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* If you want to see the perfect definition of how rank and file legislators behave like mushrooms, just read Dave McKinney’s hilarious account of how the Illinois House unanimously approved a resolution on the death of Michael Jackson…
“Are you kidding me?” said Rep. Kevin Joyce, when told Friday of the House’s action, which flew by without virtually anyone noticing. […]
Rep. Jack Franks (D-Woodstock) said he also was in the dark about the resolution and would have voted against it because of all of the allegations surrounding Jackson. […]
…Rep. Mike Bost (R-Murphysboro) said members should have been alerted about the Jackson resolution because of its controversial nature.
“I don’t think we should have done it, period,” said Bost, who indicated he would have voted either “no” or “present” on the resolution had he known of its content. “You’d like to say everything that goes through on a voice vote, someone has looked it over and said OK. This one was big enough, I wish I’d have known.”
The resolution was packaged with eight others on an “agreed” roll call. House GOP Leader Tom Cross signed off on it, and members are traditionally given time to object.
* You can read the list of all legislative action on that day by clicking here.
There wasn’t a whole lot going on, so members had plenty of time to scan their computers. If they had, this is a good approximation of what they would’ve seen…
All in caps: MEMORIAL - MICHAEL JACKSON. Kinda hard to miss, no?
Oftentimes, agreed resolution lists number in the hundreds of proposals. This one was tiny by comparison.
But legislators - particularly in the House - are so accustomed to their leaders looking out for every single one of their interests that many were apparently stunned to find out they’d voted to honor the dead pop star.
* The resolution itself was fairly innocuous and skips over the singer’s most controversial years. The account of his life goes from 1985…
WHEREAS, In 1985, Michael Jackson co-wrote “We Are The World” with Lionel Richie…
…To the near past…
WHEREAS, He was preparing for what would be a series of 50 concerts starting on July 13, 2009 at London’s famed 02 arena…
As written, the resolution itself was no big deal. The fact that legislators are admitting that they didn’t even bother to look at the list before voting is far more illuminating.
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Jul 20, 09 @ 11:07 am
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One more reason to vote for anyone but the incumbent in the next legislative election.
Comment by Springfield Sceptic Monday, Jul 20, 09 @ 11:13 am
Thank you so much for posting this Rich! Seriously, bravo my friend. This puts a nice bow on the comment I made in your other topic area this morning. I rest my case.
Comment by Come On Monday, Jul 20, 09 @ 11:15 am
The legislator responsible for this must have very little to do and even less regard for the office.
Comment by Tired of the Mess Monday, Jul 20, 09 @ 11:19 am
What members of Congress aren’t reading legislation and now we find out members of the state House aren’t reading legislation?
Comment by Levois Monday, Jul 20, 09 @ 11:23 am
mmmmm sausage……
Comment by Ghost Monday, Jul 20, 09 @ 11:26 am
well if the all knowing king Madigan let it go through who are the silly members of the house to say anything differnt.
Comment by fed up Monday, Jul 20, 09 @ 11:27 am
Most GA members are considered Big Heat in their districts. If citizens only took the time to find out how much pull they really have….
Still, I’m surprised the Michael Jackson one got through, especially on the GOP side. That will probably take some explaining by some incumbents with primaries in certain districts.
Comment by wordslinger Monday, Jul 20, 09 @ 11:34 am
Funny how such a small and seemingly trivial issue can be proof positive that the lemmings in the GA are, with little exception, all fizz and no gin.
Thanks for exposing this item, Rich.
Comment by The Doc Monday, Jul 20, 09 @ 11:54 am
staff? the GA member? can no one read? but i do think that if Madigan says it’s a go, it’s a go. maybe Mapes is a big
Michael Jackson fan.
Comment by Amy Monday, Jul 20, 09 @ 11:54 am
I was tracking some other bills and had been checking the bill filings daily. Even I noticed this one and thought for sure there was going to be some debate on it. I didn’t know they packaged these resolutions with others. I can’t believe staff didn’t think it wasn’t going to be controversial as there was news stories about some members of the US House of Reps pitching a fit about doing a similar resolution.
Comment by Been There Monday, Jul 20, 09 @ 12:00 pm
another reason not a single one of them should be returned to the General Assembly after the next election! I think Michael Jackson was a wonderful talent, weird, and likely had some oddities that were questionable, but nonetheless his talent is without question. my outrage is yet another example of complacency our elected officials have toward doing the work of the people. I really don’t care if my state rep voted or didn’t vote to recognize Michael Jackson, I just hope he knows what he is voting for. apparently not.
throw the bums out! let’s start all over. never going to happen, but none has to have a dream.
Comment by susie Monday, Jul 20, 09 @ 12:06 pm
And I will be talking to my Rep. about his vote against the budget before the voted for the budget imp. bill
Comment by Master Plan Monday, Jul 20, 09 @ 12:09 pm
This government is a failure.
This is how they conduct “business”.
This government should not be empowered to raise another dime until they start to change how they do business in the name of Illinois citizens.
We cannot believe that the General Assembly is capable of governing when it obviously flops like this. The leaders within the GA should be ashamed of themselves for ever allowing a situation to build where crap legislation goes undebated and bundled.
There could very well have been a staff from each side of the GA to allow bills to be bundled in a way to ensure that the amount of legislative daily business is streamlined, yet grouped in an intelligent way to ensure that the legislators know what the bundled bills are about. When you take a look at these bills, you do not see any common threads or common sense in how they were bundled. This is outrageous.
This is so stupid and avoidable, it is clearly wrong that we have allowed this situation to have existed this long. A total House cleaning is in order, just to clear out the ridiculous means tasks are performed under the Dome.
Comment by VanillaMan Monday, Jul 20, 09 @ 12:13 pm
Pat Quinn - “Note to self, hide tax hike legislation in bill honoring next dead celeb.”
Comment by Irish Monday, Jul 20, 09 @ 12:22 pm
Who do we blame for this?
Brownie or Mapes?
Comment by hmmm Monday, Jul 20, 09 @ 12:55 pm
Now we know how the legislative pay raise resolutions will be handled in future.
Comment by Anon Monday, Jul 20, 09 @ 1:00 pm
I applaud the fact that Rep. Davis presented a resolution honoring Michael Jackson. I believe he should be honored for his contributions to pop culture and music, regardless of what happened in his personal life. No one is perfect, the only difference is, is that Michael Jackson’s struggles were made public, while the rest of us are able to keep our issues “in the closet”.
Comment by ladsed Monday, Jul 20, 09 @ 1:10 pm
That should be great news for Ken Dunkin. If he could just get people to stop reading his stuff, he can get stuff passed.
Comment by Skeeter Monday, Jul 20, 09 @ 1:27 pm
These fungi always remind me of a few lines from an old Chad Mitchell Trio album I had in my youth. It says:
Every legislator “has a sitting and a thinking end. Since his success depends on his seat, why bother, friend?”
Comment by Skirmisher Monday, Jul 20, 09 @ 1:41 pm
Why does our General Assembly spend time on inconsequential “business” like this in the first place? These resolutions mean nothing and are only used as campaign fodder by legislators to stroke some folks back home. Do away with them, and we won’t have to worry that our represenatives didn’t read another meaningless resolution. Maybe then some real “business” will get accomplished.
Comment by Fan of the Game Monday, Jul 20, 09 @ 1:42 pm
Ladsed, you must be kidding. The biggest budget crisis in history and we even rocognize a singer? Is there nothing better for Ms. Davis to do?
Comment by Tired of the Mess Monday, Jul 20, 09 @ 2:09 pm
That was the most Rep. Davis has accomplished in years. She’s as ignorant as she is arrogant.
Comment by Anonymous Monday, Jul 20, 09 @ 3:35 pm
Lighten up people. So three or four reps said they didn’t know of the Resolution. So what? There are 118 of them!!! Do you want them concentrating on these meaningless resolutions, or on the budget? Michael Jackson death resolution perfectly appropriate.
Comment by Legaleagle Monday, Jul 20, 09 @ 3:55 pm
No, I am not kidding.
Comment by Anonymous Monday, Jul 20, 09 @ 4:42 pm
@ Tired of the Mess: So what is the difference between this resolution and the MANY other resolutions (by both Democrats and Republicans) that were passed during this previous session WHILE the biggest budget crisis in history was developing?
Comment by Anonymous Monday, Jul 20, 09 @ 4:45 pm
Stuff happens. This one is about as good as the time that Governor Edgar’s staff messed up and published a proclamtion in the Illinois Register in praise of L.Ron Hubbard.
Comment by Just the Facts Monday, Jul 20, 09 @ 6:51 pm
I’ve sat in the galleries enough times to have seen plenty of these people “clock in” at the attendance roll call, by having some aide or seatmate push their buttons for them. It also happens on plenty of other votes. Happens weekly, nay, daily. One of the senators has a pointer stick with a little rubber finger on the end, so he can reach across multiple desktops and press all the voting buttons for the missing members without unduly straining himself.
Okay, you’ll tell me; “Most likely, they are in a committee meeting and couldn’t come over fast enough” or “They must be in the bathroom”. Or you’ll tell me: “So what; this has been going on since God was a little kid”.
Well, it’s STILL wrong. I don’t get to clock in to be paid and not actually show up to work. Why do they get away with this? I don’t like the idea of these people creating false records on votes they never attended. Every once in a while, if a vote is close, one side or the other, whichever is behind, will suddenly demand a recount or voice vote. Then they scurry into place to actually sit at their desks and push their own buttons, like misbehaving students trying to put one over on the substitute teacher. Its infantile. It disgusts me. We give these people the power to push that button as an expression of our collective will, for the collective good of our state. They treat it like whack-a-mole at Chuckie Cheese. And considering the shoddy work they just did on the so-called budget, unforgivable. I want all these folks replaced, and I’m going to vote that way, come the next election.
And I won’t need a stick with a rubber finger to do it for me.
Comment by Seen it too often Monday, Jul 20, 09 @ 9:09 pm
Really - an attempt to read a lot of their purportedly important legislation shows they don’t read even that. They pass essentially illegible or incecipherable crap, and then they can’t even agree on what they thought they had intended.
Comment by krome Monday, Jul 20, 09 @ 10:22 pm
charming post. upright one decimal where I contest with it. I am emailing you in detail.
Comment by Debt Settlement Program Saturday, Aug 8, 09 @ 3:19 am