* Kerry Lester was the lone reporter at this presser yesterday…

Within the last week, a top member of Illinois House Republican leadership abruptly resigned from the legislature and Gov. Bruce Rauner signed into law a birth control bill many of his fellow GOP members opposed.

But suburban House and Senate Republicans presented a unified front Monday at Schaumburg Township Republican offices as they called for the passage of a term limits proposal that, while politically popular, is unlikely to pass the Democratic-controlled General Assembly.

Republicans state Sen. Michael Connelly of Wheaton and Dan McConchie of Hawthorn Woods joined state representatives Jeannie Ives of Wheaton, Mark Batinick of Plainfield and Christine Winger of Wood Dale, along with a number of Republicans challenging sitting Democratic lawmakers, for the midday news conference where party staffers far outnumbered members of the media.

Flanked by large poster showing former President Richard Nixon and House Speaker Michael Madigan side by side, Gurnee Republican Mike Amrozowicz, who is challenging Democratic Sen. Melinda Bush of Grayslake Nov. 8, pointed out that Nixon had yet to be impeached, the Sears Tower was still under construction and gas was 36 cents a gallon when Madigan, a Chicago Democrat, was first elected to the state House in 1971.

* The Nixon-Madigan poster…

* But check out the long, pregnant pause when Lester asked the Republicans if the governor was “not listening to the Republican caucus in the House and Senate” after signing that controversial “Right of Conscience” bill on Friday. “Well, he certainly didn’t listen to us on that vote,” said Rep. Jeannie Ives after several seconds of awkward silence…