EXTRA: Lege does something this lame duck session – driver’s license passes

As I write this, I have no idea whether pension funding reform will pass in any form come Tuesday.

But it seems the General Assembly won’t be able to say it didn’t do anything of note during these final few days of the 97^th legislative session.

FOR THE ILLINOIS House of Representatives gave a 65-46 vote on the issue of permitting people without valid visas to obtain a driver’s license from the Secretary of State’s office.

Backers of the bill say that allowing people to get a driver’s license will also get them to comply with the requirements of having auto insurance – which means safer conditions on the road for all motorists.

While some people who have their hang-ups about immigration policy want to claim this wrongly interferes with federal law – even though regulating motorists is a state issue.

I couldn’t help but be amused to learn that state Rep. Randy Ramey, R-Carol Stream – the step-son of one-time outspoken Senate President James “Pate” Philip – said he’s already getting criticism of being a “hater” and a “racist” because of his “no” vote on this measure.

FOR I SUSPECT Pate would have done whatever he could have to thwart this measure from ever coming up for a vote. Some things about Springfield just never change.

Now the measure, which got its final vote in the Illinois Senate last month, goes to Gov. Pat Quinn – who couldn’t wait to release the statement saying how happy he will be to sign this measure into law.

“I want to commend members of the Illinois House for their bipartisan passage of legislation that will help ensure every Illinois motorist is properly licensed and empower more immigrants to become stronger contributors to our economy,” the governor said, in a prepared statement.

At least the legislators will be able to say they accomplished something on Tuesday.

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Non-citizen driver’s licenses: One more step, but not a baby step, before passage

There’s just one barrier remaining before Gov. Pat Quinn can give his approval to a new law permitting non-citizens to get valid driver’s licenses in Illinois – yet it could be a big barrier.

The same bill that managed to make it through the full Illinois Senate during the fall veto session came before an Illinois House committee – where it got the desired recommendation.

SEEING THAT QUINN has said in the past that he wants to be able to put his signature on this bill. He wants to be able to treat the immigrant population with a certain amount of respect – and probably figures that the kind of people who view this issue as somehow subversive are the kinds who were never going to vote for him anyway.

So what is stopping him?

This measure still needs the backing of the full Illinois House of Representatives. And that might not be a sure thing – particularly on account of the time factors at work here.

For Tuesday is the final day of the current General Assembly. All the officials who managed to win election in November will be sworn-in on Wednesday.

IF ANYTHING IS to happen, it will have to come about Tuesday. There’s no time for any political do-overs. It would have to come now.

And even state Rep. Edward Acevedo, D-Chicago, went so far as to admit to the Chicago newspapers that any vote on this issue will be close. This isn’t a shoo-in to pass.

Because there is so little time, the reality is that if it does not pass on Tuesday, the session ends with no action on this issue.

Which means that someone would have to reintroduce the issue as a brand-new bill that would have to go through the entire legislative process all over again.

PERHAPS IT COULD be said that the previous legislative activity is building momentum and that it might be all the easier to just start over and get the bill worked through the process during the spring of 2013.

And maybe in the long run it doesn’t matter much if the bill is signed into law some time in January or some time in July.

But it would be incredibly frustrating for those people with a personal interest in this issue to have to wait a little longer – after coming so close to working their way through the legislative process this time around.

So we’re going to have to wait and see what happens on Tuesday with regards to driver’s licenses – even though I suspect many people are going to be more attuned to whether or not the Legislature makes a last-ditch effort to try to pass something impacting the shortfall we now have when it comes to funding pension programs.

IN FACT, I’M curious to see if some of the biggest ideological critics of driver’s licenses for the non-citizens are going to suddenly become proponents of pension funding reform – just so that attention will be diverted from the other issue.

For the record, I’m restating my support for this issue – because I like the idea that it would encourage people now living in the shadows of our society to come out into the open.

That would provide so many benefits for all of us that I have a hard time accepting the fact that anybody can’t comprehend that fact. But some do.

Although most of those who oppose this issue do so because they see that allowing these people to get a driver’s license is a form of recognition and respect that they’d rather not have to give out.

EVEN THOUGH THIS particular bill would create a special class of driver’s licenses for these people that could not be used as identification in the way that the bulk of us rely on a driver’s license or state ID card.

These critics want for our state government to issue a level of disrespect that goes along with their own ideological hang-ups.

Which is why I’d like to think that a slim majority of our Illinois House of Representatives will have the sense to disregard such nonsense. Although counting on lawmakers to do the “proper” thing is always a long-shot – in and of itself.

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Now, we wait!

It will be curious to see what kind of rhetoric we get to hear in coming weeks when it comes to the concept of non-citizens being able to acquire a valid driver’s license from the state of Illinois.

For the conservative ideologues did their best effort to try to thwart the issue from being considered by the General Assembly. Constant statements, a rotunda rally and video clips all espousing their view that this is bad policy.

BECAUSE IT GIVES recognition to people whom the ideologues would prefer to see remain in the shadows of our society. Which means it makes all the sense in the world from the perspective of people who view things sensibly.

As best as I can tell, the political people were largely capable of ignoring all this hot air that was spouted last week!

Only one legislator in the Illinois Senate spoke out against the idea when it was debated there (although another, according to the Capitol Fax newsletter, was using Twitter to send out hostile messages about the people discussing the issue. Tweets for the twits, is how I’d describe it), and the concept got an overwhelming vote of support last week in the Senate.

But that doesn’t mean the concept is law yet!

FOR THE ISSUE never came up for a vote in the Illinois House of Representatives. In fact, I’m surprised that I haven’t heard the ideologues claim “victory” based on the concept that they “intimidated” the legislators there from acting at all.

Considering that the Illinois House seemed more interested in ending the veto session a day early, I suspect the issue really didn’t factor into their thought process at all.

Because it means the bill is still pending, and could be among the many “controversial” issues (more casinos and pension reform, among others) that get rammed through on the final day in January before the newly-elected members of the General Assembly assume control.

It would have been nice to see this issue get full legislative approval this week, mostly so that it wouldn’t have to linger all during the winter holidays. But when one looks at the big picture, what is one more month compared to a rest-of-our-lifetimes of a sensible policy when it comes to driver’s licenses.

THE BIG REASON why I support this concept is that I think it only makes sense for people to have to provide all the personal information about themselves to the state that one is required to give in order to get a license.

Most people who truly are as law-breaking as the ideologues want to believe the “foreigners” are would never want to have to provide truthful information about themselves.

Getting people out of the shadows of our society is of great benefit to all of us. Plus the fact that if these people do pass the driver’s exam that all the rest of us take to get a license, there’s no reason to deny them the right to drive.

And as for those people who claim it will be a burden on insurance companies to offer these drivers coverage, I’d say that’s nonsense.

IF ANYTHING, IT will make our streets safer – and offer those insurance companies more customers. Any company that thinks it is going to refuse to accept such business is going to find that they’re losing income, and that the companies that will put aside ethnic hang-ups will be tapping into a new business market.

Not that I expect any of the ideologues to be swayed by this. They’re going to be the malcontents who will yell and scream to the very end, and whose hostile rhetoric needs to be pushed aside (into the trash can of cheap political talk, as far as I’m concerned).

The most ridiculous bit I saw this week had to be an e-mail I received from an activist-type who insisted that former Gov. Jim Edgar was “taken to the woodshed” because he said he “doesn’t pay much attention” to the Republican party platform that opposes policies such as what Illinois is considering.

This activist just showed what an ideological fool he is, largely because I have never encountered a political official who was rigidly behind his party’s platform 100 percent.

THE SENSIBLE OFFICIALS are the ones who know when to be flexible and make accommodations.

It’s going to be attitudes such as what was expressed by this activist that will have our nation fall off the “fiscal cliff” come Jan. 1 – assuming our political people can’t be accommodating and make some sort of deal.

I’m sure this activist (whom I’m not naming because I don’t want to dignify him any more than I have to) is also among the people who believed all that rhetoric that Gov. Pat Quinn is the most unpopular governor.

For it is Quinn who said of this issue, “Our roads can be safer if we ensure that every driver in Illinois learns the rules of the road and is trained to drive safely.” Here’s hoping that Quinn, as one of his first acts of 2013, gets to sign this measure into law.

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Will our legislators fall for trash talk?

Lately, I have been stumbling quite a bit on cable television channels on the film “Red Tails” – the one that came out about a year ago and told the story of the “Tuskegee Airmen” who had to prove their ability to serve as combat fighter pilots during the Second World War.

It has several scenes of white military officers who are determined to justify their opposition to black pilots based on various studies that we now realize were nothing more than cockamamie nonsense.

TOO MANY PEOPLE wanted their prejudices reinforced, so they came up with stupid-talk studies that were the alleged “proof” of the ineptitude of black men in the Army Air Force.

During this upcoming week, we’re going to hear quite a bit about an issue that could get considered by our General Assembly – that of permitting the Illinois secretary of state’s office to issue driver’s licenses to non-citizens.

The conservative ideologues of our society have always hated the idea because the driver’s license (in addition to signifying that someone passed the state driver’s test) is also the most commonly-accepted form of identification in our society.

Letting these people without a valid visa have a driver’s license grants them a certain legitimacy in our society that the ideologues are determined to have.

SO THERE WILL be opposition to this idea when it comes up both in the state Senate and (if it passes there) Illinois House of Representatives. There will also be significant amounts of rhetoric against the idea.

Will the Statehouse remain as "in the dark" on immigrant driver's licenses as it was in this century-old postcard?

And sure enough, there are signs that much of the opposition being spoken this week is going to have the potential to be as stupid-sounding as the anti-black attitudes toward fighter pilots was all those decades ago.

There’s the Illinois Insurance Association, which is saying in all earnestness that many large-scale insurance companies will not want to sell auto insurance to non-citizen drivers.

As though they can’t possibly be as qualified to operate an automobile as a U.S.-born individual who walks into a driver testing facility seeking a license. Even if they do manage to pass the same test that all other drivers have to take if they want to be able to operate an automobile legally.

ALTHOUGH I’M NOT as offended at the idea that a company such as State Farm or Allstate will turn down such business. It’s their own financial loss. Either they’ll come around to their senses, or else take a financial hit. Let them suffer if they can’t be sensible.

But I have to admit that the insurance industry’s hesitation is downright mild compared to the ideologues, who have put together their own video advertisement urging people to pressure their legislators to vote “no.”

I don’t know that they have the money to put this advertisement on television. Although they may just try to get similar ideologues to view it on YouTube and consider it a “success” that they spread their “message.”

Which is that they don’t want these “foreigners” being able to drive, or do much of anything else in this country.

THEY’RE GOING TO be the people who will show up at the Statehouse in Springfield and hold a rally in the rotunda to try to scare legislators into voting against the idea – which is one that really makes sense in that it further encourages those people now living here without a valid visa to come of society’s shadows and live openly.

The fact that these people are going out of their way to remind us of a 1994 automobile accident near Milwaukee involving a Mexican ethnic truck driver that killed six children helps further undermine their case. It also reinforces my belief that the ideologues real resentment of George Ryan (who was secretary of state at the time this driver got his license) was politically partisan – rather than any concern for public safety.

If anything, granting such licenses to qualified drivers is going to encourage more safe behavior in so many ways – including behind the steering wheel of an automobile.

Giving in to the ideological harangues of those whose view of our society has the stink of nativism to it is what ultimately will hold us back – and give us roads that are less safe with unqualified drivers out and about on them.

HERE’S HOPING OUR senators and representatives have enough sense to realize that basic truth and don’t fall for the trash talk they’re going to be exposed to this week.

Although betting on a legislator (or any political person) to show signs of intelligence is never a safe bet!

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Emanuel making a flip; he wants to be on proper side of immigration brawl

Immigration reform is going to be an ugly fight when it finally comes up in Congress.

EMANUEL: A change of heart



There are going to be some political people whose preferences are to back the ideologues who want to view the issue as one where the only changes needed are more deportations. They’re not going to give in on their views – no matter what evidence is brought to the contrary.

TAKE INTO ACCOUNT the fact that the Illinois Legislature is likely in the near future to consider measures that would revamp state policies concerning non-citizens being able to get valid driver’s licenses.

The ideologues already are spewing their venom – and trying to bash the few GOP political people who have come out in favor of the idea.

But the fact is that these ideologues were always a tiny minority of our society – but a tiny group that too many people were willing to give undeserved credibility to.

Now, we’re starting to acknowledge that fact and are seeing that those loud-mouthed individuals should not be dictating policy to the rest of us – particularly since many of their preferred “policies” would actually wind up holding us back as a society.

SO LET ME state up front that I’m pleased to learn that Rahm Emanuel, of all people, is among the people who has “seen the light,” so to speak. Maybe not as dramatically as actor John Belushi’s “Jake Blues” character in “The Blues Brothers,” but it’s still something!

The Chicago Sun-Times reported about the swearing-in ceremony held Tuesday in the council chambers of City Hall, in which a whole lot of newly-minted U.S. citizens got to hear Emanuel offer his praise for Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., who used to go about bashing Emanuel for not doing enough to support immigration reform measures.

GUTIERREZ: Can he score the 'touchdown'



“The rest of America has caught up with Luis Gutierrez,” said Emanuel, who when he was chief of staff to President Barack Obama was the one who kept the issue on the political backburner – figuring that bringing up immigration would tick off so many people that they’d dump all over anything else Obama tried to pass.

Such as health care reform!

OF COURSE, THE reality of the situation is that Obama’s opponents were determined to oppose anything he tried to do – so that stalling immigration reform really did nothing more than make some Latinos question whether or not Obama was sincere with his supportive rhetoric.

Seeing that Emanuel is now willing to say the issue is “on the 10-yard line” and could be close to being approved could well mean his political mean-streak could now be turned on those  ideologues who are determined to go down with the ship, so to speak, on this issue.

Perhaps the Emanuel change in attitude is due to his return to Chicago – following his couple of years of living in Washington.

The thing about Chicago’s character is that it has such an ethnic character, and the ethnicity isn’t limited to a few. Just about every ethnic group can be found in some numbers in this city.

JUST ABOUT EVERY Chicagoan is aware of what they are and where on Planet Earth their families came from – unlike some municipalities where everybody seems to have morphed into some sort of generic white person.

In such a place, immigration reform is going to be taken seriously because there will be the significant numbers of individuals who will be directly impacted.

Which makes me think we are a step closer to reform – provided we keep in mind that those ideologues who will “never” give in will turn up the volume with each and every action.

And we should realize that “loud” does not automatically mean “legitimate.”

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All those “guilty” verdicts don’t alter the way many of us perceive government

Perhaps it was all too appropriate that I was dealing with Illinois state government on Monday at the exact moment I learned of the 17 “guilty” verdicts returned against former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

BLAGOJEVICH: Getting an Oxford education?

In fact, my contact with government Monday afternoon was in the form that most people deal with the state of Illinois.

I WAS AT a driver testing facility renewing my license plates (which otherwise would have expired after Thursday). While I was at it, I took advantage of being there to have my driver’s license (which would have expired later this summer) renewed.

It was at a point when I learned I passed the written examination I was required to take, and was waiting to have my official photograph taken – the one that will make me look pathetic for the next four years – that I happened to check out the Blackberry I have begrudgingly started carrying in recent months.

In checking for any messages or e-mails, I discovered the report from the Associated Press (as published by Crain’s Chicago Business). The headline “Blagojevich trial: Found guilty on 17 counts” jumped out at me.

I was surrounded by state government in action. The REAL state government, since many people don’t have many dealings with the state beyond keeping their driver’s licenses current. All the ramblings from the Statehouse in Springpatch do eventually trickle down to real activity at the local level. But too many people don’t appreciate that fact.

IT CAN MAKE the constant babbling and pontificating from political pundits about Rod Blagojevich seem downright irrelevant to our daily lives. I may well have been the only person in that room who was all that intrigued by the activities taking place at the Dirksen Building.

For all around me, I saw motor vehicles bureau employees desperately trying to keep up with the lengthy lines of people who had business to do with the state. As it was, it took me nearly an hour-and-a-half to get my business done – most of which involved sitting on hard, but cracked, plastic chairs and waiting.

All for the five minutes it took me to complete the written exam that showed I do have some comprehension of the “rules of the road” and what various street signs actually mean.

I’m sure the fact that Blagojevich was once the nominal head of the government that employed them didn’t mean much, probably less than the fact that it was their very agency of government where the wrongdoing took place that resulted in another former governor, George Ryan, going down to a criminal conviction (resulting in him still being in a federal prison).

I ALSO DOUBT that many of the people waiting in various lines were getting all worked up about the Blagojevich business.

The one person I spoke to while waiting in “line” was more concerned about the amount of time she was being forced to take off work in order to take care of her business with the state.

I also overheard snippets of conversation of people around me who talked of topics ranging from the best local place to find barbecue to why ARE the Chicago Cubs so incredibly awful this year? If anyone around me knew about the jury verdict being returned, they didn't let on.

Of course, the one constant thought was to wonder why it was taking so ridiculously long to work our way through these “lines” at the motor vehicles bureau. If anything, state government at that moment seemed like an annoyance that we’re forced to put up with. Although I'm sure if someone had come up with a theory that the long lines were Blagojevich's fault, THAT thought would have gained instant sympathy.

IT DEFINITELY MAKES it harder for me to take seriously all the pundits who are going to come up with all their cockamamie theories about just what does it really mean that Blagojevich was found “guilty” of 17 of the 20 charges that he faced – including all of the charges related to his handling of the appointment of a replacement for Barack Obama as U.S. senator from Illinois bordering on criminal. There may well be some people who sighed upon hearing the verdict, then moved on with their lives.

Some already are trying to make money off the verdict



In fact, the charges for which he was acquitted involved claims that his attempts to get contributions from Illinois State Toll Highway Authority officials amount to solicitation of a bribe. But I didn’t actually find that part out until after I left the Secretary of State facility, which is when I called up the report so I could get more details.

So if anybody in coming years asks me what my initial reaction was when I learned that Blagojevich became more than a “convicted liar” (from the first trial), I’ll be able to say I was wondering “What three counts did he beat?” -- while having my picture taken.

Then, I’ll be able to whip out that driver’s license photograph and show people the moment. That weary look in my eyes probably says more about what I think of Milorod these days than anything I could ever write here today.

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