August 15th, 2008
I’ve got to hand it to Andy McKenna, chairman of the Illinois Republican Party, for taking rhetoric to an extraordinary height. When he introduced a news conference at the foot of the Lincoln statue outside the Capitol Thursday, McKenna tied the modern Illinois GOP to Lincoln and compared the divided government of Illinois to no less a struggle than the Civil War.
“I’m here to say that we’re a party that stands together and stands with Abraham Lincoln,” McKenna said. “Abraham Lincoln was famous for his House Divided speech. If he were here today, he would have to tell a story of a house divided that’s even more outrageous than the one that lived in his time.”
When Lincoln spoke of a house divided, he was referring to the division of this nation between slave and free states. The Civil War subsequently ensued, prompting some 500,000 casualties — a conservative estimate.
Yet McKenna saw fit to not only presume what Lincoln might say if he were alive today. He also had the gall to suggest that division in Illinois government – which comes down to a trio of Chicago Democrats in an over-blown ego war – somehow is “even more outrageous” than slavery our nation’s bloody war onto itself.
Amazing.
May 31st, 2008
The powers that be of Illinois government do little in moderation, especially when it really counts.
Today, on the last day of spring session, they’re poised to do it all. They’re gearing up to pass not only a spending plan of roughly $60 billion for the next fiscal year, but also a $31 billion multi-year capital construction program.
Oh, and to help raise money to cover that spending, they may also approve a massive expansion of gambling and agree to lease the Illinois lottery to private investors.
The last day of session is a long, long day. Negotiations continue behind closed doors as lawmakers dart from committee to floor debate and back. Staff rush to put into writing conceptual agreements brokered by legislative leaders. Then they rush those budget plans back to rank-and-file lawmakers, who vote on them even as they attempt to read and understand them.
When voting is over — often just minutes before midnight — they party. They head to a nightclub near the Capitol, and dance, drink and eat until sunrise. Then they say goodbye and head home for the summer.
Or not.
The larger a budget agreement, the more complication it can be to move – with all its parts — through the Legislature in a way that satisfies lawmakers highly suspicious of each other.
If they can’t pull it off by midnight, the beast implodes. They need only a simple majority — 50 percent plus one vote — to approve most of the package by midnight. Democrats, who control both chambers of the Legislature, can advance their plan largely without a single Republican vote.
Once midnight strikes, they need a three-fifths majority. The Democrats can’t get that without the help of Republicans — the same Republicans they have, until this point, kept in the dark.
