Regular readers know that I am no big fan of Governor Pat Quinn (no relation). We are generally on opposite sides of the political spectrum, though lately, given the mewing that has been emanating from those who claim to hold the conservative banner, I’ve had a hard time determining where on the political spectrum I stand. See my 2/28/13 post CHRIS CHRISTIE AND CHUCK HAGEL NEED NOT APPLY. Beyond that, Pat Quinn’s career has been characterized by either misguided or malevolent demagoguery that betrays either a fundamental misunderstanding of how wealth and prosperity are generated in a free market society or a desire for power and recognition so powerful and consuming that it rides roughshod over the facts, common sense, and, in some cases, decency.
All that having been written, I don’t believe that Mr. Quinn is a fundamentally indecent man. Though he often substitutes emotion for sound thought and reasoning, he genuinely seems to care about the poor and downtrodden and feels a duty, on his part and on everyone’s part, to do what he can to ease the plight of our fellow citizens. He feels, I suspect, that we are our brothers’ keepers, though he seems to think he is, or ought to be, first among equals in this duty to keep an eye out for what he perceives to be the little guy.
Furthermore, the people I know who know Quinn, and who have known him for years, tell me he is essentially a good guy. Some of these guys are pretty hard core conservatives, yet they still vote for Quinn. Given what I have learned about what the role of ideology should be in politics when personal ties are in place, I don’t blame them for voting for a guy they know and like regardless of their lack of ideological affinity, but that is grist for another mill.
I don’t know Pat Quinn, but, a long time ago when he was either State Treasurer or between jobs, he, I, and an economist friend of mine had a long lunch with Mr. Quinn to talk about the state’s finances. While Mr. Quinn, being a politician, was doubtless more interested in political contributions (which didn’t come from either of us) than our opinions on money issues, he certainly made it seem that he wanted to hear what we had to say and he asked very good questions; the man clearly is intelligent.
Finally, when Pat Quinn, or any politician, is right, I, who have little or no regard for any but a very few people who practice his craft, have to admit that he is right. And Pat Quinn was very right when, in presenting his budget, he pointed out the obvious, to wit, that we must do something about our pension problem in this state. Yes, we all know that. But a firm grasp of the obvious eludes most politicians, so the your typical pol deserves some credit even for stating what is plain to those of us who hold, in the eyes of the politicians, lower stations in life.
The mutual desire of that Mr. Quinn and this Mr. Quinn to solve our pension problems arises from opposite motivations. Yours truly would like to save the state from bankruptcy and perhaps cut taxes while Pat Quinn would like to find more money to blow on real, potential, or even perceived constituencies and thus help in his ongoing struggle to stay on the public payroll as long as possible. Nevertheless, we both see the need for addressing this problem.
Further, Mr. Quinn was right when he said, in delivering his budget address
“We all know that we must reform the Illinois Illinois
It is indeed time for the motley crew of no account poltroons that we call legislators to get off their taxpayer padded posteriors and do something.
As one might guess, though, Mr. Quinn’s call for the legislators to stop whistling past the graveyard didn’t sit well with those esteemed public servants on either side of the aisle. Even the Republicans, who profess to want to “address our pension problems,” as long as it won’t cost their constituencies anything, had little good to say about the scolding Governor Quinn delivered. The most inane of these comments came from Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno (R. Lemont). Ms. Radogno, suddenly defending the institution she spends most of her time castigating, from the inside, opined that it was “unfair” (boo-hoo) of Quinn to lay blame on the lawmakers, arguing
“Most of the work that has been done on pensions has come out of the General Assembly, and not out of the governor’s office.”
That statement was inane enough, given that NOTHING has been done on pensions by either the General Assembly or the Governor. Most of nothing is still nothing. But Ms. Radogno compounded this whopper by arguing that
“The governor should have turned and put that to the guy standing behind him in
a navy blue suit. ... I think people here are tired of his style of politics.”
a navy blue suit. ... I think people here are tired of his style of politics.”
The “guy standing behind (Governor Quinn) in a navy blue suit” at the time literally but not nearly as figuratively as Ms. Radogno, in her febrile imagination, would like to believe, is House Speaker Michael Madigan. (See, inter alia, my 2/28/13 post REDFLEX TRAFFIC SYSTEMS: CHICAGO SIDE OF THE WORLD.)
Hmm…
First Ms. Radogno says that it is “unfair” (How I hate that word when used by adults! When has fairness ever been a prominent feature of life? But I digress.) of the Governor to blame the legislature for Illinois
Does Ms. Radogno realize what office House Speaker Mike Madigan holds? He is the Speaker of the House…and the House is half the legislature. Further, if truth be told, the Speaker controls not only the House but, though his close association with (Some might say, with some justification, control of) Senate President John Cullerton, the Speaker also commands the other half of the legislature.
So in Ms. Radogno’s world, we aren’t supposed to blame the legislature for the pension mess; we are supposed to blame the guy who runs the legislature, the guy who, for all intents and purposes, is the legislature.
In my 2/27/13 post MR. SUNSHINE ON ROBIN KELLY, DEBBIE HALVORSON, AND THE ILLINOIS 2ND CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT RESULTS, I wrote
Watching Ms. Halvorson in action could almost lead one to the conclusion that the Democrats of the 2nd District should be excused for nominating Robin Kelly, or at least were smart not to have nominated Ms. Halvorson. Ms. Halvorson was once Majority Leader of the Illinois Illinois Illinois
Judging from current Republican Senate Leader Christine Radogno’s failure to understand that the legislature is the legislature, the quality of the leadership in the General Assembly has not gotten any better since the days of Debbie Halvorson. If such a thing is possible, it may have gotten worse.
No wonder why we find ourselves slogging through such deep excrement in this great hog producing state.
See my two books, The Chairman, A Novel of Big City Politics and The Chairman’s Challenge, A Continuing Novel of Big City Politics, for further illumination on how things work in Chicago and Illinois politics.
No comments:
Post a Comment