* Rep. Dan Brady (R-Bloomington) was interviewed by WJBC this morning.

Despite frequent prodding by the hosts to attack Speaker Madigan and the Democrats, Rep. Brady tried to remain as focused as he could on the actual progress being made behind the scenes.

Brady is right about that. Rank and file House Democrats and Republicans have been working together to try to resolve some issues, like property taxes, workers’ comp, pensions, etc.

The problem isn’t necessarily with the members, it’s the two guys at the top of the food chain who can’t resist trying to knock this off the rails. Gov. Rauner has done this time and time again, of course, and Speaker Madigan appears to be doing it today with House floor votes on “non-budget issues” despite the fact that rank and file negotiations are continuing. (Debates are happening on those bills as I write this, by the way, so click here for our live coverage post.)

* Rep. Brady had a message for both Rauner and Madigan…

“I’d like to say to both of them ‘Just sit on the sidelines because there’s key people that can get it done.’ […]

“People will ask me, ‘What is it I can do?’ Everybody’s good at the negatives and the smart comments and that’s fine. If you want to do something positive, drop an e-mail or a call to the governor and/or the speaker today and let them know what you think.”

* Raw audio…