* It’s been reported that Sen. Bill Brady lobbied the House Republicans hard against borrowing to make the state’s scheduled pension payments. Brady has called the governor’s pension borrowing idea “kicking the can down the road,” and “digging the hole deeper” for the state. And we’ve already pointed out that Sen. Brady actually has proposed borrowing to eventually balance the budget, despite his statements to the contrary.

But back in February, Brady outlined - you guessed it - a pension borrowing plan to Crain’s…

[Brady would] fill much of the existing $80-billion hole in the state’s pension plans by borrowing. The borrowing would be repaid by allotting much of the natural growth in state revenues to pension debt service, he says.

Yesterday, Gov. Pat Quinn’s campaign issued this statement about Brady’s denial that he’d ever supported a ten percent across the board budget cut when he clearly had…

“It’s important for voters to ask: Is this someone who doesn’t comprehend his own budget proposal? Or is it that Sen. Brady simply cannot recall his numerous statements about the budget over the past five months?”

Brady’s lack of comprehension appears to apply to almost all of his major budget plans: Borrowing, pension borrowing and across the board cuts. Sheesh.

* Speaking of yesterday’s kerfuffle, my intern Dan Weber broke the story yesterday that Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady was contradicting himself on his previous support for a ten percent across the board state budget cut. Brady claimed during a media availability last week that he never supported an across the board cut and Dan pounced while other reporters let it go. He pressed Brady to admit that he had, in fact, supported an across the board budget cut. Brady challenged Dan to “find it on tape” and Dan did. He also found other quotes of Brady in news articles claiming that the GOP candidate did, indeed, support an across the board cut.

Well, Carol Marin led off her segment last night with Dan’s story, which she unfortunately attributed to me…

At least she got the news source right. The AP then picked it up without any attribution at all…

Bill Brady is taking issue with a politician’s comments on how to solve the state’s budget crisis. Problem is, that politician is himself.

Brady, the Republican candidate for Illinois governor, bristled last week when a reporter asked about his proposal for a 10 percent, across-the-board cut in state spending.

“I’ve never said ‘across the board.’ I’ve never said ‘across the board.’ You find it on tape,” the Bloomington state senator said.

In fact, Brady has called for “across the board” cuts on multiple occasions.

The AP is the media giant most upset with little ol’ bloggers rewriting their stories without attribution, yet here they do exactly the same thing as those hated Huffington Post aggregators, but don’t even provide a link. That’s outright theft in my book.

The Tribune also picked up Dan’s story and attributed it to Chicago Tonight, not Dan…

Republican governor candidate Bill Brady sought today to tamp down a flap over his plans for the state’s deficit-plagued budget after previously calling for 10 percent across-the-board cuts, then denying it.

“It’s how the question is framed. And I will admit it’s a matter of semantics,” Brady, a veteran state senator from Bloomington, said during an interview on WTTW-Ch. 11’s “Chicago Tonight.” “But what I simply say is that I have to reduce spending by 10 percent. No area of state government shall be (protected) from reduced spending. Pretty much it is every area.”

And the Sun-Times, which is usually good about crediting (mainly because they get to plug me as a Sun-Times columnist), said it all came from the governor’s campaign…

Quinn’s campaign wasted little time Monday digging up news clippings and a Jan. 13, 2010 video posted on Youtube.com in which Brady did just that.

Actually, the video they used in their online story was the same one Weber used, and it wasn’t from the governor’s campaign, it was posted months ago by Jeff Berkowitz’s guy.

The big boys really need to grow up and stop pretending that alternative media doesn’t exist and, therefore, is not deserving of any credit. I’ve dealt with this for 20 years, and now Dan is getting a little taste of it. I don’t think he’s enjoying it. Enough, already.

*** UPDATE *** Nice catch by Progress Illinois from Brady’s appearance on Chicago Tonight yesterday…

BRADY: I call for elimination of the State Board of Education: $80 million a year spent. … Now, I’d create a downsized department, so that we provide the necessary –

MARIN: So it wouldn’t be a total $80 million.

BRADY: No, but let’s say half — $40 million.

“Half” is not “eliminate.”

*** UPDATE 2 *** Zorn posts the entire transcript of the Chicago Tonight interview and notes how Brady twice tried to excuse his denials over ever saying he was for an across the board budget cut. Zorn’s conclusion…

Either Brady doesn’t know what “semantics” means or he’s a liar

Ouch.

* Related…

* Edgar isn’t sold on Quinn, Brady plans: Speaking of the Democratic and Republican candidates for the office he once held, former Gov. Jim Edgar said “both are right and both are wrong.” … “We are going to have to raise taxes,” Edgar said Monday night in a question-and-answer session at the McLean County Museum of History. “We have to do the cuts first and then increase taxes.” Edgar said the cuts will need to be “brutal.” “Everyone in this room is going to be mad if they are done right. It’s going to have to affect everyone.”

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