Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller ranks second in the nation for receiving campaign money from lawyers in the past five years and is among the friendliest to trial lawyers' agenda, according to a report released October 25 by a conservative think tank.

But Miller denounced the report as inaccurate and called it a "cheap shot" from a corporate interest group. He said that campaign-finance data citing $338,223 in contributions in three weeks came from a discredited report, that claims about him keeping a low profile are "ridiculous," and that more-favorable data about Iowa's business climate are "conveniently omitted."

"If the Center for Legal Policy were subject to Iowa's Consumer Fraud Act, we'd probably bust them because of their outright misrepresentations," Miller told IowaPolitics.com. "This report is riddled with misrepresentations and omissions of important facts."

It's long been a tenet of public opinion that voters want the government to cut its budget and don't want new revenues, but also don't want any actual programs slashed.

However, the latest Paul Simon Public Policy Institute poll shows a slow but sure trend in favor of specific state budget cuts and revenue increases.

A large majority of Illinoisans do still believe in magic. According to the poll, 58 percent say the state budget can be balanced by cutting waste and inefficiency. And because of this belief in an utter fantasy world where fairies reign and pixie dust solves all our problems, too few want to actually cut state spending programs.

The spreading Occupy Wall Street movement, despite a vague worldview and agenda, properly senses that something is dreadfully wrong in America. The protesters vent their anger at the big financial institutions in New York's money district (as well as other big cities) for the housing and financial bubble, the resulting Great Recession, the virtual non-recovery, the threat of a second recession, and the long-term unemployment - which averages more than 9 percent but hits certain groups and areas far more severely than others.

The protest is understandable, even laudable, but there's something the protesters need to know: Wall Street couldn't have done it alone. The protesters' wrath should also be directed at the national government and its central bank, the Federal Reserve System, because it took the government or the Fed (or both) to:

• create barriers to entry, for the purpose of sheltering existing banks from competition and radical innovation;

• then regulate for the benefit of the privileged industry;

Illinois Democrats can be excused for feeling more than a little spooked these days.

And there's probably no greater example about why they are so worried than the stunning announcement earlier this month that longtime Democratic Congressman Jerry Costello won't run for re-election.

Shock combined with fear was in almost every Democratic voice the day of Costello's announcement. If Costello was bailing on them, then things must be even worse than they thought. It didn't help that there appeared to be no "reason" for his decision. His son, state Representative Jerry Costello II, immediately defied all expectations by saying he wasn't interested in the seat, so Costello wasn't stepping aside for the kid. The congressman wasn't ill. He didn't have a job offer. He isn't under investigation. The widespread conclusion was that it must be the worsening political environment.