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Daley blames Quinn for gay marriage failure

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Illinois

* Bill Daley has a new “Issues” section on his updated campaign website. Here’s some of his take on gay marriage…

One of the most unjust failures of Governor Quinn administration is the failure of Illinois to pass Marriage Equality, even though we have big Democratic majorities in both the State Senate and House.

Just days before the vote in the House, President Obama was in Chicago. Yet Governor Quinn failed to use this opportunity to have the President, a powerful voice on marriage equality, sit down with wavering legislators to get the votes we need to join 13 other states who have passed laws that recognize the simple idea that love is love.

I’m not sure you can blame that all on Quinn. Daley was Obama’s former chief of staff, as was Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who said gay marriage was one of his top three legislative priorities this year.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 9:29 am

Comments

Kind of a stretch…but Daley is doing the right thing here. Almost impossible to win a Democratic Primary against an incumbent without getting to his left on some key issues. That gonna be real hard for Daley to do, but he’s gotta try.

Comment by Frank Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 9:41 am
It’s a very fair statement. When you are the Governor, you ought to be expected to lead.

Comment by Pat C Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 9:49 am
Total nonsense…Quinn stuck his neck out on this issue and ticked off the Catholic Church hierarchy in doing so. This is not the reason for gay marriage failure in IL. This complex issue in IL has been discussed here many times. Oversimplification Bill…

Comment by Loop Lady Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 9:49 am
I agree that most the state’s Democratic leadership phoned it in on this issue.

The exceptions are Cullerton and the Dems in the Senate who actually did the heavy lifting, to their eternal credit.

The rest of them — Quinn, Lisa Madigan, MJM, Preckwinkle, Durbin, Emanuel, Obama, the Congressmen — barely made a peep, much less an effort, as far as I can tell.

Daley can include himself in that do-nothing crowd, as well. He’s been a player for decades. It it were a priority for him like, say, a phone rate increase, he would have been working it.

Comment by wordslinger Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 9:49 am
Isn’t Daley the same guy who got shuffled out of the picture in Obama’s administration because he was so bad at dealing with Congress? It sure takes a lot of nerve and amnesia on Daley’s part to criticize Quinn when it comes to working with legislators.

Comment by David P. Graf Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 9:51 am
Bill Daley and Rahm could have made this call to the President a lot quicker and easier than Pat Quinn. Why didn’t they? Or did they and the idea of pitting local reps against a strong lobby of their strong supporters in pulpits wasn’t strategically where the President wanted to be. Gay marriage didn’t pass because of the roll call among Chicago legislators. Now it comes down to blocking and tackling one at a time to get the votes. DC is far away from the real battlefield. We’ll see if Daley’s criticism holds up, but last I saw Quinn was begging for a vote on this.

Comment by A guy... Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 9:54 am
I’m not sure how that’s an “issue” difference between the two. They both agree on the policy: marriage equality. The problem was the execution of leadership. Therein lies the problem for Daley in this thing. They agree on everything. There should be an intangibles section like they use in college basketball graphics for this kind of stuff.

Comment by Lord Stanley's Cup Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 9:55 am
Once BankerBilly finally gets a WH brief on what actually happened he might stop invoking the president…..But blaming PQ is fun too

Comment by CircularFiringSquad Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 9:58 am
How many times do we need to invoke The President to get involved in a Springfield issue? It’s sort of a ridiculous premise actually.

Comment by siriusly Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 9:58 am
It is pretty easy to call anything an ‘unjust failure’ especially if you want that person’s job and you have zero responsibility to do anything except point out what ’should’ happen. If the issue was so unjust why didn’t Daley and Emmanuel get Obama together with the gay community leadership for some TV time and meetings with GA members. They could have then used that as an example on how to get things done. Instead he had someone update the ‘Issues’ website. Now that is tough work.

Comment by zatoichi Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 9:59 am
This is sort of a ridiculous charge. You could say that Quinn hampered the process by going over the heads of Madigan and Harris and saying that “the votes were there” and “call a vote.” They clearly weren’t there, and Harris is the first to admit it. Quinn’s toxicity in the legislature probably contributed to that fact.

But you can’t say that he wasn’t out in public supporting this issue. Quinn’s standing in the LGBT community is still rock solid, and that means big money for him.

Comment by Empty Chair Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 10:00 am
Graf is exactly right. Daley’s strength peaked when he led the passage of NAFTA in the 90’s. The political world has changed since then, and Daley’s diminished influence was obvious during his flaccid year at CoS to POTUS. Passing NAFTA was no small feat. Daley had to convince people, union and non union, that leveling the playing fieldin North America was necessary to keep a level playing field with entities like the EU. He had to convince skeptics that the agreement would not cause jobs to flee to Mexico. It was a gamble, and it demonstrated Daley’s ability to bring organized labor to its knees. I suppose this will be a critical piece of Daley’s pension reform plan. If this is the case, he has a strong argument that he is the right man for the job.

Comment by anon Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 10:03 am
- barely made a peep, much less an effort -

Word, the Governor did considerably more than that, including offering capital projects. If you’ll recall, it prompted a “Hell no” from Sacia, I believe.

You’re right about the others, but the Governor and his staff worked the issue hard.

Comment by Small Town Liberal Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 10:10 am
Gee if Daley gets elected will President Obama get involved in pension negotiations?

Comment by Obama's Puppy Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 10:22 am
Loop Lady has it right….too much demonization on this issue without reflection.

Comment by Liberty First Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 10:24 am
Question, if it had passed, how much credit do you think Quinn would be taking for that? Seems fair that the reverse works.

Comment by bobby dylan Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 10:27 am
Even if asked, would Obama have gotten involved?

Comment by Just Observing Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 10:31 am
If Daley’s gonna have any shot in a primary, he has to convince liberals that Pat Quinn is incapable of advancing their agenda. He can argue a real leader in the Governor’s office would have been able to do the behind the scenes work with the legislature to get SSM passed.

Comment by Frank Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 10:52 am
I wonder when Daley will begin taking credit for killing Bin Laden?

Comment by anon Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 10:57 am
Of course Quinn deserves some of the blame, but there is a lot to go around.

It is a legitimate issue as is Quinn’s overall failure to lead.

Will Daley do any better? Could he do any worse? Is it time for Quinn to run on the “sorry I screwed up. This was a practice term. I promise to work real hard and do better next time, so please, one more chance” platfom?

Those are the real issues.

Comment by Skeeter Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 11:03 am
I sincerely doubt 24 months ago Daley had anything remotely pleasant to say about gay marriage + doubt he’s championed anything for that community ever in his career. This like a lot of his shtick is naked late career political opportunism.

Comment by shore Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 11:04 am
If BankerBilly gets elected will CHI get a casino?

Comment by CircularFiringSquad Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 11:14 am
I agree with Daley. Quinn kept on calling for a vote, even though the votes were not there.

Comment by Lovey Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 11:32 am
He has to convince liberals of a lot more than that.

Comment by Chavez-respecting Obamist Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 11:48 am
“Isn’t Daley the same guy who got shuffled out of the picture in Obama’s administration because he was so bad at dealing with Congress?”

That’s the guy. Its amazing that more people don’t know what a failure he was in a highly political job. Not much of a resume. He and Quinn are both proven losers as political leaders.

Comment by wishbone Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 12:14 pm
Oh give me a break. Bill Daley needs to come up with a real issue and take a stand. There are plenty to choose from. You simply can’t blame PQ for the failure of marriage. I’ve got a nice list and PQ barely cracks the Top 10.

Comment by Chicago Cynic Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 1:30 pm
It’s funny–I was out with a bunch of friends Saturday night, and the governor’s race came up. Out of the 10 people there, all of us said unless something changes drastically,we’re all voting for Quinn.

Comment by Chavez-respecting Obamist Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 2:55 pm
zatoichi@ 9:59 — It is pretty easy to call anything an ‘unjust failure’ especially if you want that person’s job and you have zero responsibility to do anything except point out what ’should’ happen.–

Are you talking about Daley or Quinn?

Comment by Anon. Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 3:16 pm
It should be noted that Illinois in one of the few states that passed a civil unions bill. This bill was signed by Governor Pat Quinn.

Comment by Ruby Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 4:44 pm
CRO,

Among my friends (all of whom write checks to Dems) none of them will be voting for Quinn.
That’s not completely correct. Two will and they have very specific reasons.

Some non-voters and a few who might go for the GOP depending on the nominee.

That being said, I suspect CRO’s friends may be closer to the norm than my own.

Unless there is a third candidate, I don’t see Quinn losing and I don’t see the GOP nominating a moderate.

I expect to under-vote next November.

Comment by Skeeter Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 4:50 pm
Daley is off the mark on this one. Quinn’s commitment to equal marriage is strong AND he brought votes to the bill.

Comment by Rick Garcia Tuesday, Aug 6, 13 @ 10:03 am