Archive for December, 2008
December 31st, 2008
The governor knows how to play his cards. I’d hate to play poker with the guy. Despite almost universal criticism from everyone without the surname Rush, Roland Burris looks like he’ll be Illinois next U.S. senator.
Senate Democrats may object, but legally it doesn’t look like they can stop Burris from joining their ranks. Burris is old enough, is a U.S. citizen and an Illinois resident. That’s all that’s required to be a senator.
Burris made the talk show round this morning and he says he has no intention of rejecting the appointment. Danny Davis said no to the governor, but Burris jumped at the chance.
Back to Blago. By making it look like he’s hard at work for the hardworking people of Illinois, he’s creating evidence he can use in the impeachment proceedings. The guy knows how to play the system in oh so many ways.
December 30th, 2008
I think the late-night comics will have some fun at Blagojevich’s expense tonight. This story has given them some good material. Any guesses on what the jokes will be?
December 30th, 2008
I just read that Blagojevich intends to pick Roland Burris for the U.S. Senate. Why Burris would accept the nomination is beyond me. The governor is poison and anyone around him will be poisoned.
My guess is that Burris was never in the running, but Blago thinks Burris would be a good fill-in until the 2010 election and is untainted by any of the allegations facing the governor.
Burris is a former Illinois attorney general who ran for governor in 2002. He finished third in the primary to Blagojevich and Paul Vallas.
December 30th, 2008
Just got this from the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform:
ICPR HELPS ILLINOISANS BOOT BLAGO
REMOVE THE GOVERNOR AND ENACT MAJOR REFORMS
CHICAGO – Illinoisans who want to give Gov. Rod Blagojevich the boot out of office can go to www.BootBlago.org for the latest information on the Blagojevich scandal and advice how they can help change the state’s political system.
“Like his predecessor George Ryan – aka Federal Inmate Number 16627424 – Rod Blagojevich is an embarrassment to the state of Illinois,” said Cynthia Canary, Director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform (ICPR). “The arrest of Gov. Blagojevich on a variety of corruption charges has lit a fire under taxpayers. If he’s not going to resign, they want to boot him out of office.”
The Illinois Campaign for Political Reform (ICPR) is redoubling its efforts to enact meaningful campaign finance reforms, and ICPR will help Illinoisans become advocates of the Governor Blagojevich’s impeachment.
“Removing Gov. Blagojevich from office is not all that is needed to end the culture of corruption,” Canary said. “We have to reform the laws that now allow special interests to give unlimited amounts of money to campaigns, and we need to bring much more sunshine into the operations of state and local governments.
The fight can begin with a visit to www.BootBlago.org.
ICPR created the website as a tool to help Illinoisans unfamiliar with lobbying legislators and curious about the impeachment process.
Visitors to the website can write letters to Gov. Rod Blagojevich urging him to resign and can send letters to Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn suggesting ways to improve the system. Visitors also can learn more about the reforms needed to make state politics and government more fair and honest and can link to ICPR’s website with a searchable database of campaign contributions to the governor, legislators and other candidates.
“For decades, the political establishment in Illinois has refused to enact campaign and government ethics reforms,” Canary said. “But because voters are angry, legislators are listening, and that makes this an ideal time to convince them to pass reforms.
“All previous reforms in Illinois and across the nation have passed in reaction to government scandals,” she said. “We need to make sure the Blagojevich scandal brings sweeping changes in state government and elections.”
The reforms advocated by ICPR include limiting the size of campaign contributions, banning contributions by corporations and unions, prohibiting large transfers of campaign cash by legislative leaders to candidates, creating a system of voluntary campaign financing of judges, taking politics out of legislative redistricting, strengthening the State Board of Elections, toughening lobbyist regulation, requiring state officials to report more detail personal financial information concerning debts and investments, and making it easier to access public records through the Freedom of Information Act.
# # #
About the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform
ICPR is a non-partisan public interest group that conducts research and advocates reforms to promote public participation in government, to address the role of money in politics and to encourage integrity, accountability and transparency in government. Founded in 1999 by the late U.S. Sen. Paul Simon, ICPR is governed by a diverse board of directors composed of civic, business, and academic leaders from across the state.
ICPR led the recent effort to enact legislation combating pay-to-play state contracts. The new law, which will take effect on January 1, prohibits campaign contributions by state contractors to the officeholder awarding the contract.
ICPR also helped enact the 2003 Illinois Ethics Act, which created independent ethics commissions charged with setting standards and enforcement and inspectors general to investigate allegations of corruption. The act also mandates ethics training for all state employees, gives state workers a clear definition of political activity that is prohibited while on the job, increases lobbying information available to the public and limits the ability of state officials to use state funds to promote themselves.
ICPR’s work includes monitoring enforcement of the new ethics law; researching and reporting of campaign contribution and expenditure trends; encouraging informed and issue-oriented debate in judicial elections; developing non-partisan, state-sponsored voter education guides; advocating increased and improved coverage of election campaigns by broadcasters; and seeking passage of legislation to limit the influence of large contributors to political campaigns.
December 29th, 2008
These next seven weeks could be the longest Illinoisans have experienced in a quite a while.
Were not talking about anticipation building for the start of baseball’s spring training, we’re referring to the date when Gov. Rod Blagojevich might be impeached.
Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn, the man who would replace Blagojevich when he is forced from office, predicted Sunday that Blagojevich would be bounced by the time we celebrate Abraham Lincoln’s bicentennial birthday Feb. 12.
How fitting. Blagojevich is responsible for closing state historic sites, including some with ties to Lincoln, in his latest budget-cutting fiasco.
The governor won’t go quietly. He’ll fight, fight, fight until the end. Seems appropriate for a former Golden Gloves boxer.
December 26th, 2008
I saw this story on the wire. It makes it seem like all Champaign homeowners need to start shoveling, but if you read the full story in the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette, you see it’s just for Campustown and downtown.
Do you agree with this approach? .
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) — City officials in Champaign are delivering a serious winter message to residents: Clear the sidewalks by 3 p.m. or pay for it.
City Public Works Director Dennis Schmidt says property owners must remove ice and snow by Friday afternoon or the city will have to hire a contractor. The order this week gave residents 48 hours to clear sidewalks.
If it’s not done, the city will send the bill to property owners and add a $100 administrative fee. The rules come from an ordinance that went into effect last year.
A city spokeswoman says it’s for the safety of residents.
December 22nd, 2008
Santa Claus is so popular we wondered what would happen if he were elected president. We opened up the question to everyone in the newsroom here at the News Tower.
One young reporter pointed out that he doubted St. Nick could be elected. There’s that residency requirement (is there even a birth certificate?), plus he only works one day a year so there wouldn’t be much of a campaign.
Besides, didn’t voters just say they didn’t want an old gray-haired white guy?
We’ll have more on President Santa tomorrow.
December 19th, 2008
Gov. Rod Blagojevich did not tell us anything we didn’t already know in his short news conference today. He said he’s done nothing wrong and he’ll fight the allegations until his last breath.
The governor’s defiance did not surprise any of us who have written about him the last six years. He has plenty of ego to think he can do no wrong. Chuck Sweeny predicted a couple of days ago that the governor would say he was framed.
Blagojevich didn’t go quite that far, but he was close. He blamed his trouble on political enemies and a political lynch mob.
I think I figured out who the 8 percent who think the gov is doing a good job are: His defense team.
December 19th, 2008
Gov. Rod Blagojevich is supposed to make a statement at 2 p.m. this afternoon. The governor said the other day he was “dying” to tell his side of the story. We’ll hear what it is.
December 19th, 2008
The world doesn’t stand still no matter how much snow falls. My drive to work this morning was slow and mostly uneventful (one spinout). There was a fair amount of traffic and as I look out the window at the State Street Bridge, there are fewer cars than normal, but it’s not deserted.
With all the closings, even the Y is closed, wondering where everyone is going.
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