* 12:13 pm - The House has scheduled a Committee of the Whole for next Wednesday. In other words, another “fair trial before the hanging”…

The Illinois House will schedule a Committee of the Whole on Wednesday, July 9 in order to have a full discussion on all elements of the FY09 budget. The budget is the subject of the two day special session. set to begin at 1 p.m. on Wednesday. The committee will start about 1:30 p. m. The panels could run into Thursday.

A series of panels will be convened to review each issue.
The panels will be:
Capital Appropriations I – Proponents
Capital Appropriations II - Opponents
Gaming I – Proponents
Gaming II – Opponents
Lease of the Lottery I – Proponents
Lease of the Lottery II – Opponents
Pension Obligation Bonds I – Proponents
Pension Obligation Bonds II – Opponents
Fund Sweeps I – Proponents
Fund Sweeps II - Opponents

The list of bills to be reviewed can be found at this link.

* 12:46 pm - Gov. Blagojevich was on the Don & Roma show again this morning. Listen at this link. Kevin worked up a partial transcript…

Don: Governor there was the recent shakedown conviction of Tony Rezko, a friend of yours, and I know that we couldn’t discuss all of those things while the trial was under way. Now what I would like to get from you is some kind of assurance, not only to me, but to the voters of Illinois, that you’re not going to get indicted before the next election.

Governor: Well, I always try to do things the right way, and when you’re the Governor of Illinois or the Mayor of Chicago, there are going to be people who either work for you or people who are supporters of yours that may not always do things the right way.

And when it comes to Tony for example, who has been very helpful to me, he is a friend. He has been helpful to Barack Obama, he has been helpful to Lisa Madigan, he has been helpful to Mike Madigan, he’s been helpful to Pat Quinn.

You know we all assume that, you know, what his activities are when it comes to his own business and personal relationships are honest and legitimate.

In this particular case it was found that he did some things wrong, in his personal activities. Anything related to any fundraising with regard to me were not guilties. And he did send a letter to the judge where he was very specific and clear, and said that he was never involved in any wrong doing with me or with Barack Obama. And I don’t know what more I can say other than I do things right, and I’m very sad for him personally, and that I pray for him and his family and his children. But sometimes people do things that aren’t right, and they have to meet their responsibilities.

But speaking for me, knowing what I do, I do things right and honest. So I just get up every day and keep trying to do the best I can for people, and let the pundits and all theseothers keep trying to spin things and twist things much bigger than they really are.

Notice he didn’t answer the indictment question. More…

Don: Well I want to thank you Governor. Mike Madigan hasn’t had the guts to come on the show and explain what he’s about. We really appreciate you joining us.

Governor: Well let me just say this, if you ever get him on the show, make him pledge to you that he is not going to raise your income taxes after the election or after January 1st.

*** 12:56 pm *** You can bet these people are gonna run some scaaaarrryyyy and memorable TV ads designed to stampede the herd…

A pair of media consultants that helped the Chicago Children’s Museum win City Council permission to move to Grant Park is being hired by a business group to lead its public efforts against a proposed state constitutional convention.

ASK Public Strategies, a firm headed by Obama campaign senior consultant David Axelrod, and the Chicago office of Hill & Knowlton will head a projected $2-million to $3-million media and advertising campaign planned by the Alliance to Protect the Illinois Constitution.

“We haven’t signed the contract, but they’re going to be the choice,” said Gregory W. Baise, a principal in the alliance and the head of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Assn.

Axelrod, apparently, only believes in “Change” when it comes to the Obama slogan. When it comes to Illinois, the motto is: “There will be no change.”

The biz groups don’t raise a huge amount of money in Illinois, so some might be coming from out of state. Not sure if the union dough is included in this total.

…Adding… The unions are involved in this group.

*** 1:17 pm *** The governor who has repeatedly denied that he is Public Official A is now denying that he’s under investigation…

Governor Rod Blagojevich says he is not under federal investigation as part of a probe into political corruption in Illinois.

Blagojevich called it “ridiculous” to ask if he’s a target of the corruption probe that brought down one of his top donors and political supporters.

His comments came during a tense exchange with reporters following an unrelated news conference.

Hopefully, we can get some audio. I’ll check around.