Keep in mind while watching coverage of the Rod Blagojevich trial that reporters in the courtroom have a far keener understanding of what is going on than do the jurors. Their perceptions are not necessarily the same as the jurors' views. So their coverage may not match up to how the case will turn out.

For most of the jurors, this is their first time in a real courtroom. Unlike most of the reporters at the trial, this experience is all quite new to all but two of them who have served on juries before. And, unlike most of the reporters, they have limited knowledge of what the trial is all about and the context of the charges.

Most of the jurors know little of Rod Blagojevich and his administration except for their skimming of the local news and maybe seeing him a time or two on TV entertainment programs. One juror admitted that she checks the news "only for the weather."

Illinois House Republicans had a universal message for Representative Bob Biggins (R-Elmhurst) last week: You are officially an outcast.

Biggins infuriated his fellow Republicans by switching his position and voting for a $3.7-billion borrowing plan supported by Democrats. The money would be used to make the state's annual pension payment. Without it, the state would have to slash programs such as education and human services and health care or delay the payment, which could cost the pension funds tens of billions of dollars in the long term.

It occurred to me not long ago that the best analogy for this year's governor's race would be if the Washington Generals played the Washington Generals.

The Washington Generals basketball team was formed in the 1950s specifically to play solely against the Harlem Globetrotters. The Generals lost more than 13,000 games in the ensuing decades and won just a handful. All of those wins were due mainly to luck. If you ever saw them play, you know that the hapless team just couldn't do anything right. They were comedic in their supreme ineptness.

A Washington Generals split squad game would surely be a sight to behold. Fortunately for us, we don't have to imagine such a spectacle. We've got one right here in Illinois.

I was out with some political buddies the other night and the subject of Bill Brady's taxes came up.

Just about everybody agreed that Brady should never have released his tax returns. All he did was make a bad situation worse, they said.

This year's Republican gubernatorial nominee released his returns four years ago when he ran for governor the first time. The returns showed he earned well into six figures and had lots of successful businesses. Nobody paid much attention at the time because Brady was an unknown state Senator with little chance of winning the GOP nomination.

But when "tax day" came around this year, reporters asked the new nominee if he'd release his returns again. He said he wouldn't, claiming that the last time his business suffered. Brady's refusal sparked a few stories, but things really heated up when Governor Pat Quinn stepped into the fray.