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Burris

Ask DuPage County State’s Attorney Joe Birkett who’s the Republican with the best chance of capturing the governor’s job in 2010, and he’ll say, “I am.” Talk to him some more and you get the distinct impression he’s more interested in running for state attorney general.

“I have the ideas and leadership qualities to take the state in a new direction,” he said of his potential as a gubernatorial candidate in a recent interview. A few moments later as he discussed his political options, he switched focus: “Attorney general is an office that’s tailor-made for me.” […]

“Part of me says I’d like the rematch [with Madigan]; however, I’d like to continue my career as a prosecutor as attorney general.”

A few minutes later he added, “I’d like to end my career as an appellate judge or Supreme Court justice.”

Words fail me.

* AG Lisa Madigan talks about an under-appreciated aspect of her office which probably won’t get a lot of coverage in the 2010 contest…

“When you become attorney general, you don’t realize how much of the work is involved in the provision of healthcare to people,” said Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who has pursued an array of investigations, lawsuits and legislation in that arena. […]

During Madigan’s first term, Illinois hospitals had a tense relationship with the attorney general, who shamed many of them with a critical report on their contributions toward indigent care and pursued legislation that would have compelled every hospital to dedicate a sum equal to at least 8% of operating costs toward narrowly defined charity care.

“How has it been to work with an attorney general who is an activist on this issue? It’s been on the one hand very challenging at times,” said Howard Peters, the Illinois Hospital Association’s senior vice president for government affairs. Even in that year, however, Illinois hospitals fended off what they viewed as a draconian charity-care requirement while working with Madigan toward consensus on a second bill regulating hospital billing and collection policies, which became law. “Because the attorney general and her staff were open to interaction, dialogue and debate, even when we had serious disagreement, it resulted in being able to develop good policy,” Peters said.

* Potential trouble for Burris in 2010?…

Six funeral homes are suing the Illinois Funeral Directors Association, accusing it of coordinating a Ponzi scheme built on life insurance policies.

In the legal action, akin to a shareholders’ suit in the corporate world, the funeral homes say they’re on the hook for potentially tens of millions of dollars in funeral costs because a pre-need funeral trust fund administered by IFDA Services, a for-profit arm of the non-profit IFDA, has been bleeding money. The fund is supposed to pay for funerals for an estimated 49,000 people in Illinois who took out pre-need policies.

The IFDA should never have been in the trust business in the first place, the state comptroller’s office has ruled. The IFDA trust got its start thanks to a license issued in 1980 by then-state Comptroller Roland Burris, who went on to become an IFDA lobbyist and was ultimately appointed to the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama.

Larry thinks so and promises more.

* Related…

* States Urge Large-Scale Loan Mortgage Modifications - Attorneys General call on Feds to prevent foreclosures

* AT&T’s U-verse service gives short shrift to public-access programming - Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan joins investigation of its practices

* AG press rlease on LaSalle County Illegal Gambling

* The state comptroller’s office and funeral home directors insist that no one who has purchased a pre-need contract guaranteeing payment of their funeral expenses is at risk.

* Student credit card crackdown: A new legislative push in Illinois may be making college campuses less welcoming to credit card companies. Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias has proposed legislation to restrict the promotion of student credit cards on colleges and universities in the state.

* $75 million returned in ’08

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Feb 3, 09 @ 12:38 pm

Comments

Rich, is that the same Howard Peters who was a warden at Pontiac Correctional Center and later had a job in the Ryan administration in corrections? Just curious since I had his son, also Howard, as a student.

Comment by Nearly Normal Tuesday, Feb 3, 09 @ 12:42 pm
Joe is paralyzed by his own potential greatness. A terrible affliction that most cannot begin to understand.

Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Feb 3, 09 @ 12:47 pm
The IFDA should never have been in the trust business in the first place, the state comptroller’s office has ruled. The IFDA trust got its start thanks to a license issued in 1980 by then-state Comptroller Roland Burris, who went on to become an IFDA lobbyist and was ultimately appointed to the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama.

That is hilarious! You mean the guy with the Taj Mahal in Oak Wood cemetary was a lobbyist for an organization he founded while serving as Comptroller?

Gee - No wonder Roland Burris’ mausoleum is so opulent! Ya think voters are going to be “OK” when television ads start rotating next year showing the Taj Rolando with snippets from this information?

Instead of “Trailblazer”, perhaps Burris’ mausoleum should have had engraved, “A gift from Roland’s friends of the IFDA”. Maybe Senator Burris is correct, and that his mausoleum wasn’t coordinated by him. It is a shrine.

OK - I’m done! LOL!

Comment by VanillaMan Tuesday, Feb 3, 09 @ 12:54 pm
OH Joe!
Go away!

Comment by VanillaMan Tuesday, Feb 3, 09 @ 12:54 pm
I would write-in Micky Mouse before voting for Birkett for anything. I think I’m far from alone in the GOP.

I’m so sick of these narcissistic retreads in the IL GOP.

I don’t even know why DuPage voters keep him in as State’s Attorney there. Birkett obviously just sees that job as not good enough for him. I’m so tired of delusional people.

Comment by GOP'er Tuesday, Feb 3, 09 @ 12:57 pm
“In a written statement, the IFDA said it was acting on recommendations of financial advisers.”

Hmmm, didn’t Ole Roland just say he was a financial advisor and that is one of the reasons he built his tomb-because it was good planning.

I don’t think this story will get buried.

Comment by Phineas J. Whoopee Tuesday, Feb 3, 09 @ 1:02 pm
Read the gambling bust press release.

I’m shocked, simply shocked, that there is gambling in bars in Illinois! These people were even betting on the Superbowl! What is this state coming to? I blame this slide into decadence on Rod.

Comment by Pot calling kettle Tuesday, Feb 3, 09 @ 1:03 pm
A bowling alley with bookies? Whatever happened to the Barbers?

Comment by ArchPundit Tuesday, Feb 3, 09 @ 1:06 pm
I just answered my own question by Googling Howard Peters. He was in charge of Dept of Corrections in Jim Edgar’s administration. From corrections to hospitals. Interesting.

Comment by Nearly Normal Tuesday, Feb 3, 09 @ 1:11 pm
OK - Now what are we going to do in Streator?

Comment by VanillaMan Tuesday, Feb 3, 09 @ 1:13 pm
Arch, many barbers are now stylists. Took the spittoons out and put in the ferns and palm trees and charge double.

VM–My friends in Streator say there are always the card games at the Legion and VFW. K of C, too. They are private clubs so the cops usually don’t bother them.

Comment by Nearly Normal Tuesday, Feb 3, 09 @ 1:24 pm
I had a college roommate from Streator many moons ago. He said the place was a wide open town for gambling back then.

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Feb 3, 09 @ 1:26 pm
NN and VM–lol

My barber growing up always had the cops in handing him a few bucks and saying words like over/under so many points. Lots of phone calls too. Later, after a new Police Chief started and he’d given up the side business, he looked at me when I had a backpack full of books and said, “I used to take my books everwhere too”

Me: So and so, those were a different kind of books.

Comment by ArchPundit Tuesday, Feb 3, 09 @ 1:32 pm
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart unveiled a new statewide gang initiative in the Quad Cities yesterday. He ended up getting front-page coverage in the QC newspapers.

Speaking of 2010, what’s up with that?

Comment by There you go again Tuesday, Feb 3, 09 @ 1:45 pm
VanMan - just go to a different bar. There’s a good 30 more to choose from.

Comment by jerry 101 Tuesday, Feb 3, 09 @ 2:01 pm
There is an odd symetry in Burris defending his monumnet by throwng the funeral home director under the buss, only to find he had failed to get out of the way.

Comment by Ghost Tuesday, Feb 3, 09 @ 2:18 pm
Joe Birkett got embroiled in the Nicaricao/Cruz murder case towards the end and wasted time,effort and funds trying to preserve the flawed and erroneous confiction. Even if he could make up his mind any statewide campaign would be hogtied by this stain on his career.

As for Roland Burris, I am not surprised. Too bad this didn’t surface prior to his annointment in Washington. Let’s keep this in mind until the next election, please.

Comment by dupage dan Tuesday, Feb 3, 09 @ 2:28 pm
Found a link to the Dart Quad Cities press conference mentioned above:

http://qconline.com/archives/qco/display.php?id=424000

Interesting. Dart would be tough to beat in the AG primary.

Also, saw Julie Hamos on Chicago Tonight last night (another rumored AG candidate.)
First time I’ve seen her on T.V. She did a nice job. Not sure she fits the profile of an AG, but her credentials are pretty similar to Lisa’s prior to her election.

Still, she’d have a tough time with Dart, who can get on T.V. pretty much any time he wants as Cook Sheriff. Law enforcement figures always seem to be the best positioned as AG candidates — even though the office does very little crime fighting.
Dart’s work on the foreclosure stuff is a good AG issue too.

Comment by R.A. Tuesday, Feb 3, 09 @ 2:48 pm
For Roland, there really was life after the funeral home. No wonder that guy is all smiles. He is in heaven.

Comment by vole Tuesday, Feb 3, 09 @ 2:52 pm
Jerry 101 - you got it Not all the envelopes were confiscated yesterday but Smitty is going to be hurting for awhile.

Comment by ValleyGal Tuesday, Feb 3, 09 @ 2:54 pm
I’m sick of the cherry picking the the AG and local law enforcement agencies are doing with poker machines/parlay sheets/card games.

Allow it and tax it.
Ignore it.
Or bust EVERYONE!

Who the hell would play those machines if they didn’t pay out? What a retarded way of handling who is prosecuted.

Like with the smoking ban…let’s bust Koo Koo’s Nest/The Cove in Springfield, but let The Cottage and Coonrods let people smoke.

I personally don’t care, but no wonder we have no faith in our government these days.

Too many laws.

Comment by BandCamp Tuesday, Feb 3, 09 @ 3:26 pm
Oh, and they arrested the people who own the machines. They people who play the machines? Like ValleyGal said, they just go somewhere else…

Another social problem solved. Not.

(FYI…I love to gamble…not a goody-2-shoes. Just can’t stand our government these days.)

Comment by BandCamp Tuesday, Feb 3, 09 @ 3:43 pm
BandCamp, I railed agout those machines years ago, but it is pointles. The mob sucks up millions from them. In my hood there are at least 3 24 hour snack shops with 3 machines each and no matter what time of day you go in them there are people pushing buttons. Taxing them would certainly help solve our financial mess.

Comment by Phineas J. Whoopee Tuesday, Feb 3, 09 @ 4:07 pm
We already had a governor who seemed to be in over his head, why put Joe Birkett thru that.

Comment by Levois Tuesday, Feb 3, 09 @ 4:20 pm
I will go to the Streator bar that serves single malt Scotch, (besides The Glenfiddich), Coors Banquet, Duvel, or Jever.

…and not out of plastic cups!

That eliminates probably 30 Streator establishments…

Comment by VanillaMan Tuesday, Feb 3, 09 @ 4:33 pm
…and I need to place a couple of bets on Extreme Fighting…

Comment by VanillaMan Tuesday, Feb 3, 09 @ 4:35 pm
People should stop picking on Streator, a/k/a Shoveltown. They have a dozen or so mom and pop establishments with decent pub grub and reasonably priced beverages. Not all of them participate in illicit gambling operations. There is just as much gambling going on in taverns throughout the state, not just in LaSalle County.

Comment by Jake from Elwood Tuesday, Feb 3, 09 @ 4:39 pm
Coming from a town with no ‘bars’ only restaurants with 51% food receipts, I don’t see it as making fun of as much as celebrating.

Comment by ArchPundit Tuesday, Feb 3, 09 @ 4:53 pm
“I have the ideas and leadership qualities to take the state in a new direction,” he said of his potential as a gubernatorial candidate in a recent interview. A few moments later as he discussed his political options, he switched focus: “Attorney general is an office that’s tailor-made for me.” […]

“Part of me says I’d like the rematch [with Madigan]; however, I’d like to continue my career as a prosecutor as attorney general.”

A few minutes later he added, “I’d like to end my career as an appellate judge or Supreme Court justice.”

Burkett continues…
“Fireman. I’d like to be a fireman. You know, saving lives and little kittens in trees. Or, I can see myself as a quarterback for a professional football team. Bears, maybe. Chiefs, definately. Great uniforms. I’d be a good guy and not hit on the cheerleaders. I was watching Project Runway, the other night with my wife, a beautiful woman, and I thought - hey - I could do that! You know, design clothes out of plastic wrap or pipe cleaners. My clothes would be cool. Professional. And affordable.

But I would want to be governor first.
Or Attorney General.
But wouldn’t it be fun to be an astronaut?”

Comment by VanillaMan Tuesday, Feb 3, 09 @ 4:53 pm
Howard Peters did not go directly from Corrections to the IHA. He was the 1st “Secretary” of the IL Dept of Human Services (formerly IDPA) when Edgar consolidated 5 agencies into IDHS. Under prior admins, the head of the agency was always a “director” and I thought changing it to “secretary” was rather ostentatious. When he was the Secretary, the Trib ran a story on how Howard Peters used a state helicopter for travel and used state employees to landscape his new house when he was the head of Corrections.

Comment by Marianne North Tuesday, Feb 3, 09 @ 5:50 pm
I wanted to add: the federal Hill-Burton Act requires hospitals who received federal funding for expansion to treat indigent patients.

Comment by Marianne North Tuesday, Feb 3, 09 @ 5:51 pm
i saw the press about Dart too…He was a thoughtful state rep and would make a formidable candidate for a statewide office.

Its good he is doing something for downstate!

Comment by prairiestatedem Tuesday, Feb 3, 09 @ 6:38 pm
I don’t think we can wait until 2010 for Tom Dart…

Can he start tomorrow as Director of the Illinois Department of Corrections?

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Tuesday, Feb 3, 09 @ 7:28 pm
===Not all of them participate in illicit gambling operations. ===

100 percent UNTRUE if they have a licensed (or unlicensed) poker machine. I’ll say it again, no one, and I mean NO ONE, would put money in a poker machine “for amusement only.” All bars pay out.

Comment by BandCamp Wednesday, Feb 4, 09 @ 8:16 am
Dart, by his campaign disclosure has 24K on hand, but he owes Wiiliam Dart 105K. Let us forget about the debt, and focuis on the 24k - really, I mean really, only 24k in the bank for a Cook County pol - sheriff, none the less, shesh. Love Dart, but that is no financial foundation in which to fund a legitmate statewide campaign.

Comment by south of 74 Wednesday, Feb 4, 09 @ 8:16 pm