They’re
the people who literally will be praying that Quinn gets smacked on the behind
by the door that closes behind him when he leaves!
NOW
ANYBODY WITH sense realizes how over the top that kind of rhetoric is. Because
if anything, Quinn was the governor who managed to get a few things done
despite the General Assembly’s desire at times to do nothing.
That
attitude was most blatant with what Quinn had hoped would be the farewell
gesture of his six years as Illinois governor – a significant increase in the
minimum wage required of companies that operate in this state.
Anybody
who ever claims that Democrats run roughshod over the desires of the people is
absurd, and the minimum wage issue is probably Exhibit A in that argument. The
Quinn years were nothing like 1995-96 when Republicans dominated state
government, and it took the state Supreme Court to strike down the most egregious
measures.
There
was that referendum question that showed two-thirds of Illinoisans would have
supported an increase. Yet the Legislature felt compelled to do nothing. There
wasn’t even a token effort made on the issue.
IT
IS BECAUSE Democrats, by their nature, are capable of being an ornery lot who
can’t get along with themselves. The idea of Quinn leading some plot to impose
his own will with a sympathetic Legislature doing his bidding is ridiculous.
It
seems some people have watched the City Council way too much. Quinn is not
Mayor Rahm Emanuel by any means!
There
are the two issues that many political observers are citing as the key parts of
the Quinn gubernatorial legacy – abolishing the death penalty in Illinois and
actually approving the concept of legitimate marriage for gay couples (rather
than having a court strike down the existing laws that banned such marriages).
Yet
let’s be honest. Who thinks that Quinn came up with those ideas and gave them
to us?
ELIMINATING
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT in Illinois was an idea that had lingered for more than a
decade since the days of George Ryan. Gay marriage came to other states,
including some in the Midwestern U.S., long before it came to the Land of
Lincoln.
It
was when the Legislature could no longer resist the national trends that they
finally acted as they did – and I’m sure there are a few people who believe now
that there’s a Republican as governor, it is the first step toward repealing
gay marriage and bringing back lethal injection.
Let’s
also consider the ample problems our state faces in funding the pension
programs maintained for state workers and educators.
How
many years was the Legislature willing to ignore all the talk about how severe
the debt had grown? How many “drop dead” dates passed before the Legislature
finally went along with a Quinn desire.
AND
HOW MANY of the legislators are secretly hoping that resolution manages to get
shot down by the Supreme Court of Illinois – leaving state government (let
alone the city and Cook County government problems that the Legislature also
has to address) in just as big a mess as ever.
My
own view of Quinn’s “legacy” is that he carried on his mentality of being the
gadfly of Illinois government – the pain-in-the-behind who constantly pointed
out the problems.
Back
in those days, he often was laughed at, if not outright ignored, by legislators
– who kept that same mentality in place once he became the head of the state’s
executive branch.
I
remember one legislator (a Democrat and member in good standing with the black
caucus) once telling me that Quinn’s temperament was so quirky that he couldn’t
be trusted to stand up in support for them. So they felt no compulsion to
support him in return!
SO
THAT IS most likely the Quinn “legacy;” not fully appreciated until after he’s
gone and we see how much worse things can become (You know they will!).
And
that date back in January of 2009 when Quinn entered the state Senate chambers to
cheers from legislators in the moments following the impeachment of Rod
Blagojevich now feels like it was even more distant in time than the Chicago
Cubs’ last World Series title.
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