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*** 3:34 pm *** The governor has dropped three of his counts in his four-count lawsuit against House Speaker Michael Madigan. The only remaining count asks the courts to declare that the governor has a Constitutional and statutory authority to schedule the time and date of special sessions.
Of the remaining counts, one asked that the courts compel Madigan to produce a quorum whenever the guv calls a special session. According to the guv’s office…
The remaining counts, which address the Speaker’s duty to assemble a quorum for special sessions, may no longer be an issue once the Court confirms the Governor’s constitutional authority to set the date and time of special sessions. If it becomes necessary, we could always re-file them later.
*** 3:38 pm *** Reporters tried to get Mayor Daley to whack Gov. Blagojevich again today. Instead, he did his best to dodge the questions…
“Let’s just get it passed.”
And…
“The only thing I objected to was the way the governor did this at the last minute,” [Daley] said. “He could have told the legislators who were already down there last week to add it to the bill. This is just drama.”
* Meanwhile Treasurer Giannoulias wasn’t impressed with the governor’s amendatory veto of the transit bill…
“I love my grandma. I love senior citizens. But I don’t think this was done in the best way possible,’’ Giannoulias said.
He said it seemed a little “disingenuous” for Blagojevich to drop this new program into the transit bill at the last minute when “they have been talking about this for six months or a year.”
* And Rep. Sid Mathias, who said he might not vote to accept the AV, said today that he will vote to accept…
“I’m angry, and even though I’m angry, I am still going to vote for this tomorrow,” said Rep. Sid Mathias (R-Buffalo Grove), one of 62 House members to vote for the plan as it passed by a slim margin last week.
*** 3:42 pm *** According to exit polls, black primary voters in Michigan picked “uncommitted” this week over Hillary Clinton 68 to 30. Ouch.
*** 4:50 pm *** The House Mass Transit Committee just voted to accept the governor’s amendatory veto by a lopsided margine of 16-5, according to a reporter who is there.
posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 3:36 pm
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Is 3:64 pm a new time we are operating on now?
Is that Miller Time(TM)?
Comment by GoBearsss Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 3:38 pm
You said three of four counts, how many counts were there?
Comment by Levois Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 3:42 pm
three of four means there were four.
Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 3:46 pm
Hey, Go Bearsss. Get a life. Do us all a favor and realize you don’t need to comment on everything that comes up. Really, you don’t. Fewer posts - higher quality. Please.
Comment by Willie Stark Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 3:47 pm
Thanks for pointing it out, GB. Fixed.
Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 3:47 pm
GB has no life. GB lives on this blog. I like GB… usually. lol. Leave GB alone.
Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 3:48 pm
Giannoulias statement speaks alot of truth, with this debate going on for months why did the Governor wait till now? Why should people in the middle or upper class, which there are plenty of seniors in those groups, get to ride for free just because they are over a certain age?
Comment by RMW Stanford Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 3:57 pm
WBBM-AM Radio reported that the Governor gave the following response when asked if he would be in Springfield tomorrow for the votes on his amendatory veto:
“No hockey games. I’m going to be there on Thursday. No Hannah Montana concerts.”
Boy, oh, boy!
Comment by GA Watcher Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 4:08 pm
GA Watcher - Did he really say that?! A joke or two every once in awhile from him would be fine if his entire administration weren’t shaping up to be one big joke.
Comment by Bill S. Preston, Esq. Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 4:26 pm
“GB has no life”
Ouch.
“GB lives on this blog”
Few people know this, but I am actually just a blog bot - no person is behind this.
“I like GB”
Ooooo!
“usually”
Awwww….
Comment by GoBearsss Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 4:28 pm
Bill Preston:
He said it.
Comment by GA Watcher Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 4:29 pm
You want quality?
Mass Transit Committee just voted to accept Governor’s A/V by an overwhelming margin.
That’s high-quality info right there.
Comment by GoBearsss Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 4:30 pm
He sure did say that. An older lady from the senior press conference asked him if he was going to go to Springfield because everyone knows he never works and is never down there. It really was quite comical. That’s when he said no hockey gamesor hanna Montana concerts.
Comment by Garp Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 4:32 pm
Thanks for summarizing the response Rich. I have no patience today to read the Governor insane ramblings. Oh wait, he just made another one (thanks GA Watcher).
Comment by jwscott72 Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 4:34 pm
The Clintons have burned some significant bridges with the African-American community at least temporarily. I read a recent column by Laura Washington, whom I greatly respect, protesting the code words and negative symbolism/sterotypes being used by Hillary/Bill Clinton their surrogates, and others.
This situation is unprecedented - an ex-POTUS, and his wannabe wife both ganging up on Obama. I think this double-barreled attack has backfired and will raise Hillary negatives even higher than they already are. No wonder the African-American community is not supporting Clinton in the primaries.
ON the bright side, if Hillary prevails in a hard fought battle for delegates waged after Feb 5,
she may be forced to offer the VP slot to Obama to unite the party in November. If not she’s going to pay a big price for her win-at-all costs strategy.
Comment by Captain America Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 5:13 pm
I for one strongly believe that senior citizen Sam Zell has every right to ride public transportation for free if he wants to park his motorcycle!
Comment by Louis G. Atsaves Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 5:16 pm
Not sure why a 68-30 split with Hillary getting 30 against uncommitted is an ouch. Afterall, Obama’s people had a high intensity campaign in Michigan for at least the last three weeks to try and stimulate a high uncommitted turnout in the primary in lieu of a vote for Obama. It strikes me that a 68-30 Barack/Hillary split is about right.
Comment by Chicago Cynic Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 5:30 pm
I don’t think the House failed to open the doors for any Blago called special session (even if only a few showed up). No? I don’t get the continued ‘fight’ to be able to call a certain day by a governor because I can’t remember any special session, in this never ending stream of them, that at least somebody showed up at the House. Now the time thing, that’s just petty. One would think the governor would want to see that the most legislatures could/would attend and go with an agreeable time. But then of course this whole thing really isn’t about days and times, IMHO.
Comment by Princeville Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 5:53 pm
the michigan numbers for Hillary are just fine
especially if the obama people were working.
how is it that she got such a high total number?
and, while it may bode ill for SC, the reality
of America is it’s 12% afam. i’m with the Daily
kos people who called Obama’s answer on
presidential management….All you need is love.
katrina disaster needed hands on, not hope.
Comment by amy Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 6:07 pm
I don’t care how much of an effort was made in the last three weeks (although I think Chicago Cynic is over-stating it) to get uncommitted some votes. The bottom line is that more than 220,000 people came out to vote against Hillary Clinton in a heavy snow storm. That’s not good.
Comment by 2for2 Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 6:16 pm
I agree with you completely Amy. I think Barack’s answer about basically, “I’m not here to manage the bureaucracy” will come back to haunt him light of not only Katrina, but all of the Bush failures.
I once worked for a manager who said, “I give you wings so you can fly.” What that really meant was “I don’t know how to manage my way out of a paper bag.” She “hoped” the people she hired knew themselves how to do the right things and when they didn’t, she was completely befuddled. It was a disaster and eventually she was fired.
Unfortunately, I suspect Obama would adopt a similar management style because he doesn’t have the experience to know how to manage.
Comment by Chicago Cynic Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 6:35 pm
So, according to the governor’s lawsuit, they want the Speaker to go out and personally travel with the state Police to pick up legislators reluctant to travel to Springfield. This is the only way he could be “required to assemble a quorum”. I suppose they want MJM to hold a gun to their heads also if they don’t want to come.
This lawsuit, like so much else the Governor does, is ridiculous and will be thrown out by the court. No leadership, no credibility, no results, but plenty of ego. That is all we get from Blago.
Comment by some former legislative intern Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 6:51 pm
The court should simply Squish the guv like a bug and lift us out of our misery. Frankly I am just sick of his antics. Squish and be done with it!
Comment by A Citizen Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 6:57 pm
Mr. Miller have you mentioned the 40% tax hike for real estate in Chicago to help pay for the Senior Citizens? Also did you hear about how the Democrats refuse to take 2.7 billion dollars for the CTA because they cant get a piece of legislation through the General Assembly and Blagojevich? We were going to get 2.7 billion dollars from the Feds that hastert and company threw a big compromise piece of legislation with Illinois being a big beneficiary. I heard this from one of my Jake’s Chicago Politics listeners who was listening to an interview with Mark Kirk this morning.
Comment by JakeCP Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 7:08 pm
JakeCP,
The federal transportation dollars you speak of are for more than just the CTA or Mass Transit for that matter. THe state needs to come up with matching money probably in the next six months or that money goes away. Where the money comes from is not as important as actually committing the dollars. Nobody wants to take from education or medicade so the only other choice is new money in a capital program.
Comment by Just Asking Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 7:39 pm
Obama’s management style is probably better posted on a different thread, and while I agree with Chicago Cynic that it was an unfortunate quote that might come back to bite him, it isn’t wrong.
A President’s job is to lead, and a hallmark of Barack’s brief experience is that he surrounds himself with very talented professionals. He attracts talented people like a magnet. His leadership and judgement are more important in the cabinet room and oval office than his ability to manage the bureaucracy.
One of Jimmy Carter’s talents was managing the bureaucracy, wasn’t it? It certainly wasn’t for Reagan or either Bush.
Comment by 47th Ward Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 9:22 pm
I wonder if the Treasurer, Alexi the Amnesiac,would provide a free bus ride to the 86 year old woman “he doesn’t remember” fleecing at his family bank.
Comment by Illinois cynic Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 9:23 pm
madiga wins again
Comment by reddbyrd Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 10:19 pm
[…] Democratic State Representative Paul Froehlich (56th District) reports that at today’s Mass Transit Committee meeting the majority (a 16-5 margin) “held our noses” and accepted Governor Rod Blagojevich’s amendatory veto. The amendatory veto, without prior discussion with legislators, requires free rides for senior citizens on mass transit as the price for passage of the long-awaited, critical funding bill. […]
Pingback by WurfWhile » Blog Archive » IL State Rep Paul Froehlich On Mass Transit Bill In Today’s Committee Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 10:32 pm
===have you mentioned the 40% tax hike for real estate in Chicago to help pay for the Senior Citizens? ===
huh?
Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Jan 16, 08 @ 11:52 pm
I guess he thought that one would be the winner, Rich.
Comment by JohnR Thursday, Jan 17, 08 @ 12:30 am
While the complaint should have been thought through a little betteer before it was filed, I have to give the Gov and his legal team points for a wise decisions. They have seperated the wheat from the chaffe. Now the really weak parts of the complaint will not be dragging so much on the meat issue the Gov wants addressed.
Comment by Ghost Thursday, Jan 17, 08 @ 8:09 am
What I want to know is why no one is talking about, or pointing out, that the Governor is probably racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, paid for by the taxpayers of this State over a ridiculous issue.
Comment by anon Thursday, Jan 17, 08 @ 8:27 am
Anon, the gov is using attorneys in the Govenors office to my knowledge, and they are already salary with the State.
Comment by Ghost Thursday, Jan 17, 08 @ 8:54 am
Hillary waved a red flag and African America political pundits and leaders grabbed Obama and dragged him into a fight he can only win with a minority of voters.
Clinton wins ugly.
Comment by VanillaMan Thursday, Jan 17, 08 @ 9:02 am
===grabbed Obama and dragged him into a fight he can only win with a minority of voters.===
I don’t buy that. Lots of Democratic voters (Repubs, too, for that matter) despise that sort of racial crud. It ain’t just black people who were offended.
Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Jan 17, 08 @ 10:02 am