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* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…
The immediate partisan reaction to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s reversal on whether legislators should be allowed to get vaccinated during Phase 1B was fairly predictable.
“Gov. Pritzker is prioritizing young healthy felons and Springfield politicians over high-risk adults,” the Illinois Republican Party seethed.
However, no such press release was issued the week before when U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood, a 52-year-old Republican, cheerfully announced that he’d been vaccinated. And not a harsh word was uttered by the state GOP when federal prisoners received vaccinations during the Trump administration.
Senate Republican Leader Dan McConchie’s office first denounced Senate President Don Harmon’s decision to cancel floor sessions and hold committee hearings online this month, saying it was time to get back to work. The very next day, McConchie said that allowing legislators to be vaccinated was “ridiculous,” without any apparent sense of irony.
There’s more, but you get the idea.
It’s the outrage of the day and the arguments don’t have to be consistent because it’s about generating heat. Plus, almost nobody ever calls out the Republican critics on their contradictory logic, so it’s a free shot. They are very successful at ginning up this sort of outrage, even if it’s only for a few days. And then they’ll move on to the next one.
With the national Republican Party in disarray after President Donald Trump’s reelection loss, the seditionist riots on Jan. 6 and the bizarre influence of the even more bizarre QAnon cult, perhaps the best way forward is to do what pretty much every party member can agree on — attack Democrats night and day.
So get used to it. It’s the Republican version of unity.
In a weird way, though, the more public heat Pritzker takes over this flip-flop, the more loyalty he can earn from at least some rank and file Democrats. Others appear to be hanging back while the social media winds are swirling and may end up blaming Pritzker. Such is a governor’s life.
Taking one for the team is just part of the governor’s job, something Rod Blagojevich and Bruce Rauner would never dream of doing and Pat Quinn only occasionally showed that he understood. Unlike those three fellows, Pritzker didn’t run as a bomb-throwing populist. He ran on a platform of getting big things done, and you can’t get big things done if you treat the General Assembly purely as a nuisance or an obstacle.
You also can’t get anything at all done if lots of legislators say they don’t want to return to Springfield unless and until they’re vaccinated. With the cancellation of most of last spring’s session and the entire fall veto session due to the pandemic, and the possibility that much of this spring’s session could be in jeopardy, the governor needed to find a way to drag his voluminous legislative agenda out of a very deep ditch.
And it didn’t go unnoticed when Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who doesn’t have the greatest relationship with her City Council, not only allowed aldermen to get vaccinated but seemed to advance their place in line, though the council meets remotely. Remember, multiple COVID-19 cases were reported after January’s in-person lame duck state legislative session.
“It is beginning to feel like the governor is purposely working against the Legislature returning to do the work of the people,” Rep. Stephanie Kifowit (D-Oswego) emailed Pritzker’s chief legislative aide last week, according to WCIA TV. Kifowit pointed to Mayor Lightfoot’s decision to vaccinate aldermen and pointedly noted, “The longer the governor denies the legislature a safe way to work, the longer it will take to pass significant legislation that the state needs.”
So, on balance, this policy change should help. And perhaps allowing a few key staff members who must regularly be on the House and Senate floors access to vaccinations could also help. No formal request has been made to the governor’s top staff about legislative staff vaccines, but there may have been a conversation with one of the leaders about it. You’ll recall that the only name released of anyone who caught the virus during the lame duck session was Speaker Chris Welch’s chief of staff.
And while nothing huge can change until more vaccine is manufactured, a faster distribution system and some effective member education has to happen PDQ because legislators are getting pretty darned fed up with all the frantic constituent calls.
I’ll be getting to that last topic in a bit.
…Adding… BND…
Republicans such as state Rep. David Friess of Red Bud are also dubious about Welch’s recent olive branch to the GOP and to Minority House Leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs. Welch says he plans to keep “an open line of communication” with Durkin, who led an effort to remove Madigan from office last year, Capitol News Illinois reported.
“I’m curious to see whether or not the joke that he’s not speaker in name but he’s going to be speaker behind the scenes will come true,” Friess said. “I hope, given the fact that he could not muster up the support in his own caucus, that he moves on and that he lets Speaker Welch act as speaker on his own.”
If southern Illinois Republicans want to address worries about business and guns back home, they’re going to have to work with the Democratic supermajority in Springfield, said John Jackson, a visiting political professor at the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute in Carbondale.
“Southern Illinois legislators have to got change their tactics or it’s just not going to be in the cards,” Jackson said. “They have to learn to build coalitions and work with the realities of Illinois politics.”
That assumes they actually want to get something done.
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Feb 8, 21 @ 9:21 am
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It’s easier to criticize than lead. Especially, if you have no qualms about being hypocritical.
The pandemic has stretched so many resources to exhaustion and required so many politically unpopular decisions to save lives, being in the lead is a tough job. Illinois has a leader willing to make those tough calls. He’s not been perfect. But he has lead.
We just rid the nation of a man who refused to lead during this time of crisis. He and the party that generally followed his harmful refusal to deal with the pandemic has cost too many lives.
That the world’s leader in many things is unfortunately leading the world in cases and deaths because of the abandonment of leadership.
As Rich’s great column points out. We will be inundated with petty, whiny rage tweets and comments from GOP pols. To them, I’ll repeat a popular saying a few years ago …
Comment by Norseman Monday, Feb 8, 21 @ 9:53 am
Appropos of nothing but me wanting to vent, this line from Kifowit, “It is beginning to feel like the governor is purposely working against the Legislature returning to do the work of the people”, is incredibly entitled, disingenuous, and pathetic.
But, you have to keep the children in the GA happy or they’ll make you miserable, no matter how ridiculous their demands. Even if it means spoiling them and guaranteeing future bad behavior by giving in to the tantrums.
So yeah Rich, you’re right about it being a good idea for JB to try to earn some goodwill.
Comment by Perrid Monday, Feb 8, 21 @ 9:55 am
I do not mind all the legislators qualifying for vaccine but that should wait in line like every one else. It seems hypocritical that teachers, first responders store clerks may all qualify for vaccine yet have to wait and go to work while waiting. Don’t elected officials meet constituents or are their offices shut? I bet they meet donors
Comment by DuPage Saint Monday, Feb 8, 21 @ 9:59 am
I’d agree with your lemons into lemonade synopsis Rich if JB’s team hadn’t immediately chose to demagogue the members who’d asked, rightly or wrongly, for the vaccination accommodation.
Comment by Not for nothing Monday, Feb 8, 21 @ 10:06 am
== It seems hypocritical that teachers, first responders store clerks may all qualify for vaccine yet have to wait and go to work while waiting. Don’t elected officials meet constituents or are their offices shut?==
Also don’t forget that legislators and staff, at least on the Senate side for now, still are in the rest of the Capitol Complex for business on session days–and there are many State Employees already back to the office and no longer working at home (all Secretary of State since June, and more coming back to the Stratton). And other than the recent announcement that SOS employees in customer service positions were going to be added to Phase 1b, there’s no mention of other state workers in the Capitol Complex being able to get vaccinated in 1b too. Even though there were COVID cases in the complex connected to lame-duck session.
Comment by Essential State Employee Monday, Feb 8, 21 @ 10:18 am
This issue is too critical for either side to politicize. Every ounce of energy should be on getting it rolled out to everyone that wants one. If you don’t want one, please shut up.
Comment by SSL Monday, Feb 8, 21 @ 10:21 am
@DuPage Saint
-should wait in line like every one else.-
Hubby and I waited 20 minutes at the Kane County Fairgrounds for our shot last Friday. The 15 minute post-shot wait took longer than getting the shot. Neighbor made an appointment for a same day shot at Mejier and was in and out in a little over a half an hour. Things are gearing up. Legislators and staff should be vaccinated asap.
Comment by Froganon Monday, Feb 8, 21 @ 10:44 am
Last years bad news is amplifying in 2021 with the loss of so many remarkable individuals from COVID or not.
She was one hell of a woman, and gave Rahm a real run for this money…a strong intelligent advocate for the children and teachers of the CPS system. RIP
Comment by Loop Lady Monday, Feb 8, 21 @ 11:47 am
It’s kind of baffling that the rollout isn’t being handled better. I mean they did know a vaccine was coming, right? Just another example of JB’s crew being overpaid, overwhelmed and underperforming. Nothing new.
Comment by Frank talks Monday, Feb 8, 21 @ 12:24 pm