* 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.
* The time off from work was going swimmingly until I made the mistake of checking the Intertubes this afternoon…
A black Hillary Clinton delegate on Sunday accused state Senate President Emil Jones of calling her an “Uncle Tom.”
Jones — Barack Obama’s political mentor — denied using the racially loaded slur against Chicago political consultant Delmarie Cobb, but two aldermen who said they witnessed the Saturday night exchange back up Cobb’s account.
“Last night, I was called an ‘Uncle Tom’ by Emil Jones in the lobby of the hotel, right in front of [Ald.] Freddrenna Lyle and [Ald.] Leslie Hairston and [Ald.] Latasha Thomas,” said Cobb, a member of Clinton’s Illinois Steering Committee. “I walked over to him and asked him, ‘What did you just call me?’ ” […]
Lyle, alderman of the South Side’s 6th Ward, said she was standing with Jones when the conversation took place in the lobby of the hotel where the Illinois delegation is staying, but she dismissed it as Jones engaging in harmless banter with someone he knows, although Lyle said she told him, “Emil, that’s bad even for you.”
The chief of Illinois’ National Organization for Women chapter today called on Barack Obama’s “political godfather” to resign immediately from the Illinois state Senate for calling an African-American Hillary Clinton delegate an “Uncle Tom.”
“That was a pretty horrible comment,” said Illinois NOW president Bonnie Grabenhofer, also a Clinton delegate, who issued the demand for Senate President Emil Jones’ resignation. […]
“I’ve never heard anything as awful or as sexist or as racist as to call her that for supporting Hillary,” said Clinton delegate Gay Bruhn, another NOW member in Illinois who called for a public apology from Jones.
* Larry believes this doesn’t sound like something Emil Jones would say.
I beg to differ. Jones has often referred to African-American Illinois House members as “House n—-rs” for following House Speaker Michael Madigan, who is white, instead of doing what Jones believes is right for the black community.
Larry does make this point, however…
What is missing is that Bruhn isn’t just another NOW member, she’s [Illinois NOW president Bonnie Grabenhofer’s] partner. That would be mentioned in any story referring to a heterosexual couple. So the story misses the context and treats same sex couples differently.
* Patterson interviewed Delmarie Cobb and it’s clear that she is not exactly an unbiased source…
“So when I tell that story he comes over to me and he said, ‘There were 35,000 in Springfield (for Obama’s introduction of vice presidential pick Joe Biden) 35,000 people in Springfield’
“I said, ‘Well that doesn’t mean anything, just that 35,000 more people drank the Kool-Aid.’
“I said, ‘See, he will not let this alone.’ I said, ‘What are you signifying.’
“He said, ‘I’m not signifying.’
“I said, ‘Oh, they’ve got another name for it now?’
“I said, ‘Why can’t you be gracious in victory as I am gracious in defeat?’” [emphasis added]
Cobb and at least two Chicago aldermen told friends that Jones made the “Uncle Tom” reference after a back-and-forth with the Senate president that started lightheartedly.
* And I doubt all of them could have misheard Jones…
Jones, himself an African-American, maintained Delmarie Cobb, a longtime Chicago public relations executive, misunderstood a comment in which he said it was time for those who continue to back the New York senator and former first lady to stop being “Doubting Thomases” and rally around Obama.
“She walked away and I said, ‘All you Doubting Thomases have to get on board,” Jones said of his discussion with Cobb over the weekend. “She turned around and said, ‘You called us?’ and I said, ‘No. That’s not so.’ I thought it was all over with. She just caught the last word of what I said. People make mistakes.”
* As is my custom, I won’t be attending either national party convention. The Capitol Fax and the blog will be on hiatus next week, but I’ll keep an eye on things and write or post if something important happens. Doubtful.
* I see at least three possible reasons behind this free reception during the Democratic National Convention…
1) The governor has been shut out of just about every other public event, so he’s using Duckworth’s speaking role at the convention to glom a bit of attention;
2) This is yet another hint that the governor may appoint Duckworth to Obama’s Senate seat if Obama wins, which, of course, will attract more people to the party and give him a bit more attention;
3) He’s justifiably proud of his appointment of Duckworth to head the state’s veterans agency and wants to help showcase her talents in Denver.
I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and choose “3″ because I’m so nice.
* Rep. John Fritchey predicts that Gov. Blagojevich will use his amendatory veto power to “Rewrite to Do Right” the ethics bill next week. The deadline for action is a week from today…
I’m guessing that you AV the bill while everybody is focused on the Democratic Convention, while most of the major political reporters who are familiar with the story are half a country away, and while stories of Barack’s nomination are taking up most of the media space. I’ll even predict a Thursday or even Friday announcement of his action, so as to provide for maximum story burial potential, under the shadow of Barack’s acceptance speech.
So while many Illinois Democrats hope to ride Barack’s coattails, it looks like the Governor will try to hide behind them. It may be a good political move, but a profile in courage it isn’t.
We’ll see what happens. He might AV the thing today or tomorrow, which would really get buried.
JERRY KELLMAN: The Chicago native hired Obama in the early 1980s as a community organizer for Chicago’s Developing Communities Project and is often cited as a mentor to Obama.
TOM BALANOFF: The president of the Illinois Service Employees International Union also burnishes Obama’s labor credentials. Balanoff has praised Obama’s votes against trade deals such as the Central America Free Trade Agreement. […]
REP. JESSE JACKSON JR.: The son of the civil rights activist has represented the Chicago area since a special election in 1995 and is a national co-chairman of Obama’s presidential campaign. In 2004, Jackson was an early supporter of Sen. John Kerry for his party’s presidential nomination. Party leaders say Jackson’s speech will “tell Barack Obama’s life story.” […]
LISA MADIGAN: Illinois’ attorney general has at times been mentioned as a candidate to replace Obama in the U.S. Senate for the remaining two years of his term if he wins the presidency.
DAN HYNES: Like Madigan, Illinois’ comptroller has been mentioned as a possible Obama successor in the Senate. Hynes unsuccessfully challenged Obama for the 2004 Democratic Senate nomination but has since been a major Illinois supporter of Obama’s.
ALEXI GIANNOULIAS: The Illinois treasurer was backed by Obama, an endorsement that helped the banking heir win his seat. In return, Giannoulias helped Obama win support among Greek voters in the Chicago area and has raised more than $250,000 for Obama.
MIGUEL DEL VALLE: Chicago’s city clerk rounds out Monday’s group of Illinois officials talking up the candidate from their home state.
People planning to attend Barack Obama’s pre-convention appearance in Springfield on Saturday should be ready to be patient.
“We’re going to be very patient, and we ask that they do the same,” said Eric Pingolt, Secret Service resident-agent-in-charge for an 85-county region of downstate Illinois. “We’re going to get people into the event, but it’s going to be in a secure manner.”
The leaders of that group include: Rock Island County board chair Jim Bohnsack, former U.S. Rep. Terry Bruce, CEO of Illinois Eastern Community Colleges, and Madison County Board President Alan Dunstan.
“Will that be the motto: ‘Come to my university. Drink as much as you can as long as you pay your tuition’? … Do you think you send your son or daughter to come home as an alcoholic? … That’s a bad message … I’m sorry. You have enough time to drink the rest of your life,”Daley said
“Any candidate or elected official who is serious about reducing our reliance on foreign oil has to support the expansion of nuclear power,” Sauerberg said. “There is no realistic path to energy independance in the near future that does not include nuclear power.”
To keep its retail prospects alive, New Lenox officials will ask voters to give the village home rule powers. They pinned their hopes on a special census conducted last year, but it appears they have fallen short by about 1,000 people of the 25,000 needed to automatically become a home rule unit.
