While I still think things will eventually calm down and Governor Rod Blagojevich's insistence that senior citizens be given free rides on all mass-transit systems will one day be viewed as a welcomed entitlement, it's obvious that lots and lots of Illinoisans don't feel that way right now.

Pure genius. Hot-dogging genius, of course, but brilliant nonetheless.

I'm referring to Governor Rod Blagojevich's announcement last week that he would abandon his much-repeated pledge to veto any tax hike "on people" and go ahead and approve a regional sales-tax hike to fund a mass-transit bailout for Chicagoland. His only caveat was that senior citizens must forever ride free on all transit districts in the state.

The most positive thing to come out of last week's umpteenth special legislative session was that Governor Rod Blagojevich didn't call another one for the next day.

I was on a TV show recently and the host asked me what I thought could be done to bring the Democratic leaders of Illinois back from "the brink of the abyss."

Too late, I said. We're already in the abyss, and we've been there for a while.

It could have been worse, I guess.

Now that Governor Rod Blagojevich has unilaterally declared that a previously obscure but always important legislative committee has no real power, things could change radically at the Illinois Statehouse.

The decision by Governor Rod Blagojevich to attend a Chicago Blackhawks game last Wednesday night instead of remaining at the Statehouse while the Illinois House defeated his mass-transit-funding-bailout proposal says a lot about the governor on several different levels, none of it positive.

 

Political blogs have been getting a bad rap in newspapers for years, but they're rapidly coming of age, and they're already making an impact in campaigns throughout Illinois this year.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich A new statewide poll shows that, given the opportunity, a majority of Illinoisans would vote to recall Governor Rod Blagojevich. But don't get your hopes up.

House Speaker Michael Madigan In the hyper-over-reactive world that is the Illinois Statehouse, every move made by every major player is analyzed to death to see who is zooming whom. House Speaker Michael Madigan's Illinois Gaming Board reform plan is a case in point.

Pages