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| QUINN: Stinks to be him these days |
Tuesday
was the day the Illinois Legislature spent its time trying to override the
governor so that he’d have to accept as law their version of allowing people to
carry a concealed firearm on their person for self-protection.
AN
ACT THAT the Democrats will surely be campaigning against come the 2014
election cycle – even many of those who voted for the idea on Tuesday.
Because
this is more about letting the governor know who’s boss than anything else.
Which may well be the real problem with our government – and not any of the
partisan rhetoric that the ideologues of either side will claim it to be!
Even
the Chicago Tribune (whose editorial page is on record as supporting the
Legislature’s override of Quinn’s amendatory veto, unlike the Chicago Sun-Times which supports the governor) got into the act on Tuesday;
coming up with a story that used quotes from state Rep. Brandon Phelps,
D-Harrisburg, to make it seem that a rural candidate will get into the
Democratic primary for governor.
After
all, the two candidates thus far (Quinn and William Daley) are both Chicagoans
who are going to spend the primary election cycle trying to claim to be more
anti-gun than each other.
AND
THE POSSIBLE candidacy of Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan likely wouldn’t
give the firearms fanatics crowd (the people whom Quinn would say are, “genuflect(ing)
before the National Rifle Association”) anyone they would want to support.
Not
that it’s likely the rural parts of Illinois will produce a credible candidate
for governor in the Democratic primary. Not unless someone out there is
desperately eager to repeat the 1998 campaign of Glenn Poshard – whose stronger-than-usual
Democratic support in rural Illinois was totally outweighed by Chicago voter
apathy; thereby giving us the concept of “Gov. George Ryan” for a four-year
time period.
It’s
more likely that the voters who have this firearms-related concern are going to
gravitate to the Republican primary – and this could become an issue where the
gun control proponents who are peeved that this issue has become so prominent
will wind up backing the Democratic opponent.
Unless,
that is, some other issue becomes even more prominent in the voters’ minds.
I’D
LIKE TO think that could be the case. Although I suspect that if an issue comes
up, it will be one in which the partisans are convinced they can bash Quinn
about.
I’m
even at the point where I’m starting to wonder if the people who say that the
major reason the Legislature has been willing to postpone acting upon pension
funding problems is that they don’t want it to happen during the administration
of a “Gov. Pat Quinn.”
They
don’t want him to be able to get credit for a problem fix – a mentality that is
a little too reminiscent of the “Council Wars” of old and the Vrdolyak 29; the
Harold Washington opposition that was willing to let problems fester for the
short-term because they thought dumping Harold was better for Chicago’s
long-term.
I’m
not ready to proclaim a direct parallel – largely because I don’t know whom I’d
say fills the Vrdolyak role. Then again, “Fast Eddie” was such a unique
character that no one could ever compare.
BUT
MORE IMPORTANT, in my mind, is the fact that we still don’t have a resolution
to funding the state-overseen pension programs. Keep that in mind if you think
that Tuesday was some sort of political victory.
And
it really makes me grateful that I’m not Pat Quinn these days. While he’s not
blameless by any means, the amount of abuse he gets these days to prevent him
from accomplishing much is more nerve-wracking than anything I endure.
Although
his annoyances also are ours, since we Illinoisans are going to suffer due to
the partisan-motivated inactivity.
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