02 Jul 2008

Remain Skeptical About Threatened Cuts

By Rich Miller

There are several important things to keep in mind when discussing the governor's proposed budget cuts. The governor threatened to slash $1.5 billion out of the state budget unless the House comes back to Springfield and passes some revenue-generating bills and the capital-construction budget, all of which were approved by the Senate in May and blocked by House Speaker Michael Madigan.

25 Jun 2008

Latino Senator Playing Both Sides of the Aisle

By Rich Miller

Senator Martin Sandoval (D-Chicago) was one of just a tiny handful of Illinois Democratic state legislators who backed Hillary Clinton's presidential bid over the local favorite Barack Obama.

18 Jun 2008

Memo Gets Democrats Talking About Impeachment

By Rich Miller

The reasons why House Speaker Michael Madigan's campaign staff produced a memo for candidates about how best to call for the impeachment of Governor Rod Blagojevich are pretty sound. The execution, however, left something to be desired.

11 Jun 2008

Conviction Leads to More Questions Than Answers

By Rich Miller

Some random thoughts about Tony Rezko's guilty verdict in his federal corruption trial...

04 Jun 2008

Pay-Raise Issue Brings Session to a Quick Close

By Rich Miller

The state-legislative pay-raise issue was a big reason why the Illinois Senate Democrats wanted to wrap things up by the May 31 deadline.

28 May 2008

Capital-Bill Architects Basically Give Up

By Rich Miller

Back in 1966, with the Vietnam War escalating by the day, Vermont Senator George Aiken famously said that the United States should just "declare victory and go home."

History may have repeated itself last week when the two men assigned by Governor Rod Blagojevich to forge a compromise on a multi-billion-dollar capital-construction plan unveiled a $31-billion proposal for roads, bridges, schools, and mass transit and then quickly left town. Their war was unwinnable.

21 May 2008

Voters Favor Impeachment of Blagojevich

By Rich Miller

A new statewide poll has found that 59 percent of Illinois registered voters want the Illinois legislature to begin impeachment hearings against Governor Rod Blagojevich.

14 May 2008

Choose Our Own Adventure

By Rich Miller

Sometimes, you run across something so perfect that you just have to share it.

Last week, an anonymous commenter on my blog composed a thing of pure beauty. The Automated Rod Blagojevich Story Generator is a very funny satire on how our state politics are stuck in a bizarre, ever-repeating spectacle.

The idea, the commenter explained, is to "pick one item from each section to generate a typical Rod Blagojevich story." And here it is.

 

 

07 May 2008

Recall Measure Fails, but Impeachment Could Loom

By Rich Miller

The oldest axiom in government is that it's always easier to kill something than it is to pass something. And that was proved true yet again last week when Senate President Emil Jones and Governor Rod Blagojevich teamed up to kill off the proposed constitutional amendment for recall of elected officials.

30 Apr 2008

Noose Tightens Around Blagojevich

By Rich Miller

"It had better be a job where you can make some money."

That, apparently, was what Governor Rod Blagojevich told Ali Ata about Ata's quest for a state job during Blagojevich's Navy Pier fundraiser in 2003 - an event that pulled in almost $4 million for the governor and appears to have put Blagojevich and his campaign fund in extreme legal jeopardy.

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