* I think I made a mistake by not going to the convention…
An emotional U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. called on warring Democrats to unite Wednesday at their national convention and said he wouldn’t be satisfied unless Gov. Rod Blagojevich and House Speaker Michael Madigan hugged.
On a makeshift stage at the hotel where the Illinois delegation is staying, Madigan got up and walked toward Blagojevich and the two hugged.
The moment came after Jackson teared up when he hugged Mayor Richard Daley, saying he had tried to get to know the mayor for 14 years. Just two years ago Jackson was incessantly criticizing Daley as he explored and then backed away from a potential challenge in the 2007 mayor’s race.
Jackson also hugged Debbie Halvorson, with whom he’s been sparring publicly, and Bobby Rush.
What a morning at the IL delegation breakfast at the Denver Marriott! Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. talked about reconciliation and bringing the IL democratic party together. He pointed out Congressman Bobby Rush and jumped off the podium to reconcile. They hugged on the floor which was a very powerful moment. He then called out Michael Sneed of the Sun-Times and reconciled with the media. In the video below, he starts by asking if there is anyone else he should reconcile with since he’s on a roll. Mayor Daley surprisingly steps forward and hugs Congressman Jackson Jr. That’s just the beginning of one of the biggest stories of the IL delegation here at the DNC.
Illinois delegates have been wondering how the tension between Gov. Rod Blagojevich and House Speaker Michael Madigan will play out when both of the state party leaders showed up in the same room at the Democratic National Convention.
But they were all smiles and yucking it up Tuesday afternoon during a long private chat after the governor arrived fashionably late at an Illinois reception hosted by Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. […]
The speaker’s 22-year-old son, Andrew, may have played the role of intermediary or at least a neutral topic of discussion as the governor asked about his new career in real estate with Mesirow Financial Corp.
Andrew is a born conciliator. The governor has told me before that the thing he respects most about Mike Madigan is the way he’s raised his son, Andrew, and the relationship the two have with each other.
Mr. Madigan and Mr. Blagojevich were, typically, in separate corners of the room when Mr. Madigan’s former chief of staff, Gary LaPaille, went and talked to each man and then, eventually, pulled them together.
Messrs LaPaille and Madigan themselves have feuded for years. But according to sources who asked not to be named, Mr. LaPaille told his ex-boss that if the two of them could talk together, so could Mr. Madigan and Mr. Blagojevich. In that conversation, sources said, the speaker agreed to take a second look at the governor’s proposed capital program, which has been stalled in Mr. Madigan’s House.
A Madigan-LaPaille rapproachment is even more unlikely than a Madigan-Blagojevich truce, so this was truly something out of the ordinary.
Blagojevich also acknowledged that [he and Speaker Madigan] discussed the possibility of meeting, as early as Wednesday, on a proposal put forth by Sen. James Meeks to provide about $40 million to a pilot program of giving extra help to some schools in high poverty areas in Chicago and around the state.
*** UPDATE 4 *** Rep. David Miller and Senate President Emil Jones have been on the outs for years. But the on-stage hugging was apparently contagious. From a Rep. Miller press release…
This morning Illinois Senate President Emil Jones and I put aside our political differences and embraced. I witnessed the coming together (and embracing), of Congressman Jackson and Mayor Daley. And, most notably, Governor Blagojevich, and Speaker of the House Mike Madigan, who have been at odds, embraced one another after hearing Jackson’s compelling call for Party unity. It was a symbol that goes beyond description.
Does it mean Illinois Democrats will move forward on a road and infrastructure construction bill and other other issues gridlocked in Springfield since Blagojevich and Madigan stopped communicating?
Maybe not.
Madigan huddled with Blagojevich for 20 minutes at a Daley party Tuesday — the first talk between the two in a while — then Madigan huddled with Meeks at this morning’s breakfast. But after the celebrated hug, Madigan left the breakfast refusing to take any questions.
Madigan’s spokesman threw cold water on the idea of reading anything substantive into the “symbolic gesture” of a hug.
Meeks said he had no word on whether a lengthier meeting would happen. He said his first-day-of-school boycott will go ahead Tuesday unless state leaders agree to free up $120 million for schools in poorer districts.
Blagojevich doubted an agreement could be reached by Tuesday and urged Meeks to call off his boycott anyway.
“Notwithstanding the love fest you just saw, and all the hugging and kissing, I can’t commit Speaker Madigan or Senate President Jones to something,” Blagojevich said. “I don’t know that it’s physically possible to round everybody up.”
But Blagojevich said he was optimistic the hug might turn out to be more than just a symbolic gesture. The governor at first refused to discuss what he and Madigan said to each other at Daley’s party.
“I did ask him, ‘I hear that you’re prepared to meet with us and Rev. Meeks,’ and he said he would,” Blagojevich said.
It remained to be seen whether Wednesday’s reconciliation would survive the delegation’s return to Illinois.
“I just wonder if it’s the altitude,” Blagojevich said later, referring to Denver’s thin mountain air. “We’ll find out when we get back home.”
*** UPDATE 6 *** If you’re watching tonight’s convention coverage, you’ll see that as of 6:10 pm, Speaker Madigan and Gov. Blagojevich are sitting next to each other at the convention. Dan Hynes is next to Blagojevich on the other side.
* National Review’s Freddoso points out some hypocrisy…
Denver — “[E]thics reforms means getting officials to limit gifts to themselves.” Those are the words of Emil Jones, president of the Illinois senate, in his speech at the Democratic Convention Monday.
Jones would know. He is Barack Obama’s political mentor, and he can now give himself a $578,000 gift. It is a perfectly legal and completely corrupt arrangement that he made ten years ago, with just a little help from Obama.
Democratic Party of Illinois Chairman Michael J. Madigan is hosting a Coors Field reception Wednesday honoring Barack Obama bankrolled by corporations with interests often before the Illinois General Assembly. Madigan is also the powerful Illinois House Speaker.
While Obama’s campaign does not accept contributions from federal lobbyists and political action committees–and Obama bemoans on the campaign trail the influence corporations have over Congress– the Democratic convention here which will hand Obama the Democratic presidential nomination is being underwritten by a variety of corporate sponsors.
Some Illinois state legislators are furious with Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich for airing the state’s dirty laundry yesterday, while other top Democrats from Barack Obama’s home state took the Democratic National Convention stage to tout their former Springfield colleague.
The controversial Blagojevich was left off Monday’s program – and then he picked that day to announce, back in Chicago, that he was rewriting a major campaign ethics bill that the Legislature passed unanimously this year. Key lawmakers have said they’ll fight him on it. […]
State Rep. Careen Gordon, D-Coal City: “He couldn’t stand not getting attention when we were all out here.’’
State Rep. Lou Lang, D-Chicago: “It was purposefully done on a day that most Democratic elected officials in Illinois were out of town . . . I think the reception here will not be warm.’’
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan: “It’s more antics.’’ Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn: “It’s somewhat petty to pick that particular day to try and take away attention.’’
State Rep. Jack Franks, D-Woodstock: “He was trying in some desperate way to make himself seem somewhat relevant . . . He’s not wanted here.’’
* Rep. Jack Franks, Hillary Clinton’s Illinois co-chair, on Don & Roma…
On Blagojevich claiming that he wasn’t snubbed by the convention: “Well, why would that surprise you? He still denies he’s Public Official A.”
“I think this week the unity and the common purpose we have of electing Barack Obama is overwhelming, so I feel very confident that the Illinois Democrats are going to be united this week and throughout the election season,” Hynes said.
William Daley, the brother of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, did not dismiss talk Tuesday that he might become one of an array of Democrats seeking the job of Illinois governor in 2010, a post Gov. Rod Blagojevich may try to keep.
Daley, a former Commerce secretary in President Bill Clinton’s administration and the 2000 campaign manager of former Vice President Al Gore’s presidential campaign, told reporters at the Illinois delegation’s meeting that it would not be wrong for them to mention him as a potential candidate.
Daley, who is now an executive with J.P. Morgan Chase, briefly considered making a bid for the governor’s office in 2002, the year the embattled Blagojevich became the first Democrat in more than a quarter century to win election to the post.
Daley has said little about his interest in seeking the governor’s office in two years, when Blagojevich’s second term ends. But Daley acknowledged he has been receiving encouragement for a run for the post and mentioned the Democratic Party’s problems in Springfield, where infighting has kept government at a standstill. […]
He told reporters that he would “talk about next year in a serious way” in January 2009.
Today is the 88th anniversary of women getting the vote and former Commerce Sec. Bill Daley, a top Obama advisor is at Day Two of the Democratic convention co- hosting a reception for the nation’s female Democratic governors, wearing his bankers’ hat. The event is sponsored by JP Morgan Chase; Jamie Dimon, its CEO and chairman and Daley, the vice chairman. Governors attending are Janet Napolitano of Arizonia, Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, Jennifer Granholm of Michigan, Christine Gregoire of Washington and Ruth Ann Miner of Delaware. Daley is contemplating running for governor in 2010.
* Speaker Madigan downplayed the Emil Jones “Uncle Tom” imbroglio…
llinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) isn’t worried about a spat among Illinois Democrats in Denver this week. Delmarie Cobb, a delegate for U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), claims that Illinois Senate President Emil Jones (D-Chicago) called her an “Uncle Tom” for not supporting U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). Jones says he called her a “Doubting Thomas.”
Madigan says it’s not a big deal. “Democrats are Democrats,” he said. “There are different people among Democrats. But as we move to the general election, we’re all being to be brought together, and we’re all going to working for the same direction, which is to change the direction of this country.”
But in this history-making week when the first African American in the nation’s history accepts a presidential nomination, we are reminded that race and gender are unequal conversations in the view of many in my generation of women. And those women felt stung again, just as Clinton delegate Delmarie Cobb did this week when she was accused by Obama’s mentor, state Senate President Emil Jones, of being an “Uncle Tom.”
* Patterson: Illinois delegates’ first-day reviews of the convention logistics were not exactly glowing. When a bus ride from the hotel to the Pepsi Center (which you can see from the hotel) takes 90 minutes, patience quickly evaporates. Then, there’s a significant hike to get into the center’s limited access gates and a thorough pat down by security. “Next time … I’ll bring my lunch,” Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White said of the bus ride.
* Duckworth to speak on veterans issues at convention
* Gun charges expected in Obama plot: Three men who authorities initially feared were plotting to assassinate Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention are facing only gun charges—signaling they never posed a real threat.
* Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr: “Barack Obama has the capacity to hit,” Jackson said a breakfast panel just before the opening of the Democratic National Convention. “But he is in the situation where he can’t hit back, which Jackie Robinson could not do. … He had to be able to run the bases, even though the crowd was jeering the first African-American on the field.”
* Lisa Madigan defends honor of Cubs fans after White Sox fan Barack Obama insults their baseball integrity on ESPN
* Sun-Times: Illinois Democrats have the best seats in the house this week at the Democratic National Convention. And they’re hoping to come home and pick up the best seats in the House, boosting the Democratic majority in Congress.
