally happen and controlled the message that was targeted for Springfield.
At least half the time the event had the feel of a concert and the estimated 30,000 Chicago Public School students who missed a day of school appeared to enjoy the music more than the speeches.
But Mayor Daley wasn’t worried about appearances, calling the “Shout Out for Schools Rally” the “largest civics lesson in Chicago’s history.” [emphasis added]
“Year after year, we go to Springfield to ask for more money, we go to Springfield for tougher gun laws. . . . Year after year we are told, ‘We’ll do what we can,’ ” Board of Education President Rufus Williams said.
Chicago Public Schools officials such as Board of Education President Rufus Williams lambasted the boycott and urged students to “boycott the boycott.”
Giannoulias said the boycott could have been avoided if only Blagojevich had accepted an invitation to discuss Meeks’ proposed $120 million school funding compromise at last week’s Democratic National Convention in Denver.
“Unfortunately, because of Gov. Blagojevich’s complete lack of leadership in not coming to the table [the boycott went ahead]. Sen. Meeks got the speaker of the House and the Senate President to the table. [But] Gov. Blagojevich decided it wasn’t important enough for whatever reason. That is extremely disconcerting to me. Now, Sen. Meeks is left in a bind,” Giannoulias said.
“I wouldn’t say that. Come on. Complete lack of leadership? No. He’s done some good things. Yes, he has. Let’s be realistic and talk about those…Now this is a major issue that confronts us and they have to deal with it,” Daley said.
If a massive media spectacle is what State Sen. James Meeks, D-13, wanted — for the record, it was. He got exactly that when he came to Northfield.
Before even one bus arrived at New Trier High School’s Northfield campus on Tuesday, scores of reporters equipped with notepads, iPod recorders and bulky satellite video transmitters packed the parking lot, baking in the 85 degree sun and waiting for the demonstrators to pull up. […]
he media frenzy only got thicker when the first six buses pulled in around 11 a.m. By the time the students and adults climbed off the bus into the path of quote-hungry reporters, the parking lot west of the high school grew to a blur of orange T-shirts that said “Save Our Schools Now” and fuzzy microphones hanging from rods.
So far, the plan to draw attention to the issue of school funding was working. […]
Any demonstrator wishing to speak up had his or her pick of reporters.
It’s all about the coverage - for various reasons, including some personal political stuff - not the attendance.
A gray, rectangular box on the wall of the umpires dressing room at Wrigley Field containing a phone and a high definition TV monitor signaled a new era Thursday as instant replay arrived in major league baseball.
An umpiring crew chief can pick up the phone and ask a replay center in New York to send him all available feeds so he can review boundary calls — was a ball fair or foul, was it over the fence or not, did a fan interfere with a potential home run?
“Purists are not going to like this and not everyone is going to like it,” umpiring supervisor Larry Young said Thursday, before the Cubs played the Phillies.
However, Piniella has found several flaws in this system.
“Put it this way: This could turn into a little bit of a fiasco,” Piniella said. “All we get all spring is, ‘Speed up the games.’ I don’t know how many directives I’ve had on ’speed up the game.’ This is certainly not going to speed up the game, is it?”
Piniella went on to say that reviewing instant replays could result in the harming of a pitcher.
“I’ll tell you what, it’ll probably be used as a ploy by some managers just to freeze the pitcher for five or six minutes or to cool him off if he’s going really well,” he said. “Baseball’s got to look at this thing carefully whatever they do. They really do.”
“I’m fine with it,” Cubs second baseman Mark DeRosa said. “The way the ballparks are designed now, it’s difficult for anybody - whether it be an umpire or a player - to really know whether the ball’s gone or whether it’s a double.
“It can only help.”
Said center fielder Jim Edmonds: “I guess it’s good to get the call right. Anything that helps is good. We’re just going to have to wait and see.”
* The Question: Are you for or against instant replay in baseball? Explain fully.
Tuesday, Sep 2, 2008 - Posted by Capitol Fax Blog Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
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Bad ad: State Sen. Kirk Dillard, a major supporter of John McCain but a close friend of Barack Obama, tells Sneed he inadvertently wound up in that Obama campaign ad that ran in Iowa. “It was only 10 seconds, but I asked (top Obama strategist) David Axelrod to pull it,” said Dillard.
• • The upshot: Axelrod did.
“Inadvertently”? Did he not see the cameras, lights and makeup people?
Q: Could you still play some kind of surrogate role for McCain?
A: I would submit because I said 10 seconds of nice things about Sen. Obama, I’m probably a better surrogate than many people. I know Sen. Obama. I respect him. But I’m overwhelmingly for John McCain for president and I think that says a lot, as opposed to just the total partisan line.
Q: Will 2010, when all statewide offices are up for election, be a good rebuilding year for the Illinois GOP?
A: In 2010, it will be a decent year for Illinois Republicans. First, the Illinois Republicans are better for our economy than the Democrats. And I think Illinoisans have overwhelmingly seen how bad the total Chicago machine Democratic control of state government is for our job climate and the state of Illinois as a whole.
Q: Do you plan to run for statewide office in 2010?
A: I don’t have any concrete plans for 2010 other than to see who emerges and how things shake out. Most importantly, my children are a little older, and for the first time in recent times, I’m able from a family situation to travel around the state of Illinois, which I’ve not been able to do. But I’m not like some other folks who are around here today with active, behind-the-scenes plans to run statewide.
That last question is what this rehab effort is really all about.
In a recent Daily Herald survey, suburban Republican delegates to the convention offered a scattershot of names when asked who they wanted to be the GOP nominee for governor in 2010.
Some of the delegates offered as many as three answers. Those most often mentioned included state Sen. Kirk Dillard, House Republican leader Cross, state Sen. Bill Brady, DuPage County Chairman Bob Schillerstrom, DuPage County State’s Attorney Joe Birkett and state Rep. Jim Durkin.
Q: How can the Republican party in Illinois overcome its internal divide between social conservatives and social moderates?
A: While the Republicans have had bumps in the road, the Democrats are downright fratricidal. It is very dark in those relationships. We are poised to make good progress.
Who do you see leading the Republican party of Illinois over the next few years?
It will not be difficult to put forward a candidate. We are in the middle of a Shakespearean meltdown of the Democratic party. I think voters are ready for anybody but the people who participated in the meltdown. I don’t want to name any names. But there are some people out there who have built up a good reputation.
Are you interested at all in running for a statewide office in Illinois?
(He laughs hard.) I’m totally and completely focused on the 10th Congressional District.
Will it be hard for Republicans to regain a foothold in Illinois?
It may be affected in the future by who is in the White House. If you have a Republican president in the White House, it will be tough times ahead because that president will have to make tough choices and you will have people disagreeing with that.
I’m not a pessimist like some people are and I think many in the media like to talk about the death of the Republican party. We had a tough go. I never thought Rod Blagojevich would get away with it twice … it’s now our turn. I can assure you whether he’s on the ballot or not in 2010 we’ll run against him.
I don’t know that the Republican Party is any worse off as a party. It’s just that we don’t have that anchor that we had for so many years–the governor’s office.
Word is U.S. Housing Secretary Steve Preston, who hails from Hinsdale, is being urged to consider a run to unseat Gov. Blagojevich. It was the whisper amongst top GOP Illinois delegates at the Republican National Convention here.
You gotta wonder who is is urging him. Any thoughts?
* Related…
* Illinois convention delegates offer diversity of political experience
* TOPINKA: Spent 42 bucks, got three great suits. Fifty percent off on everything. A Ralph Lauren suit for like seven and a half bucks. That’s incredible, you know and it’s brand new, it still has the tags on it.
* No surprise here. A new GOP poll shows Republican Congressional candidate Aaron Schock with a big lead From a press release…
Aaron Schock leads Colleen Callahan 56%-27% on the congressional ballot test, with 2% of voters choosing Green Party candidate Sheldon Schafer and 13% undecided. By intensity, 39% are committed to Schock, while 17% definitely vote for Callahan.
The challenge Callahan faces is compounded by the fact that she trails Schock significantly in name recognition and favorables. Eighty-four percent (84%) of likely voters have heard of Schock, with 58% having a favorable impression of him and 12% having an unfavorable impression. By contrast, Callahan’s image is 66% heard of/29% favorable/9% unfavorable.
Matching Aaron’s name recognition and favorables in the final nine weeks of the campaign is a tall order for the Callahan campaign.
Even during the most anti-Republican national political environment in decades, district voters prefer to vote for Aaron Schock in November.
Methodology
Public Opinion Strategies conducted a telephone survey of likely voters in the 18th Congressional District of Illinois for the Aaron Schock for Congress Campaign and the National Republican Congressional Committee. The survey was completed August 18-20, 2008 among four hundred (400) likely voters in the district and has a margin of error of +4.9% in 95 out of 100 cases.
It was the “Hug heard ’round Illinois,” but did it really mean anything?
Gov. Rod Blagojevich showed up late to the Democrats’ national convention in Denver. Most others arrived the weekend before the official Monday kickoff, but Blagojevich didn’t get there until Tuesday, just in time to attend a reception that evening and then a Wednesday morning breakfast sponsored by organized labor.
You all know what happened next. Blagojevich and his lifelong nemesis House Speaker Michael Madigan held a long sidebar meeting at the Tuesday evening reception. They talked about how they haven’t talked in months and agreed to talk some more. Sen. Hillary Clinton’s call for party unity earlier that evening had apparently sunk in.
But the following morning’s labor breakfast brought seemingly stunning developments. At the urging of U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., Madigan and Blagojevich hugged - and it wasn’t one of those “I’m gonna hug you until I break your spine,” hugs, either. It looked almost, well, genuine. The two enemies who had locked each other in a death vise for months were smiling ear to ear, patting each other on the back, while the stunned partisan crowd roared its approval with an extended standing ovation.
“I gotta cut back on the ’shrooms,” cracked one reporter who witnessed the blessed event but still wasn’t quite sure if he hadn’t just hallucinated the whole thing.
Party elders and labor union leaders were immediately hopeful that the supposed new era of good feelings meant that the odious Denver Boot, which Blagojevich and Madigan had locked onto all four wheels of state government years ago, would finally be removed by the magic of Denver’s rarified air. Might a way finally be found to implement the much-needed but perennially stalled multibillion dollar infrastructure program, and patch the horrific state deficit, and resolve education funding reform, and provide universal health insurance?
Maybe not.
“It’s all theater,” confided one top Blagojevich aide later in the day. A Madigan lieutenant pointed out that Madigan was the one who walked over to Blagojevich at Jackson’s urging and had to practically pry the governor out of his seat. No happy talk could be found.
But could it be that the aides de camp hadn’t gotten the message? That very evening, Madigan and Blagojevich continued their detente by sitting next to each other at the Democratic convention.
Remember, these are two men who have been trying to destroy each other for years. Perhaps it would just take a while before their top soldiers could be demobilized and reprogrammed.
Or not.
Blagojevich, Madigan and Senate President Emil Jones had promised Sen. James Meeks (D-Chicago) that they would sit down and discuss Meeks’ idea to avoid a threatened student boycott of the Chicago Public Schools. Meeks was proposing a $120 million plan to reform the state’s worst public schools. He flew out to Denver to set up the confab, and he then waited and waited for the governor to agree to a meeting time. Madigan had said he was willing to meet whenever the governor was ready, so it all depended on Blagojevich.
The call never came.
The governor, it turns out, had flown back to Chicago to announce huge state budget cuts Thursday morning, including the layoffs of hundreds of state workers and the closures of several state parks and facilities. The cuts were announced at a time when they would be buried far underneath the coverage of Obama’s finely choreographed acceptance speech and John McCain’s dramatic vice presidential announcement.
All of a sudden it seemed to many like everything had been some sort of cynical ploy.
There was no inkling that the same governor who seemed so pleased with the new political thaw was secretly sharpening his meat ax. He had no time to meet with Meeks for a few minutes, but had plenty of time to fly back to Chicago to lay off downstate workers.
If Illinoisans listened carefully, they could almost hear the bile boiling over all the way from Denver.
By the end of the week, the only truly happy people were the House Republicans. They’ve been closely allied with Blagojevich on the stalled infrastructure proposal, but have been simultaneously searching for ways to tie Madigan and his Democratic House candidates to the horribly unpopular governor, in order to gain some political advantage this November.
The “hug” photos were all they needed.
“Coming to a mailbox near you!” gloated one House GOP operative last week.
* Related…
* Kadner: When politicians start hugging each other, you can be sure they’re about to kick the little guy in the rear.
* Andrew McKenna: It’s one thing to be hugging each other in Denver, the other 364 days a year the voters expect these people to work for them, and I don’t think that’s a record the voters are looking for.
* Marin: This past week in Denver, Illinois Republicans got a good laugh out of all the hugging their warring Democratic counterparts did in Denver. For all House Speaker Michael Madigan’s power and might and Gov. Blagojevich’s gubernatorial perch, they crow, we have no capital bill, no ethics bill, and we face a Chicago school boycott because of the dismal state of funding inner city schools.
* Belleville News-Democrat: However, that hug probably was as believable as Blagojevich’s pronouncement this week that he is a “great governor.” His questionable ethics, his pay-for-play politics and his disdain for the legislative process are just a few of the reasons why he’s a terrible governor.
* Sen. Gary Dahl: “The bull—- keeps getting thicker and thicker. I’m disappointed and shocked. This is no way to run the state.”
* Southern Illinoisan: THUMBS DOWN to the eerie wave of hugging that went on behind the scenes at the Democratic National Convention among Illinois political leaders long at odds with each other. House Speaker Michael Madigan hugged bitter rival, Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley even embraced his nemesis, U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. We can’t help but call this a shameless public relations grab at a time when residents in Illinois need true statesmanship and leadership to craft a sorely needed public works improvement plan and put an end to the gridlock among the state’s top elected officials.
* Finke: Was Blagojevich-Madigan hug just for show?
* Topinka : “We do a lot of hugs and kisses but they are usually sincere and they are not for trying to make peace. They are just done because you feel good about hugging people… I didn’t buy the hug. I thought it was stupid – really stupid.”
* SJ-R: Meeks’ protest deserves a look The Meeks/Gidwitz proposal, with its emphasis on both funding and accountability, deserves serious consideration. A flamboyant protest like the one planned for Tuesday in Winnetka could light a fire that spreads across the state.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich, whose administration is under federal scrutiny for allegedly trading state jobs for campaign contributions, proposed a ban Friday on political cash from anyone holding a government job.
Blagojevich used amendatory veto authority on innocuous campaign-finance legislation and suggested barring contributions to any state officeholder—from governor to legislators—by any public employee, from local librarians to the director of state prisons. […]
The measure appears difficult to police. Currently, election law requires candidates to disclose the occupation and employer of contributors giving $500 or more. Blagojevich’s proposal mentions no minimum contribution and carries a $10,000 penalty for violations.
“You have to know who all these municipal employees are,” said Cindi Canary, director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. “If I work in the clerk’s office in Peotone and I send in $25, if they receive it, they can have a penalty up to $10,000.”
Deputy Gov. Bob Greenlee said the governor proposed the blanket ban on employee donations to ensure employees don’t feel pressure to donate in order to keep their jobs or keep their bosses happy. Employee donations were part of the corruption that plagued former Republican Gov. George Ryan’s administration when he was secretary of state.
Greenlee said the veto was used to get lawmakers to take the idea more seriously, but the administration will continue working on the proposal if the legislature doesn’t approve it now.
“Part of it is we’re raising the issue for discussion,” he said. “We can continue through the process.”
Cindi Canary, director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, credited the administration for bringing the idea to the forefront but said she has real questions about the proposed ban.
She said barring state officials from taking donations from thousands of state and local employees could be a logistical nightmare in tracking donors’ employers. She also said the pressure to donate isn’t apparent when local government employees give money to their legislators or the comptroller, for example.
“I think the governor is really overstretching here,” Canary said. “There are better ways to approach it.”
The governor can call his actions “Rewrite to do Right” or whatever else he wants. To many Illinoisians, it’s obvious what it should really be called: “Abuse of Power.”
* And then there’s the ban on “double dippers” that the governor wrote into a bill last week…
Blagojevich, however, isn’t proposing an outright ban on the practice. Lawmakers who have other government jobs as elected officials, state university professors, police officers or firefighters could continue to hold those jobs.
That would mean only half of the 20 lawmakers who have two government jobs would be forced to leave one of them, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis shows (see graphic).
Nine of the 10 legislators who would be forced to quit a job are House Democrats — a statistic that has prompting lawmakers in both parties to accuse the governor of using the double-dip issue to exact political revenge. House Democrats have staunchly opposed the governor’s legislative priorities this year, even though they’re in the same political party as Blagojevich.
“The governor had no problem with us having these jobs before this year,” said Rep. Susana Mendoza (D-Chicago), an employee of Chicago’s Planning Department. “It’s obvious he’s targeting us out of spite.”
Legislators also are taking issue with Blagojevich’s semantics, contending they can’t technically double-dip because Illinois law prohibits them from being paid more than once by a public body during the same hour.
“As long as it is a tentative agreement and not a final contract, we believe AFSCME members should be able to review the contract, study its terms and ask any questions in confidence,” said AFSCME spokesman Anders Lindall
That recall provision, sponsored by state Rep. Jack Franks (D-Woodstock), would have placed a question on the statewide November ballot, asking if voters supported a recall amendment being added to the Illinois Constitution. Three-fifths of House and Senate members needed to vote “yes” to start the process. While the House voted in favor of the recall bill, the Senate fell three votes short.
Think about it. In the first two hours of my day I spent almost $4. Two hours to spend more than some people can afford to spend in an entire day… and I am going out to lunch today because I didn’t get around to packing one last night or this morning.
For example, BesGrove said American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), which represents prison workers, buys 500 to 600 turkeys every Thanksgiving. If the prison closes and his sales slow, he’d have to cut some of his own 168 employees.
“The biggest damage, I think, is to the community and how we already have layoffs (from other businesses), an economic downturn and the flood in January,” he said. “It’s been a distressed community for a while.”
Mayor Daley vigorously defends the rule. He once said, “If I’m mayor, should I live in Waukegan? If it’s good enough to work and earn your salary, it’s good enough to live.”
