In my post of two days ago (THE PENSION DEBACLE IN ILLINOIS: MR. MADGIAN AS MACHIAVELLI, MR. EMANUEL LOSES A ROUND, OR MR. QUINN GOES TO SPRINGFIELD?, 6/3/13 ), I stated of Governor Pat Quinn (no relation)
He can, and probably will, conduct a sort of Mr. Quinn Goes to Springfield type of campaign in 2014, in which Mr. Quinn, a lifelong politician who has played “get along, go along” for the last 40 years, will be cast as a sort of St. George who battles the dragons of Mike Madigan and his minions. The voters of Illinois might go for it; they have certainly gone for much more preposterous notions; see, as only the most salient example, the governorship of the man whom Mr. Quinn served as Lieutenant Governor, Rod Blagojevich.
Mr. Quinn seems to be doing just what I suspected he would do. Already, he has called a meeting among him, House Speaker Mike Madigan, and Senate President John Cullerton to try to reach a solution to the pension problem. Mr. Quinn called the meeting even though, according to Madigan spokesman Steve Brown, the Governor knew Speaker Madigan was not available. If Mr. Brown is correct, what could be the purpose of such a meeting if not to highlight the inability, or the unwillingness, of the legislative leadership to solve the pension problem?
Mr. Quinn also said yesterday
“I think it’s important for the speaker of the House to come to the realization that working with his counterpart in the Senate is the way to go to get comprehensive pension reform in this state. We can do this. The key is for the Legislature to do its job. I’m ready to do my job and that’s to sign the bill into law.”
Mr. Quinn said this despite knowing full well that Mr. Madigan has never considered Mr. Cullerton a “counterpart” if the word “counterpart” implies anything like equality. Mr. Madigan has always considered Mr. Cullerton at best a very junior partner and more likely, as I have said in the past, a sort of mini-me to Mr. Madigan, and perhaps deservedly so. While Mr. Cullerton is obviously an accomplished pol himself, he doesn’t play in the same league as Mike Madigan. No one does.
Mr. Quinn’s efforts to blame the legislature for the failure to enact pension reform and to set up the fast approaching 2014 primary as a Jimmy Stewartesque battle between the forces of sweetness and light vs. the dark side may be working. Yesterday, House Minority Leader Tom Cross opined that Mr. Quinn does not wear the jacket for the legislature’s failure; the blame, according to Mr. Cross, lies squarely with Mr. Madigan. Of course, in Illinois no one cares what the Republicans think, but one can be quite sure that Mr. Cross’s thinking reflects that of his suburban constituency, the type of voters Mr. Quinn, or his likely opponent Attorney General Lisa Madigan, will need to win in order to remain, or become, governor.
Mr. Quinn may need to tread lightly here. As long as there is a chance that meaningful pension reform can be enacted into law between now and the primary season, he cannot afford to antagonize Mr. Madigan or Mr. Cullerton. Solving, or even seriously mitigating, our pension problems while he is in office would give a huge boost to Mr. Quinn’s efforts to keep his job, so he doesn’t want to throw away an opportunity to do so.
But Mr. Quinn, despite all too frequent evidence to the contrary, is a clever fellow and a good politician. He can probably attack the “do-nothing” legislature while not naming Mr. Madigan, or Mr. Cullerton, specifically and make it look to Mr. Madigan as if he is attacking Mr. Cullerton and to Mr. Cullerton as if he is attacking Mr. Madigan. Though the above quote from Mr. Quinn, specifically
“…it’s important for the speaker of the House to come to the realization that working with his counterpart in the Senate is the way to go to get comprehensive pension reform in this state.”
seems to be a direct assault on Mr. Madigan, it is more subtle in its criticism of the Speaker than it appears at first glance and leaves plenty of room to place plenty of blame on Mr. Cullerton and on the nebulous “legislature.” Such tactics might ultimately somehow shame the Speaker and the Senate President into actually doing something about the problem that is bankrupting our once great state. Notice I used the term “might.”
On the other hand, Governor Quinn may have already come to the conclusion, rightly or wrongly, that Mr. Madigan has decided to sabotage any hope at pension reform in the interest of denying Mr. Quinn the type of crowning achievement that could keep Mr. Quinn in, and Mr. Madigan’s daughter out of, the Governor’s mansion. If Mr. Quinn has come to this conclusion, he will see no need for subtlety in his attacks on Messrs. Madigan, Cullerton, and anyone else he can demonize, and deservedly so, in his struggle for re-election.
Whether Mr. Quinn attacks subtlety or engages in a full frontal assault, he will be going after the legislature and “politics as usual” in his upcoming campaign for re-election. It’s his only chance, and it’s a better chance than most people think.
And however Mr. Quinn conducts his imagined or otherwise crusade of the virtuous against the cesspool that is the politics of this state, it will be interesting, as are all things in Chicago/Illinois politics,; see my 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 our peculiar politics.
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