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· David Phelps on Rod Blagojevich: “When he is re-elected, there will be a mass exodus of Republicans from the state payroll.”
· You can find the 100-plus page jury instructions for the George Ryan trial here. Be warned, this is a large pdf file. The last 8 pages or so is the jury voting checkoff list.
· Southside Irish Parade spectators cheer as Dan Lipinski’s parade float burns. Very funny little tidbit.
· Chuck Goudie writes about Rick Garcia and the hate commission. Meanwhile, Askia Muhammad defends Farrakhan and Sister Claudette Marie Muhammad: “Farrakhan does not hate Jewish people. He does not teach hatred of Jews.”
· Yard sign wars continue in Proviso Township.
· ArchPundit has more on that Weller office quote about the African-American vote.
· Good column about Cicero politics by Ray Hanania.
· Belleville News-Democrat whacks Blagojevich again.
· Klau hires Parrillo. Great move.
· I missed the parade this year, and after reading this story I’m really bummed about my mistake.
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Mar 13, 06 @ 1:14 pm
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Previous Post: Gun shop, convicted felon got loans from state treasurer candidate’s bank
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I was just commenting yesterday evening (shortly before we were hit by those tornados), about how impressive Mr. Parrillo’s work is.
Congratulations to Rick and Jake… Keep up the good work.
Comment by Aakash Monday, Mar 13, 06 @ 2:00 pm
I take my hat off to Illinois Auditor General William Holland. It appears that this state agency under his direction “gets down to the niddy griddy” and doesn’t care about political affiliations or lack of.
I don’t believe that Holland is targeting Blago’s administration with audits, I believe that it is apart of his job to audit state agencies, boards and commissions and his office just so happens to do an ethical job of auditing.
Now we need William Holland to fill his position with someone like himself and move to one of the Constitutional Offices.
Man wouldn’t we see changes in Illinois government.
Comment by ONE M.C.M.A.D Monday, Mar 13, 06 @ 2:12 pm
David Phelps just said what a lot of people knew all along.When you saw people with 10 t0 20 years experience fired as soon as Blago was sworen in and replaced with people who had no idea what planet they were on-it had to be political.When the Repubs took over 25 years ago Democrats that were there and experienced were kept.
Comment by DOWNSTATE Monday, Mar 13, 06 @ 2:20 pm
I wonder if the Lipinski engine fire is an ominous sign for next Tuesday? Is it true that Bill Lipinski had a new engine shipped in from Tennessee, installed by the local committeemen from the district, which allowed Lipper to finish the parade?
Comment by John Lee Pettimore Monday, Mar 13, 06 @ 2:26 pm
The former Congressman just gave Blagojevich’s successor a perfectly valid non-political reason to fire him about five minutes after the Governor is inaugurated in January. No wonder this guy lost to Shimkus in 2002!
Comment by Randall Sherman Monday, Mar 13, 06 @ 3:21 pm
“Let’s here it for the working man….everybody give the man a hand.” Let’s start by removing Dave Phelps from state government. You can find him singing karoake on the weekends.
Comment by scoot Monday, Mar 13, 06 @ 3:30 pm
This portion of Goudie’s article merits repeating…
“Garcia tells me that indeed he has ‘called Francis Cardinal George a bigot because of his opposition to the basic civil rights of gay people and his opposition to the civil recognition of same-sex marriage. I stand by that charge.’
Garcia promises to ’stop calling him a bigot’ on one condition: ‘If the cardinal promotes a constitutional ban on divorce, a constitutional ban on artificial contraception and promotes legislation that only allows civil recognition of marriages recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, then I will stop calling him a bigot.’â€
Comment by Kankakee Dem Monday, Mar 13, 06 @ 3:48 pm
Sigh. Mr. Phelps may be a top Blago aide but he doesn’t seem to understand much about the state personnel system.
The vast majority of state employees are unionized and therefore protected by union contract, meaning that they have lifetime employment. They can be laid off, but that
is a complex and difficult process.
Most merit compensation, non-union employees, including mc managers, are covered by civil service rules and also have lifetime employment.
Then there are mid-level management employees who are on four year terms. During their terms they can’t be fired either. At the end of their terms, they can be let go for any reason or no reason.
However, there are very few four year or “term” employees left who weren’t appointed or reappointed by Blago. Only those appointed in 2002, the last Ryan year, could be considered Ryan holdovers. I doubt there are a huge number, although their jobs could be a source of Dem patronage between now and the election as their terms come “due” and they can be replaced with Dem-sponsored candidates.
Finally, there are the high level agency and guv’s office employees work at the will of the governor. They tend to come and go with the governor and generally don’t see themselves as career civil service…they aren’t.
State government is a pork farm nevertheless and many agencies are grossly overstaffed with managers both civil-service and non-civil service. Because it’s virtually impossible to get rid of most of them unless they want to go, the concept of a lean, highly qualified civil service is a pipe dream in Illinois.
Comment by Cassandra Monday, Mar 13, 06 @ 4:04 pm
Unfortunately, several of Blago recent hires in our District have been transferred over to Union positions after their 6 month probationary period was over. They came in as liaisons, traffic safety employees, assistants or temporary employees only to be transferred to permanent positions. What a joke and a shame – they have less experience and education yet they make more money then long time employees.
Comment by girl friday Monday, Mar 13, 06 @ 5:50 pm
Maybe Mr. Phelps was referring to another Early Retirement Incentive to buy the experienced people off (some of whom are card-carrying Republicans, but the vast majority of whom are probably apolitical or lukewarm politically). That way, Mr. Phelps could have lots of positions to fill with inexperienced hacks, the old-timers would be happy with their new pensions, and the administration wouldn’t need to worry about civil service lawsuits.
Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Monday, Mar 13, 06 @ 7:16 pm
interesting … in a Trib article JBT is quoted as saying:
“For a person running for governor, or at any time, you don’t compare people to livestock. I know he’s got a thing about cows. But he ought to stick to cows,” she said of Oberweis, who owns a namesake dairy.
Though when she addressed the Representative Assembly of the Illinois Education Assocation on Friday her parting words were:
“Remember, the rooster may crow, but the hen delivers” …
Would roosters we considered livestock?
Hmmm.
Comment by YNM Monday, Mar 13, 06 @ 7:58 pm