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* I told subscribers this morning that after Speaker Madigan objected to all the governor’s recent negative press releases about him, the press releases stopped.

Maybe I shoulda kept my mouth shut. This just landed in my inbox…

What They’re Saying about Speaker Madigan’s Refusal to Compromise or Reform

State Journal-Register:

Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner has said he needs some indication by Sunday that Democrats are serious about taking up his reform agenda. Rauner last week zeroed in on workers’ compensation reform and property tax relief as two absolute priorities.

The governor said he has taken numerous items from his “turnaround agenda” off the table over the past few weeks during discussions with lawmakers. For example, he did not include creation of local right-to-work zones in a package of five proposals Republican legislative leaders introduced a week ago on his behalf.

Despite that, Rauner said Democrats have been unwilling to engage in serious negotiations about other parts of his agenda.

Peoria Journal Star:

Indeed, if there has been a theme in this session of the Legislature, it is majority Democrats under the leadership of Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton rejecting one plank after another of Rauner’s “Turnaround Agenda.”

Champaign News-Gazette:

The Democrats’ disappointment at losing the governor’s office last November as well as 12 straight years of one-party rule is understandable. But the voters’ decision to put Rauner in the chief executive’s post gives him something to say about the affairs of state.

The power in state government is divided now; compromise is required. Instead, there is a standoff while Madigan waits for Rauner to capitulate.

Illinois is at a crossroads. Will it change its fiscally irresponsible ways or cling desperately to a status quo approach that has reduced it to effective bankruptcy.

A big, potentially ugly fight looms, but it’s a fight worth having.

Chicago Tribune:

A note to Gov. Bruce Rauner…

Madigan and Cullerton scold you for pitting your demands for tort, worker’s comp and other reforms against their demands for high spending. Their minions keep whining that the budget process is sacrosanct — you shouldn’t use it as a tool. The paradox is that, for decades, they’ve used the budget as their tool for rewarding and punishing and getting their way.But, as of 2015, a budget can’t be leveraged? Is that so.

Many reforms you propose make sense to voters. One example: paying public employees more, but tying their raises to the quality and scope of their performance, not on how long they keep breathing and coming to work. Let Madigan and Cullerton explain why this and your other ideas are cruel and unreasonable…

You may be the last, best chance to protect that future by restoring growth. By restoring Illinois’ prosperous past.

The Madigan-Cullerton strategy here couldn’t be clearer: to obstruct any and all reforms, to vilify you for four years, and to install some malleable flunky in the governor’s office.

Their strategy, though, is also their weakness: They’re always angling for position, always wanting something.

You, Governor, are free to keep calm and stand pat. How liberating to answer only to the voters who sent you.

To want nothing, that is, but to revive the moribund Illinois of Mike Madigan, John Cullerton and … their followers.

Belleville News Democrat:

The people of Illinois know all about broken processes. That’s why they elected Rauner – to fix those processes, not to play along.

posted by Rich Miller
Sunday, May 31, 15 @ 11:42 am

Comments

These reporters must be smoking weed.

Comment by Mama Sunday, May 31, 15 @ 11:46 am
WOW…is that 20+ million for others also?
Did rauner buy a few newspapers while I was asleep last night?

Comment by jazzy Sunday, May 31, 15 @ 11:54 am
Wow. Five Republican newspapers criticized Democrats.

Rauner’s press operation is really humming along.

Madigan must be trembling.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Sunday, May 31, 15 @ 11:55 am
===Madigan must be trembling===

I think you’re giving him too much credit here.

I mean, if the press releases weren’t stinging him, why did he complain so loudly to the governor about it?

Comment by Rich Miller Sunday, May 31, 15 @ 11:57 am
At some point, Rauner will need a budget.

This puffery by the papers won’t explain away…

… a Governor’s firm belief superstars deserve $250K from an agency that cut Autism funding on Autism Awareness Day because the state is “broke”…

Comment by Oswego Willy Sunday, May 31, 15 @ 11:57 am
Give more to the rich and less to the working middle class is the Rauner way.

Rauner has no leverage and he is quickly finding this out.

Comment by SallyD Sunday, May 31, 15 @ 12:00 pm
These reporters must be smoking weed.

(Except for the first one) they’re opinion columns and editorial board think-pieces. Most of the reporters covering Springfield are very conscientious about carefully gathering and relaying the facts. The editorial boards pontificating about Springfield are all too often much less rigorous.

– MrJM

Comment by MrJM Sunday, May 31, 15 @ 12:01 pm
If Madigan is agitated by comments like that, wait until there are a few thousand gross ratings points per week and direct mail pieces into suburban and downstate districts behind it.
Pout it on, Governor Rauner!

Comment by In the Know Sunday, May 31, 15 @ 12:08 pm
Granted, these are opinion pieces. Seeking compromise is laudable. But the issues are not equal value checkers, to be traded one for you, one for me. Rauners issues are,by and large, anathema to the dems. Yeah, he beat pat quinn. So LEAD, dont dictate. These editorials fail to recognize the pros but also the serious negatives of what rauner wants. They do a disservice to their readership.

Comment by Langhorne Sunday, May 31, 15 @ 12:12 pm
==The Madigan-Cullerton strategy here couldn’t be clearer: to obstruct any and all reforms, to vilify you for four years, and to install some malleable flunky in the governor’s office.==

Yep, because Madigan and Cullerton were so in love with Pat Quinn. Bless their hearts.

Comment by Ducky LaMoore Sunday, May 31, 15 @ 12:19 pm
FYI, I just heard a pro-union radio ad bashing right-to-work, Indiana, etc. on WYMG about 11:45AM…

Comment by IBE Sunday, May 31, 15 @ 12:38 pm
Madigan has been called a Chessmaster many times on this blog, and elsewhere. Maybe the game has changed to Russian Roulette.

Comment by Anonymous Sunday, May 31, 15 @ 12:50 pm
This is just a campaign - everything from the trite statements to the format of this release. Endless campaigning. Please please please start governing - they are two different things.

Comment by haverford Sunday, May 31, 15 @ 12:51 pm
@Mama, smoking weed doesn’t turn you into Republican mouthpiece…

@IBE, radio ads are very cheap.

Comment by MurMan Sunday, May 31, 15 @ 12:54 pm
–
If Madigan is agitated by comments like that, wait until there are a few thousand gross ratings points per week and direct mail pieces into suburban and downstate districts behind it.
–

I don’t understand this. I get a mailer about Madigan being unreasonable — now, this summer. What do I do with that? I’m not voting for Madigan. I’m not even voting for Rauner.

What I do is look at the person sending these mailers: why are you bothering me in the summer? Why are sending me this stuff when there’s not a election in two weeks? I look at the sender as being ultra-extreme, ultra-partisan.

I’ve been through this recently with Rauner v. Quinn. I don’t want fingers blaming. I want the people I just voted for to actually do something. If you’re going to campaign during a non-campaign season, I’m gonna think: “For cripes sake. Stop campaigning, start working. I work at my job. Work at yours.”

Comment by Macbeth Sunday, May 31, 15 @ 12:55 pm
I guess we all should have expected this — Gov. is a “superstar” with superstar ego to go along with it. Some mousy little compromise budget isn’t going to make it for him. You can’t crush the union if you compromise with them. He reminds me of a short-lived agency director we got handed who decided he was going to stake his reputation on “rooting out corruption” at our agency. There was nothing we could do to please the guy who was laser focused on finding that imaginary corruption. He sat around in his office paging people and timing how long it took to get back to him. Then he was done. Too bad recall wouldn’t work today.

Comment by kimocat Sunday, May 31, 15 @ 12:58 pm
===I don’t understand this. I get a mailer about Madigan being unreasonable===

LOL

That ain’t gonna be the message.

Comment by Rich Miller Sunday, May 31, 15 @ 1:06 pm
===I don’t understand this. I get a mailer about Madigan being unreasonable

LOL
===

What, they’re gonna blame the employees? The employees are unreasonable?

It doesn’t matter what the message is. It doesn’t matter how often the message appears. What matters is that it’s going on now, this week or next week, in the summer.

It’ll backfire on Rauner — times 10.

Comment by Macbeth Sunday, May 31, 15 @ 1:11 pm
BTW — sure — it’s funny. I’m not in the know. I get it. What do I know?

What I know is that I vote. And I know that I expect compromise — from both side. Madigan ought to give Rauner some stuff. I got no problems with that.

But it’s funny because the message is gonna be so much worse than Madigan is unreasonable? I don’t get it.

Comment by Macbeth Sunday, May 31, 15 @ 1:13 pm
==Five Republican newspapers criticized Democrats.
==

LOL…The SJ-R has been anything but a Republican newspaper the last 15 years.

Comment by Anonymous Sunday, May 31, 15 @ 1:14 pm
The short respite for the press staff is over evidently.

Comment by Norseman Sunday, May 31, 15 @ 1:17 pm
Hate to burst the bubble, but the complaints centered on the wisdom questioning honesty or integrity — not the press releases.

Pushing the editorials from papers that generally back GOPies, ignore a lot of facts (i.e. CNG “forgot” to mention BVR’s budget has a $3 billion gap) and lack the resources to really report much any (i.e. implosion of WI P3) is about as smart the thousands of hours wasted in the failed effort to push cities to vote for the non-budget issues.

Comment by Steve Brown Sunday, May 31, 15 @ 1:25 pm
The Turnaround Agenda is more appropriately named thr Runaround Agenda, which, far from turning around anything, instead accelerates the destruction of the middle class in this state, while increasing the redistribution of wealth to Rauner and his buds that are financing his soon-to-be-employed propaganda blitz.

Comment by PublicServant Sunday, May 31, 15 @ 1:31 pm
Amazing that the editorial writers don’t know, or choose to ignore, that Governor Rauner has proposed a budget that is $3B out of balance, and needs more revenues to balance it ,just as much as the Dems do.

He has, just like the Dems, refused to commit to more spending cuts, or to admit we need more taxes to balance.

The biggest issues between them are not in the budget numbers themselves. How hard is that to understand?

Comment by walker Sunday, May 31, 15 @ 2:23 pm
In the Know @ 12:08pm:
= Pout it on, Governor Rauner! =

Although I’m sure that was a typo by the commenter, the Governor’s ad blitz could be perceived that way…

Comment by cover Sunday, May 31, 15 @ 2:44 pm
Rather than senseless editorials from the uninformed let’s listen to a smart conversation between the Speaker and 2 reporters
http://wgnradio.com/2015/05/31/michael-j-madigan-all-we-need-is-moderation/

Comment by Anonin' Sunday, May 31, 15 @ 2:51 pm
If Madigan wanted “moderation”, he should’ve used some in drawing these districts.

Comment by In the Know Sunday, May 31, 15 @ 3:21 pm
=== … the complaints centered on the wisdom questioning honesty or integrity — not the press releases ===

You’re presuming there’s agreement on who’s being honest and acting with integrity. So far this session there hasn’t been much agreement on anything.

Comment by Norseman Sunday, May 31, 15 @ 3:27 pm
Rich:

After editorializing endlessly about the need for pension reform, one Democrat after another who stuck their necks out to vote for pension reform saw the Tribune endorse their GOP opponent.

And then, they all won anyway.

So, while I do think it is appropriate for the Speaker to personally raise the issue of how offensive the governor’s attacks are, that is much different than believing these editorials will change an election. Carol Ammons got 65% of the vote or something crazy like that, didn’t she?

Don’t get me wrong, it will be an ugly battle, but at the end of the day the Illinois economy is improving, a presidential election is coming, and Rauner is trying to convince Illinoisans that Democrats somehow blocked efforts to raise the income tax.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Sunday, May 31, 15 @ 6:32 pm
In the Know:

Thank you for another fine example of how detached from reality the Rauner Republicans are.

Rauner’s extremism has nothing to do with the legislative map. In fact, Rauner’s “Turnaround Agenda” is extremely right of most legislative Republicans. That why Rauner has resorted to a combination of threats and enticements to get them to toe the line.

Downstate Republicans are much more moderate than Rauner when it comes to labor issues and suburban lawmakers are much more moderate than Rauner when it comes to spending.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Sunday, May 31, 15 @ 7:58 pm