How much has politics changed? Madigan used to be anti-abortion ally

Michael Madigan, the head Democrat for Illinois (although not Chicago) and long-time Illinois House speaker, has formally been informed he can no longer accept Communion when he goes to church.

MADIGAN: Can no longer take communion

Strictly speaking, officials in charge of the Roman Catholic church in Springfield, Ill., have excommunicated him. Which must be tragic, of sorts to the one-time graduate of St. Adrian’s Elementary and St. Ignatius College prep schools in Chicago, along with the holiest of holy Catholic universities – Notre Dame.

THE ANNOUNCEMENT CAME down as a result of Bishop Thomas Paprocki, who is in charge of the Springfield, Ill., diocese. Paprocki is so peeved that the General Assembly debated (and approved) the Reproductive Health Act.

That’s the measure that ensures even if the anti-abortion ideologues manage to get the Supreme Court of the United States to act in ways meant to eliminate on a national scale the right of a woman to terminate a pregnancy, it will not impact Illinois.

The “Land of Lincoln” will remain a place where abortion will be regarded as a legitimate medical procedure.

Madigan said Thursday he had been contacted by Paprocki prior to the Legislature acting last month on the bill in question, and knew that Paprocki would be likely to act with grave disapproval. Yet he went ahead and used his political influence to allow the issue to come up – where it passed overwhelmingly.

PAPROCKI: Taking a stand on abortion

AS MADIGAN PUT it, “After much deliberation and reflection, I made the decision to allow debate and a vote on the legislation.”

Then, he made the statement that I’m sure the religious ideologues will claim confirms his place in Hell for all eternity.

“I believe it is more important to protect a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions, including women who become pregnant as a result of rape or incest,” said Mr. Speaker,

Yes, I write that knowing full well there are those who will screech and scream about “God’s law” being supreme above all else, and who are more than willing to overlook any suffering in this lifetime because, theoretically, the life eternal is special enough to overcome the miseries of this existence here.

CULLERTON: Also dragged into battle

SO MADIGAN, STATE Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, and for all I know, maybe all Catholic members of the General Assembly, are now excommunicated. To suffer eternal punishment for thinking a woman’s health and physical well-being is her own business.

Which is ironic because I remember back a couple of decades when anti-abortion activists considered Mike Madigan himself to be about as sympathetic to their cause as any politico could be.

His Catholic upbringing meant he wasn’t particularly sympathetic to that portion of Democrats who wanted the political party to be allied with women on this issue. I remember anti-abortion types saying Madigan was good for them because he’d allow their bills meant to restrict abortion in various ways to come up with debate. Some of them would even pass.

As opposed to playing political “boss” and cutting off any discussion on the issue.

OF COURSE, THE reason their larger stance never passed was because the majority was sympathetic on abortion, which ultimately drove Madigan into the abortion rights camp on the issue.

CUPICH: Shaking his head at donnybrook that has arisen?

And which now has him condemned by Paprocki. He won’t be able to take Communion – at least not as far as at any Catholic church in Springfield. Although Paprocki later told the Chicago Tribune he’ll restore Madigan if he makes an apologetic statement, then introduce a bill repealing what the Legislature just did.

As to whether Cardinal Blasé Cupich of the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago would feel compelled to get involved, that remains to be seen. Considering that Paprocki is the bishop who, a few years ago, stirred up a national stink when he held an exorcism at his church in response to the Illinois General Assembly making it legal for same-gender couples to legitimately marry, he may be reinforcing a reputation amongst Catholic as to everything that is wrong with their religious faith.

Cupich himself may want to steer clear of this affair. While Madigan himself joins the ranks of many Catholics who step aside during Mass to let others take Communion, while wondering if this is further evidence their church has lost touch with the daily realities of life.

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EXTRA: Rauner wins! (for now)

Gov. Bruce Rauner has a political victory, for the time being. Albeit one that I’m sure his political opponents will want to use to beat him repeatedly over the head with as we come closer and closer to the November general elections.

RAUNER: The ultimate loser?

Rauner used his “veto” power to reject a measure the General Assembly approved this spring – one that would have put state government into the business of licensing firearms dealers operating anywhere in Illinois.

HE CLAIMED THAT was too much regulation, and that there already were other entities providing sufficient regulation of such businesses.

That rejection was permitted to stand when, earlier this week, the Illinois Senate decided not to even try to overturn the governor – which they could have done if they had come up with a 60 percent united front. Something that Democrats do have it in their power to do.

But they’re not going to try. So Rauner’s veto will remain in place, and the measure that was part of a series of bills approved by the Illinois Legislature in the weeks following that school shooting incident in Florida earlier this year will not take effect anytime soon.

It’s always possible the Democratic-led Legislature can try again, and perhaps get it though the governmental process in the future to become law.

CULLERTON: Not challenging veto

BUT FOR NOW, it’s going to serve as a partisan club that can be applied upside Rauner’s head as Democrat J.B. Pritzker challenges him for the governor’s post in this year’s election cycle.

You can already hear the partisan rhetoric – legislators tried to pass a new law meant to protect the public from acts of violence, yet Governor Rauner decided to side with the National Rifle Association and the other conservative ideologues inclined to reject firearms restrictions of any type.

It makes me wonder if Democrats are actually happier with the governor’s veto than they’d be if they could pass the bill into law. A partisan weapon for a future Election Day always has value to political operatives.

PRITZKER: Gains a weapon against Rauner

Now I’m sure the ideologically-inclined of you who are willing to support Rauner’s re-election bid are claiming this is a cheap shot and that nobody of any sense would give such a charge any credence.

BUT KEEP IN mind the level of cheap partisan rhetoric the Rauner camp is spewing, and will continue to spew, in their efforts to get people to cast symbolic votes against Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, by casting actual ballots against Pritzker.

Just this morning, I received an e-mail from the Rauner camp telling me, “Pritzker and Madigan aren’t interested in fixing our state – their only concern is maintaining their own corruption.”

Of course, then the Rauner camp proceeded to solicit donations so they could afford to keep spreading their message.

Which means they want us to pay so they can continue to bombard us with nonsense-talk – an act I think actually shows a lot of nerve and one that makes him worthy of all the headaches he will suffer as he defends himself against allegations that he “sold out Illinois” to the NRA.

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Rauner, Trump have one thing in common, both play scapegoat game

On a serious note, Gov. Bruce Rauner plans to meet with the leaders of the Illinois General Assembly on Thursday so as to discuss what will happen during the remaining portion of the legislature’s spring session that ends May 31.

Does Rauner really believe his pot-shots ...

Those meetings are supposed to include Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and state Senate President John Cullerton, both D-Chicago. Which is supposed to give the impression that everybody’s being serious about government activity.

YET HOW SERIOUS can we think anybody s being when, in announcing the bipartisan political meetings, Rauner also goes out of his way to take pot shots at his political opposition?

“This election is about the people uniting against a corrupt machine of self-dealing, unethical behavior, insider transactions, higher taxes that benefit a few against the people,” the governor told reporter-type people on Monday.

This comes as the governor sent out an Internet survey (which I happened to receive in my e-mail as I was writing this commentary), asking me if I support “roll(ing) back Mike Madigan’s 32 percent income tax hike.”

Which is about as loaded a question as one can ask, since the increase being referred to was the one that boosted the state’s personal income tax rate from 3.75 percent to 5 percent. It could raise nearly one-third more money, but it is not a 32 percent hike (it’s about a 1.25 percent increase).

... of Monday will be received well by ...

NOT THAT I’M at all “shocked, shocked” Rauner would engage in making such politically-partisan cheap shots. “Blaming” Madigan is what the governor has been doing throughout his gubernatorial term. Why should anything change now?

But you have to admit it takes a certain amount of nerve to so blatantly lambast the guy you’re talking about wanting to meet with to have serious talks about government activity.

It may be as tacky as the behavior of President Donald J. Trump a few months ago when he complained about Mexico and its governments open refusal to even consider footing the bill for that silly barricade along the U.S./Mexico border that Trump keeps claiming is the key to national security.

... Madigan and Cullerton on Thursday?

Trump has said that because he has made so many political promises to his backers on this issue, he needs to have the wall and Mexico has no business opposing him on the issue.

AN ARROGANT ATTITUDE to have, and one that is similar to Rauner thinking he can repeatedly bash about Madigan and the Democratic caucus he controls in the state Legislature because they don’t blindly follow his political whims.

The governor may say repeatedly they are “reforms,” but many of them are anti-union measures meant to undermine the influence of organized labor within state government – and they were measures that no self-respecting government official with Democratic Party leanings was ever going to support.

All of which makes me think Rauner fully intends to finish out his current term in office with the same inactivity that dominated his time in office.

It was during The Rauner Years that we got just over two straight years with the state operating without a balanced budget – which interfered with government’s ability to pay bills and conduct its business and made the state’s financial problems as severe as they currently are.

COME JULY 1 (the beginning of the state’s 2019 fiscal year), we’re likely to go back to no budget; which most likely will run through the Nov. 6 general election and the rest of this calendar year.

Is Rauner more similar to Trump than he admits?

We have a governor who’s willing to play partisan politics and behave in a reckless manner with the state’s finances because the political opponents won’t blindly go along with his own partisan goals.

I’m sure the conservative ideologues of Illinois will want to disregard this – they’ll want to think they took down Rauner single-handedly because he won’t back their out-of-touch-with-many-people views on issues such as abortion and immigration.

But the reality is that it will be Rauner’s desire to put his anti-union ideology ahead of the daily workings of government that causes the majority to turn out come Election Day and cast ballots against Bruce. Because it’s time we remember the old cliché about government being “the people’s business” – which hasn’t, by and large, been getting done in recent years.

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Rauner getting desperate to change the story we’re all talking about these days?

I don’t expect political candidates to say nice things about their opponents, but I couldn’t quite get over the level of ludicrousness expressed Thursday by the Illinois Republican Party on behalf of Gov. Bruce Rauner.

RAUNER: 57 days, or 63 percent?

Until, that is, I saw the level of unpopularity Rauner is sinking to in a new survey by the Democratic Governors Association – which isn’t exactly an unbiased source.

BUT IT SEEMS that Rauner has desperately to do something to shift attention away from the fact that his actions as governor are creating scenarios by which Election Day of 2018 can’t come too soon for many people as they eagerly wait for their chance to vote Bruce out of office.

It’s about the only explanation for the nonsense-talk spewed by the state’s GOP where they emphasize 57 Days Madigan Machine Holding Schools Hostage.

Their line of logic is that Democrats who run the General Assembly should have sent the education funding bill (the one that is at the heart of the latest round of partisan bickering in Springfield) to the governor for consideration immediately upon its approval May 31.

That bill is still pending even though already approved by both the Illinois House and state Senate; where President John Cullerton has hinted he may send it along to the governor come Monday.

Which of these political entities ...

WHICH HAS RAUNER claiming that Democrats, particularly Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, are to blame for the potential threat to public schools across the state being able to open for the new school year come mid-August.

GOPers literally have created a clock ticking down the amount of time since then that Dems are supposedly to blame – even though most public school officials I have talked to in various districts are more inclined to blame Bruce Rauner for the fact that public school funding for the upcoming fiscal year isn’t set in stone yet.

It’s why we’re getting nonsense-talk such as “It’s a blatant assault on our democracy in order to create pressure for their Chicago bailout.” Even though his “Chicago bailout” is really just a measure long needed to specify the way in which the state ought to be involved with the retirement benefits for public school teachers in Chicago the way they are with teachers in any other district across Illinois.

OF COURSE, THE bill that supposedly has a 57-day countdown means nothing. It wouldn’t have meant anything until a budget for the state was put in place in early July. Which makes any 57-day tally as of Thursday nothing more than pure nonsense.

... warrants more credibility these days?

But Rauner wants to tar Madigan with a count similar to the 735-day count that was done during the budget talks (as in just over two full years without a state in budget in place, a figure that was used to blast Bruce repeatedly).

It’s also meant to detract from the latest poll by the governor’s association – one that shows 63 percent of Illinoisans thinking Rauner has done a “poor” or “not so good” job as governor.

Only 34 percent of those surveyed think Rauner is doing well as governor – which is actually worse than the 39 percent approval rating that the Gallup Organization gave to President Donald Trump on Thursday.

CULLERTON: Will bill advance Monday?

MUCH OF THE politicking is meant to stir up outrage amongst voters in the rural parts of the state; making them think that Rauner is their protector against the urban monstrosity known as Chicago. He hopes he’s stirring up voter support in the other third of Illinois.

For his sake, he’d better be. Because the same survey shows Rauner with a 68 percent negative rating in Chicago and 54 percent in the collar counties that make up the outer Chicago suburbs – usually the one part of metro Chicago where a Republican can count on some support.

MADIGAN: What will next move be?

The scary part of all this is that we have just over 15 months to go until the 2018 gubernatorial election cycle. We’re going to have to endure a lengthy period of this spiel – particularly since the poll shows Rauner losing to any unnamed Democrat.

For even long after this current partisan spat over the opening of the school year is settled, we’re going to hear the details repeated over and over and over yet again until the level of nausea reaches a record peak.

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“32 percent-ers” want to keep playing politics with the Illinois state budget

It seems our state’s Legislature has come to agreement on a spending plan for Illinois government, and also an increase in the state income tax rate to ensure there’s enough revenue to fulfill the state’s financial responsibilities.
 

RAUNER: Senate overrode his veto w/in minutes

Not that I’m about to offer up many rounds of “huzzahs!” for the Democrats who run the General Assembly.

I’M SURE THEY’RE going to claim to have made the incredibly difficult choice necessary to ensure that Illinois state government can start the process of returning to normal operations – a process that’s going to take a few years to complete.

But I find it pathetic to see Democrats now being so eager to vote to support an increase in the individual income tax rate to 4.95 percent. That’s the increase meant to raise some 32 percent more revenue for the government – which is why the conservative ideologues are going on and on with their rants that the income tax is being raised 32 percent.

Actually, the rate is being raised from 3.75 percent to the aforementioned 4.95 percent – retroactive to Saturday (the beginning of the current state fiscal year), while the corporate rate will go from 5.25 percent to 7 percent. Combined, they would produce about $5 billion more in revenue per year.

No matter how one wants to explain it, a 1.25 percent increase in the rate is not a 32 percent increase in the rate. It’s just a rant from people whose primary desire to cut state funding is to annihilate programs they’d rather not be bothered with.

SIMILAR TO THE line of logic that the outspoken anti-tax activist Grover Norquist espoused when he said he wanted to shrink government to a size small enough, “where we can drown it in a bathtub.”

 

How quickly will Dem leader pair ...

Meaning that I think the people who are going to offer up praise for Gov. Bruce Rauner for saying he’ll veto the General Assembly’s actions even if it means the budget stalemate continues are full of it for claiming that they’re against a 32 percent hike in the tax rate.

But I’m still not about to offer up undying praise for Democrats for doing this – largely because I can’t help but wonder why they couldn’t have done this a few years ago.

If they had expressed the political will to take this very same action two years ago, our political people would never have been in this position to begin with.

 

... offer up praise for themselves?

REMEMBER BACK TO the days when Pat Quinn was governor and the state enacted an increase in the state income tax rate that was set to expire in four years? But in his final months in office, Quinn wanted the Legislature to make the increase permanent.

Only the Democratic majority of the Legislature, which never really liked having to deal with Pat Quinn in the first place, felt compelled to stick it to him by doing nothing. Letting the increase wither away and creating the conditions that caused the new governor to feel compelled to fight it out with the General Assembly.

I don’t doubt that even if the General Assembly had given Quinn his final gubernatorial desire, Rauner still would have found excuses to take on the General Assembly. The man did come in with desires to undermine organized labor’s influence over state government, and that would not have gone away!

But Democrats now are willing to approve an increase in the income tax rate that they could have done years ago? I can’t help but think that somewhere, Quinn is smirking. I can hear the “I told you so” in my mind.

WHICH SCARES ME if I’m hearing Pat Quinn voices. It terrifies me almost as much as the potential for the financial harm that could befall the state of Illinois if action doesn’t occur soon – as in the coming days.

 

QUINN: Will he say 'told you so"

It didn't take long for Rauner to follow through with his threats to veto -- he did so on Tuesday. We'll now see if the General Assembly coalition of the Democratic majority and a few Republicans manages to hang together to allow for a gubernatorial override. The state Senate did vote to override within minutes of Rauner's rejection, while the Michael Madigan-led Illinois House held off on acting, for the time being.

I’m sure Rauner and his GOP acolytes will then claim this to be an entirely Democratic tax hike, and one in which they will try to place as much blame as possible leading up to the Nov. 6, 2018 statewide elections.

But the reality is that there has been enough juvenile behavior in the name of partisan politics to spread around to all the political parties. Anybody who goes on and on with claims of a “32 percent tax hike” is one who apparently favors the nonsense to continue, rather than trying to resume the concept of responsible governing for the people.

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EXTRA: Everybody’s spewing a load of bull in the land of Springpatch

Springpatch; it's that mythical place where Illinois political people live in their own little world and the concerns of the real people whom they’re supposed to be representing don’t seem to amount to much.

All gloomy and dank at the Statehouse these days as it was in this century-old postcard image

Springpatch. That’s the place where we wish we could avoid, yet it now is taking over the focal point of our state government operations all because of the nothingness that is occurring there.

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY convened again in their “special session” – which former legislator-turned-Cook County Commissioner John Fritchey says  on his Facebook account "aren't very special at all" – for a whole lot of nothing toward trying to craft the operating budget that would allow state government to function properly.

We haven’t had one of those for nearly two full years – and based on what we’ve seen so far this week, there’s no reason to think we’re going to have one by next Friday (which is the final day of state fiscal 2017).

About the only thing that did get done Friday was the obligatory round of statements issued by the political partisan hacks who want us to blame “the other guy” for the whole lot of nothingness that is occurring.

Madigan, Cullerton continue to stall was the headline atop the Illinois Republican-issued statement, while da Dems claimed to be “deeply disappointed” that Republican leaders wouldn’t meet with them Friday “and work (with us) to advance a balanced budget.”

THE BULL EMANATING from the Statehouse Scene made me think for a second that we were in mid-August – the time of year when state officials focus attention on the Illinois State Fair and we get to smell the fragrant aroma of the assorted farm animals on the state fairgrounds.

So do I think that Senate Minority Leader Christine Ragodno and James Durkin of the Illinois House really created a sense of disappointment by not showing up to meet with Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan or state Senate President John Cullerton?

No more than I believe the Republican rhetoric that Democrats are engaging in “sham hearings” by refusing to blindly vote for whatever the GOP tells them to do.

This is a problem that will require a true sense of political bipartisanship to resolve. Unfortunately, all we’re getting is some of the most intense partisan trash talk that has ever come from Springpatch.

IT’S NO WONDER that we’re getting such garbage from a place that brings to mind the lame old gag of naming the Illinois capital city in memory of the fictitious hometown from the old Lil’ Abner cartoons.

Because there are times I think our government officials have all the sense of a Shmoo.

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The dueling Dem strategy on putting together a state budget. Or, do politicos of either party have a sense of shame?

It was intriguing to see the WTTW-TV news program “Chicago Tonight” earlier this week when they did a panel of state legislators (not the leaders) to get them to talk about state government’s inability for two years now to put together a state budget.

 

CULLERTON: Taking the fiscal lead?

State Rep. Carol Sente, D-Vernon Hills, tried to explain Monday the hardline stance of Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, by saying the House speaker sees no point in going through the motions of passing a budget proposal if it is quite obvious that Gov. Bruce Rauner will immediately veto it.

THEN PUBLICLY PICK it apart in ways meant to bash Democratic Party political interests for not complying with the hardline, anti-organized labor vision he has for the state of Illinois.

If she is quoting Madigan accurately (and I have no reason to doubt she is), then it does make a certain amount of sense that the Illinois House this spring refused to even take up budget measures that were under consideration because the Illinois state Senate went ahead on their own to advance them.

So what should we make of the fact that the Senate Dems, under the leadership of President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, think they deserve praise for their effort?

Cullerton issued a statement on Tuesday saying the state’s financial problems could be resolved if only Rauner would urge Republicans in the Illinois House to support the measure he has already created.

“WE HELD SPENDING to the exact level (the governor) wanted, kept the tax rate that he asked for, cut $3 billion in spending and ultimately eliminated the nearly $5 billion deficit in his proposed budget,” Cullerton said.

 

MADIGAN: Sees no point to negotiation

“The Senate has done its work,” he said. “It’s up to Gov. Rauner and the Illinois House to finish the job.”

Well, to cite the old cliché expressing sarcasm, “Bully for you.”

As though the political world of Illinois would be a wonderful place if we’d only do what we’re told by John Cullerton. Maybe if this had occurred two years ago, it would be considered a credible effort. It won’t be now.

SO WE NOW have a split in attitudes between the Democratic leadership; one in which Madigan is willing to play hardball to counter the hardball tactics being used by the governor as a deliberate effort to pass a vision of “reform” that many of us would see as anything but.

 

RAUNER: No signs of compromising

As opposed to the vision of Cullerton, who thinks he can shame the governor into signing off on a budget because he wouldn’t want to be remembered as the governor who prolonged the state’s budget-less status any longer than necessary.

Which might be a logical way of thinking of things IF political people had any sense of shame. Yet most of them do not.

I think if Rauner truly cared about the criticism he has been taking and the fact that his public legacy is floating around in a pool of water that has developed at the bottom of a garbage dumpster, this situation would never have developed back in the spring of 2015.

YET RAUNER WAS a business-oriented guy who probably thinks that undermining organized labor’s influence over state government IS more important than the short-term problems caused by a lack of a budget. Except that the “short-term” has stretched out to two full years and shows every sign of extending into four – with the only end in sight being a drastic change in the partisan composition of Illinois state government following the November 2018 election cycle.

Where the budget stalemate (sadly) is likely to be resolved

So when Cullerton says, “the governor needs to sit down with House Republicans, come to agreement on this balanced budget and then help make it law,” I can’t help but snicker. It isn’t going to happen. It’s as absurd an image as that of Cullerton being able to give orders to Madigan about fiscal matters – or any other, for that matter.

What we have in Illinois is a political grudge match between the governor and House speaker, with both having entrenched themselves so firmly neither is capable of budging.

Regardless of which one actually winds up prevailing in the end, the ultimate loser is the Illinois public – which has to suffer knowing these are our allegedly best and brightest of minds at work doing “the peoples’ business.” No wonder most people use that phrase in a mocking tone.

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Is government too political?

Sometimes, I think what is most wrong with our government is politics.
 

PRECKWINKLE: 18 months of caution to get re-elected

Now I know some of you are going to be confused by such a statement; largely because you use the words “government” and “politics” as though they’re inter-changeable.

BUT GOVERNMENT IS the process by which our elected officials create public policy for our benefit – the work that some political observers sarcastically refer to as “the people’s business.”

Politics, meanwhile, is the process by which our government officials get elected, thereby enabling them to do the people’s business for a living. Which causes circumstances by which people focus too much attention on getting themselves elected – and wind up slacking off in the process of operating the government!

Repeatedly this week I have been sensing the equivalent of slaps across the face from government officials behaving in ways meant to ensure they remain in office for many more years – rather than focusing on their current positions.

Take the circumstances of Toni Preckwinkle, the Cook County Board president, who in recent radio appearances has said she’s seeking re-election come November 2018 – which is a year-and-a-half away from now.

BUT SHE’S ALREADY focusing her attention on getting term number Three, which is a potentially-risky spot for a public official to be in.

EMANUEL: Already garnering re-election endorsements

Because the official has to convince the electorate that we really ought to want to have that person return. Many of us may be tired of that face and wish for someone new, and the people who have been building up grudges against Preckwinkle during the past six years will most definitely want to see her gone.

Meaning Preckwinkle will have to be particularly cautious during these next 18 months to ensure she doesn’t do anything to offend – and also has to hope there are no circumstances arising that will create a controversy that could drag her down.

Of course, if she manages to make it past this point, she then becomes such a part of the political scene that people won’t be able to envision a government without her.

TRUMP: Some prefer 4 more years to Rahm?

JUST AS IS the case with Jesse White, the Illinois secretary of state, who is coming up on 20 years in that post and where Republicans are getting desperate in their tactics to try to depose him.

Of course, it isn’t just Preckwinkle. I was amused by the six aldermen who felt compelled to publicly endorse Rahm Emanuel for re-election to a third term as mayor. The six, who are all black, are pleased to see appointments of African-American persons as city water management commissioner and budget director.

How premature is this? He doesn’t have to worry about running for re-election until 2019, and is hoping that his appearance as the political force who can stand up to Donald Trump’s Chicago-hostile and erratic presidency is sufficient to keep him in office.

CULLERTON: Tried to govern

Although it should be noted there are those who want to believe it will be Emanuel’s own bordering-on-obnoxious persona that will ensure Trump ultimately succeeds. Are there people who despise Rahm so much that it drives them into the Trump Camp? We’ll have to wait and see.

POLITICS ALSO IS managing to intrude its way into the Springfield Scene and the attempts Tuesday by the Illinois state Senate to pass measures that would FINALLY give state government a balanced budget.

Democrats led by state Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago,  banded together to pass a budget, only to have Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, issue a non-committal statement that didn’t reject the plan, but sure didn’t commit to supporting it either.

RAUNER: Prefers politicking

Meanwhile, Gov. Bruce Rauner seemed more interested in his 2018 re-election bid, indicating a willingness to reject this budget plan because it doesn’t fit his vision of what the state needs. Which is using the budget and state government operations as a pawn to tout political pot-shots at organized labor’s influence.

We’re likely to see our state’s Legislature finish yet a third session without being able to do a budget to ensure government operations, all because the process of mere governing doesn’t fit into the political visions of our alleged-government officials. Too common a phenomenon these days across government’s multi-layers.

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Political bipartisanship is in a coma; I'd certainly hate to think it's deceased

About the only real concept up for argument is whether the notion of  bipartisan cooperation -- the idea of people of various ideological leanings working together to ensure that everybody can claim a piece of political victory -- is dead, or lying unconscious in a coma from which we have no clue whether it will ever regain consciousness.

Would Rauner, Trump backers hate this sign?

For both at our state and federal levels, we got evidence that our officials aren't the least bit interested in working together. Even when some try to work together, there are others who are determined to work to see that nothing happens.

PERHAPS IT'S BECAUSE they realize many people are more interested in results than ideological victories, no matter how much it might sound for one side to take all or how vengefully delightful it might sound for one side to get absolutely nothing!

I got somewhat worked up at learning earlier this week of the failure of the "grand bargain" to advance. For those of you not paying attention to the nuances of the Springpatch Scene, that is the phrase being used by people to describe the state budget deal supposedly being concocted by the Illinois Senate.

It was something resembling a compromise plan and it would have included minor provisions that Gov. Bruce Rauner once included among the so-called reforms he was asking for.

Most importantly, it would have put the state in the direction of finally approving a budget plan for state government operations -- something that state officials have been unable to do since the days of Pat Quinn as governor.

SERIOUSLY, WE'RE NOW approaching two full years of real time during which state government operations were halted due to a lack of a budget -- except for those agencies performing functions so essential that the federal courts are now essentially telling Illinois how to operate!

Rauner and Trump not political twins ...

Nothing wound up happening because even though Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont, was helping to negotiate the deal, none of her Republican colleagues were willing to support it. They were following the lead of Rauner -- whom it seems is more interested in maintaining his partisan stances (his priority always has been to undermine organized labor in Illinois, to the extent that he'll extend his wrath upon the people of the state).

For what it's worth, praise is being offered by the Liberty Principles political action committee, which issued its own statement that called attempts at negotiation nothing more than, "the same old power politics presenting the same false choices" and also said it was prepared to lead people in voting against Rauner if he does NOT maintain his ideological hang-ups.

They also went so far as to lambast former governors James R. Thompson and Jim Edgar of selling out the state -- even though I still remember the days of the early 1990s when Edgar was the guy who held out in budget talks against the same Michael Madigan that Rauner now says is standing firm against him.

... but they do bear similarities

PERHAPS A LITTLE bit of the old Edgar sense of priority in maintaining the daily government operations is what ensured that he got re-elected to a second term, and probably would have won a third term if he had tried to seek it back in 1998. Because at some point, we have to start laying blame on Rauner if he thinks he can go an entire four-year gubernatorial term without an operations budget.

I experienced similar feelings this week when President Donald J. Trump shut down his Twitter account for a few moments and tried speaking to the people. Some are determined to say that Tuesday was the evening Trump became presidential in character.

Yes, I heard his comments about how it was time that people on both sides find a way to come together, with the end result being that we could actually live up in reality to his campaign them of "Making America Great."

Now I know some political pundits, particularly those of a conservative ideological bent, have said that this was a fantastic strategic move by Trump because now it puts the pressure on those of us of a more sensible approach to life to figure out ways to come closer to HIS way of thinking.

THAT COULD ACTUALLY have a bearing of truth, in that I don't doubt for one moment that Trump and his believers seriously think that we wouldn't have any problems in our society if only everybody who didn't agree with them would merely "shut up!" and do what they were told.

CULLERTON: Should all heed his advice?

It was the same sense I felt given off by much of the overly-nationalistic rhetoric spewed in the days following the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon back in 2001. Perhaps some people need for us to be in a "disaster" mode in order for them to think we're moving forward as a society.

Perhaps they also think that peacetime and working together is just a little too dull. Even though one could argue that such dullness is the ultimate evidence that things are functioning properly and that we're all alright.

It also makes me wonder if state Senate President John Cullerton's advice to Rauner is something that also could apply to many other ideologue politicos -- saying of the governor, "he's got to grow up!"

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Will 100th Illinois Legislature behave more responsibly than its predecessor?

The 99^th version of the Illinois General Assembly finishes its business on Tuesday, and I suspect the few people who give things such thought will be thinking to themselves, “Good riddance!”
 

Has the state Senate ...

For these were the legislators who were chosen back in November 2014 along with Bruce Rauner to be governor. Meaning this version of the state Legislature is going to be the one remembered for its inability to work with a governor to do what some consider the primary purpose of state government – putting together the budget that allows government to operate.

OF COURSE, IT’S probably a stretch to place all the blame on the Legislature. For it can also be said that Rauner is the governor who has shown himself incapable of working with a General Assembly to put together that annual budget, without which government cannot operate!

 

... become the mature legislative chamber?

So as we move into a new version of the Illinois Legislature, the 100^th, to be exact, the real question is whether or not anything will be even remotely different than the past two years.

Or are we already preordained to go through four complete fiscal years of state government without anything in the way of a budget – which is important because many government functions cannot take place without a specific spending plan in place detailing how taxpayer monies are to be spent.

The money may be there, but we don’t allow it to be spent unless a budget is in place. It would be reckless to do otherwise.

WHICH IS WHY it was of some significance that the leaders of the state Senate let it be known Monday that they have something resembling a crude outline of a budget.

Will 'Mr. Speaker' care what Cullerton thinks

There’s no way they could get something rushed into approval by Tuesday night, so their plan is to sponsor a bill when the new Legislature takes over. They’re hinting at something that could be approved by Feb. 1 – at least on their end.

For that’s the trick. This is merely something for the state Senate to act upon. There’s no evidence that anything has any additional support.

This could wind up being nothing more than a stunt by which state senators try to create the illusion that they were ready to act, but that everybody else failed. As in we shouldn’t blame them!

IT COULD TURN out that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, will not care much for what state Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, thinks. Then again, Rauner may wind up finding it presumptuous of Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont, to try to tell him what to do.

Will governor care what anyone else thinks?

So do we have a budget deal? We’re going to see just how much either Madigan or Rauner really want to settle this deal. A part of me suspects that Rauner, in particular, would like this issue to be ongoing so he can try to use it as political rhetoric to attack his opponents.

Then again, there are plenty of people in Illinois who believe the reason we have a stalemate is Rauner. He got elected as governor in large part because he wanted to push an ideological agenda – one that particularly targets organized labor.

It probably would be a blow to his ego to have to act in a way that merely maintains government operations.

BUT THEN AGAIN, there also are those individuals to whom Rauner’s idea of “reform” is truly harmful. There are those who voted for the people they did back in 2014 because they wanted them to stand up to any of the new governor’s partisan rhetoric.

SCOTT: Illinois not alone in partisan hacks

Just as I’m sure on the federal level this year there are people now in Congress who are being counted upon to oppose anything that President-elect Donald J. Trump tries to enact once he becomes the chief executive – even though people such as Florida Gov. Rick Scott have acted in ways indicating they think that day has already come.

It’s going to be an ugliness existing at so many levels of government.

Somewhere, we’re going to have to have a level of maturity that we’re not likely to see from any of the chief executives of government. Whether it will wind up coming from the rank-and-file is the question that remains to be answered.

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