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Wednesday, Aug 6, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* It’s a pretty tiny buy, but the DCCC is reportedly spending $39,000 or $46,000 on this TV ad for Sen. Debbie Halvorson…

* Martin Ozinga’s campaign unleashed an attack on the ad that probably has all the negative talking points they’ll use in the campaign…

1. As hundreds of longtime civil servants were being laid off, Halvorson got her 23-year-old daughter a $40,000-per-year job with Rod Blagojevich.

2. As working families were struggling, Halvorson voted to raise her salary and Rod Blagojevich’s salary.

3. As electricity bills were set to skyrocket, Halvorson opposed the electric rate freeze after taking $20,000 from the big utility companies.

4. As voters were demanding ethics in government, Halvorson voted to forgive her own campaign finance fines that she had received for violating election law.

5. As taxpayers were being squeezed, Halvorson accepted illegal campaign contributions from a taxpayer-funded park district.

6. As Illinois was reeling from Rod Blagojevich’s failed agenda, Halvorson stood with Blagojevich every single time to curry his favor and climb the political ladder. She voted for his job-killing Gross Receipts Tax, opposed and bottled up the ethics reform bill, sabotaged the recall amendment, and voted with him to raid veterans’ home funds.

Oy.

* The Politico comments…

It’s only the second ad the DCCC has aired so far this election. The decision to go up so early with a positive spot suggests that Halvorson’s campaign could use a re-branding. She’s been taking her share of hits – fueled by the state GOP – for her connections to ethically-troubled Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

* Notice that the ad never mentions her experience as an Illinois state senator or her Majority Leader job…

“The Middle Class is getting squeezed. Debbie Halvorson knows we’re working harder and getting less, that’s why she led the fight to lower prescription drug costs for Illinois seniors, and Halvorson helped give thousands of children and working families affordable health insurance. Now she wants to take our fight to Congress. She’ll take on George Bush’s Policies. And bring common sense back to our government. Debbie Halvorson, a fighter for us.”

* The very early DCCC spending and the possible “rebranding” could mean some polling weaknesses, particularly against Martin Ozinga. Back to the Politico piece…

Her opponent, GOP concrete magnate, Marty Ozinga has already been up with two television ads of his own defining himself as an independent politician.

* And Ozinga’s campaign is slamming Halvorson for her fundraiser tonight with embattled Congresscritter Charlie Rangel, and mixes in the House GOP “debate” on oil prices…

How can Debbie Halvorson claim – with a straight face – that she’s looking out for the middle class if she’s happily lapping up campaign cash from the same people who have shut down Congress while working families are struggling with high gas prices?

Halvorson has never demonstrated a penchant for standing up to Rod Blagojevich or big-money special interests in the state Senate. But we remain optimistic she’ll do the right thing in this case – an election tends to bring out the best in politicians with guilty consciences.

One thing is certain: If Debbie Halvorson doesn’t find the courage to stand up for working families now, then she needs to find something else – a job other than “Representative.”

* Meanwhile, what does it say about our national political discourse when a woman best known for a leaked porn video releases a mock political ad that’s more statespersonlike than either presidential candidate? [Just kidding… kinda]

* And what does this say about our national reporters?….

After this morning’s campaign event here with Sen. Barack Obama, this state’s junior senator [Sen. Evan Bayh, who has been suggested as a possible running mate for Obama] lingered to shake hands with supporters and graciously took a couple questions from this reporter….

What did you pick up from the body language today?

“I don’t know how to comment on that. I’m not an expert on body language,” he said.

Body language? I hope that was snark.

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Dumped into the street

Wednesday, Aug 6, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* As I told you yesterday, next week’s special sessions will not address the recent budget cuts…

Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero said the governor does not intend for lawmakers to take up the $1.4 billion in state budget cuts he made last month during this session.

“Unless they find the funding, there’s nothing much more to do with the budget,” Guerrero said.

* Perhaps the most controversial of all the governor’s budget vetoes was his slashing of funding for alcohol and drug treatment centers. Today’s SouthtownStar has a wonderful guest column by Hope Larkin Barzowski, a former resident and then employee of A Safe Haven, which is being forced to eject residents because of the cuts…

I came to A Safe Haven on July 28, 2005. I walked in the door of its Damen facility on Chicago’s North Side beat up and broken down. I had only the clothes on my back and nothing more. I was desperate for help with my alcohol and drugs addictions. I had been addicted to crack cocaine for eight years. I had been incarcerated several times on drug-related charges. I had been homeless - literally on the street - for more than seven months. A Safe Haven was the only facility in Chicago willing to take me in without any money in return.

Because of the government-funded program, I was able to stay for six months. I learned how to live without the use of drugs and alcohol. A Safe Haven put a roof over my head, clothes on my back and food in my stomach. It taught me stability, structure and self-discipline. […]

I worked there until August 2007, when I was offered a management position, at a much higher salary, at another company. This company was not in the recovery field, and it was very scary for me to leave A Safe Haven. However, I had the solid foundation I needed to go out into the world and make a new life for myself. […]

Because of A Safe Haven, I am now an upstanding, law-abiding, employed contributor to the community. I pay taxes, I pay rent, I pay bills, I have checking and savings accounts, I pay for everything I take out of the store, I own a car, furniture, clothes, electronics, appliances, etc., all of which stimulate our economy. I vote in every election. I am a trusted and loyal employee, wife, daughter, sister and aunt. People are proud of my accomplishments, and so am I. I still live in the south suburbs because my experience with the Alsip facility was so positive I didn’t want to leave the community.

* A Safe Haven is running a full-court press to try and convince people to pay attention to this issue. If you have any heart whatsoever, you should watch this video produced by the organization. I’d like to see Gov. Rod Blagojevich tell this woman and her children who are being forced into a homeless shelter why he cut that funding…

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A one-woman battering ram *** UPDATED x1 ***

Wednesday, Aug 6, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Earlier this week, Carol Marin interviewed Sen. Dick Durbin on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight…

“Is [Gov. Blagojevich] talking to you now, are you talking to him?” Marin asked.

“No,” said Durbin. “We have, maybe, once every two or three months he’ll call about something and I’m there to take the calls, but we have not had a close relationship.”

The two went on to talk about the stalled capital plan, and Durbin bitterly complained about the Springfield gridlock. [Hat tip: PI]

* Last night, Marin had a devastating take-down of Blagojevich’s “pay to play” politics on NBC 5, which isn’t yet online.

*** UPDATE *** Marin’s NBC 5 report is now online….

Marin wanted to take a closer look at who was giving and who was getting, so she looked at just one day in the governor’s fundraising life: June 17, 2008.

That night, at an unpublicized fundraiser, the governor’s campaign took in nearly $167,000. Of that total, $102,000 — about 60 percent — came from companies doing business with the state. On this day, they were mostly engineering firms.

“I think that we’ve seen a lot of trumped up contracts,” Canary said.

That night, 23 companies that have state contracts gave money to the governor.

* Then in today’s Sun-Times, Marin uses her column to take another whack at Blagojevich…

Remember Dudley Do-Right? The jut-jawed Canadian Mountie cartoon character on “Rocky and His Friends” and later, the subject of a 1999 Sarah Jessica Parker movie?

Dudley Do-Right had lots of hair and always got his man despite the cunning Snidely Whiplash’s efforts to do him in.

Gov. Blagojevich, as a Monday press conference proved, is now close to becoming that cartoon.

Asked by WTTW “Chicago Tonight” reporter Rich Samuels if he was going to sign the ethics bill that’s languishing on his desk, the governor declared he might take his amendatory veto pen to the legislation. With the slash of his mighty amendatory sword and the help of a goofy new slogan, Blago boldly declared he will, “Rewrite to Do Right.”

As state Rep. John Fritchey (D-Chicago) acidly told Samuels, when the General Assembly unanimously passed the measure out of both houses, lawmakers viewed the governor’s desk as a “final destination, not a suggestion box.” […]

But the governor needs to give up the games, abandon the “Rewrite to Do Right” nonsense, and sign the ethics bill before he walks into the special session he’s called for next week.

Say what you will about Dudley Do-Right being just a cartoon. At the end of the day, he got the job done.

And some people think I’m busy.

Discuss.

* Related…

* Tribune: Blagojevich should try a novel approach—stop sloganeering and just sign the ethics bill. That would help to build legislators’ trust in him, and build the public’s trust in the whole bunch in Springfield. Just sign it.

* Governor says he’ll rewrite bills to improve them

* Illinois ethics bill still awaits governor’s signature: Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago, a top House official who was in on the talks, said last week that such a move might soften some opposition to the plan, but she stopped short of agreeing to it. “One of the concerns is whether the governor is looking for a capital plan as a way of rewarding his friends,” she said. “Whether (signing the ethics bill) is enough to solve the problem of trust, I don’t know, but it’s a good first step.”

* Radogno: Blagojevich seems to think he’s ‘king’: Radogno said Blagojevich is egging on lawmakers he has feuded with by changing bills. She said it would be a misuse of authority if Blagojevich makes wholesale changes to bills that lawmakers didn’t intend when they passed them.

* State needs law against ‘pay to play’ now more than ever

* Frank Watson: There’s been some misinterpretation of what I’ve said. There was an editorial in the Champaign News-Gazette saying that I was tying this to the capital bill. That’s not what I said at the meeting at all. I said it’s the ethics concern that [the Senate Republicans] have, and I said [Blagojevich] ought to sign House Bill 824, and that would end some of the ethics concerns that we in the Senate have. I’m not tying ethics to capital. That’s what he said. He said he would sign the ethics bill if the capital bill passed. I said, ‘You ought to sign it now and put that issue behind us.’

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