Somebody needs to tell our state’s Legislature to get back to work on budget

It is at moments like this that I feel the spirit of James “Pate” Philip lingering over Illinois’ state Legislature.

It was the one-time Illinois Senate president who first got the General Assembly to think in terms of finishing their business prior to the end of the state fiscal year each June 30th. It was during his time that the Legislature started to think of Memorial Day as the time each spring when their business ended.

BUT PATE HAS not been a part of the Statehouse Scene for some eight years now. And as often happens when something passes along from its originator to other people, the goal becomes all too flawed – if not downright shrill.

I write that statement because that is how I feel about the fact that Friday is the date that the Illinois General Assembly is scheduled to adjourn its session for the summer. In theory, they won’t return to Springfield until just after the Nov. 2 elections.

I write “in theory” because we really don’t know. I’m not even sure if this truly will be the final day. Some people seem to think they might stay in place through the weekend, before adjourning for the summer, although there also has been talk of the Friday night "end of session" party, which means they most likely don't want to return unless absolutely forced to.

The one thing that everybody seems to agree upon is that our state legislators really don’t want to be at the capitol any longer than necessary. They want to “go home” and start focusing on getting themselves re-elected. Or maybe they want to spend some time off at the “Pate” Philip State Park, near Bartlett.

THAT FACT WOULD not bother me, except for the fact that the state Legislature isn’t even close to coming up with a budget that does anything to balance out the state’s financial problems. We really don’t even have any short-term solutions in place, other than some rhetoric about holding off on making payments to fund the various state pension programs.
The "Statehouse in Springpatch" is soon to be a virtual "ghost town," even though there remains business to be complete.

In short, we have a whole lot of state political people who are looking at ducking out on their responsibilities – which ought to include passing a budget that maintains state government in some form through the fiscal year that runs from July 1 through June 30, 2011.

Now I remember that Pate Philip always used to push for the early adjournment on the theory that there ought to be limits as to what state government is doing. Keeping the legislators in place any longer than necessary was just inviting trouble by giving them the opportunity to create mischief.

Of course, some of what he would define as “mischief” is what some of us would call responsible government on the part of the people. But I can’t help but think that the idea of leaving early has been taken to an absurd level with the idea of an early May adjournment date.

THEY HAVE NOT even fulfilled the basic requirement of a budget for the upcoming year, which will cause problems because there are many school districts and municipal governments across the state that are depending on a certain amount of their funding to come from the state – only the state is still uncertain how much they will be able to provide.

Other than saying that the level will be cut, we don’t know how much the cuts will be. The delay in a state budget will have repercussions down the chain of government activity, which ultimately will impact us Illinois residents in hundreds of ways – literally, each entity of “government” that we deal with in our lives will find a way to harm our lives due to the uncertainty.

One big sting from the state will result in countless little stings.

Somehow, I doubt that was what Pate ever intended when he suggested the end of May as the proper time for the Legislature to complete its business. I can’t help but think Pate himself is among the people ranting about the current incarnation of the General Assembly being unwilling to make the hard judgment calls that would allow them to approve a budget for state government.

NOTE THAT I am not using this commentary to urge any kind of tax increase (which seems to be the preference of Gov. Pat Quinn, even though he won’t use his authority to push for it) or for any kind of draconian cuts in state funding (which certain GOP legislators are more than willing to make). I’m of the opinion that the true long-term solution is going to be a combination of both, and will probably have to be imposed over the course of the next several years.

But by thinking they can get away with ramming some sort of short-term solution through the legislative process to get the state government through the next few months, then dealing with the rest of the fiscal year come the fall “Veto Session,” it’s almost like our legislators are trying to vote for “None of the Above” when it comes to resolving our state’s financial problems.

By electing to do nothing in the way of a long-term solution, it makes me wonder if our legislators – both of the Democrat and Republican persuasion – are showing themselves to be worthy of the “None of the Above” option come Election Day.

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EXTRA: Soon we can resolve Jon Burge

A new major airport for the Chicago area, and the idea that Jon Burge is a police commander who uses torture to do his job.

Both of those are concepts that have been in the news off-and-on since before the days when I first became a reporter-type person in Chicago (some 23 years now). But now, it looks like we’re taking steps toward putting one of those stories to rest.

BURGE IS A now-retired Chicago Police Department officer who once ran the violent crimes unit for the Pullman Area (the city’s Far South Side) who faces criminal charges, and jury selection for his upcoming trial began Thursday.

At this rate, the Burge verdict may come some time just after Rod Blagojevich is scheduled (June 3) to go on trial.

Stories have long been circulated in this city about how the cops in Pullman Area used excess violence in order to get confessions from criminal suspects. Those stories managed to have enough credibility that city government has paid out nearly $20 million to settle the lawsuits filed by those defendants.

There also was an investigation by a special prosecutor who said in 2006 that the conduct of officers under Burge’s command did rise to the level of excessive force. But the statute of limitations had passed, making his prosecution on charges of the violence impossible.

HENCE, WHAT WE’RE getting a trial on beginning now is whether Burge committed perjury related to a lawsuit filed in 2003 by one of the defendants who claims to have been beaten and electrically-shocked. Burge at that time said under oath that no torture took place.

In a sense, Burge becomes the 21st Century equivalent of Al Capone, whose criminal conviction ultimately was for evading sufficient payment of income taxes. Burge, who is now 62 and reportedly not in the best of health, may wind up spending his final few years of life in a federal correctional facility – if found guilty.

Then again, a lot of this case is going to come down to how sympathetic a figure Burge can present of himself. Because there are those people in our society who are absolutely determined to see the people who make accusations against Burge as nothing but criminals who are worthy of whatever treatment they received back in the days when they were in the custody of Burge’s officers.

We’re going to have a split between those who view Burge as a criminal, and those who are determined to think he’s the victim of a fraud being perpetrated by criminals. But it also means that we’re sometime this year going to see this issue culminate in a verdict that will end this issue.

WHETHER HE WINDS up in prison or as an elderly retiree who fled Chicago for Florida, I’m looking forward to the day when the name “Jon Burge” is no longer a pending issue in the news.

Now if we could only resolve the fate of a new Chicago area airport …?

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Perhaps it is time for people to re-read the reporting done by the Chicago Reader throughout the years that relates to the one-time Pullman Area commander.

A DAY IN THE LIFE (of Chicago): Will Wal-mart come to Chicago after all?

I was once in a store in the area where the Lincoln Park and Lake View neighborhoods come together when I overheard a person ask a store clerk where the local Wal-mart store was located.

The response from that particular store clerk was a semi-snotty one about how there were no Wal-marts anywhere near the area, since such stores didn’t “fit in” with the surrounding community.

WHILE I PERSONALLY do not care much for the ambiance of a Wal-mart (but my mother does), the reason I could consider that answer out of line was that this particular store was a Borders books. I’m sure there are those people who would consider that chain to have killed off independent bookstores and “ruined” the urban atmosphere just like they’ll claim Wal-mart will do if they manage to get their stores within the city limits.

So my concerns about Wal-mart aren’t along any cultural line. I can appreciate that certain neighborhoods don’t have much in the way of retail, and they would attract customers who don’t have much else in the way of shopping alternatives.

The problem with the whole Wal-mart debate, however, is that people are too eager to use that argument to get around the legitimate concerns about how they have treated their employees.

Last year, a Chicago public relations firm literally called every single residence in the city phone book, and came up with a statistic saying that three-quarters of those surveyed want the retailer within Chicago’s boundaries.

WHICH IS WHY I was glad to learn that Wal-mart is actually negotiating with the labor unions that likely would wind up trying to represent any workers at those stores. Those negotiations are being taken seriously enough that a City Council committee postponed its vote Wednesday on the Wal-mart question.

Now, we’re looking at a hearing at City Hall on June 3 where the city’s political people could be asked what to do with the Arkansas-based retailer. So we get a month to see how bad Wal-mart wants to be in Chicago. Will they agree to the above-minimum-wage that the unions want Wal-mart workers in Chicago to receive?

Considering that such an act could cut into the potential for profitability of any Chicago stores, it will be a true test of their sincerity. If Wal-mart winds up making some concessions in order to get into Chicago, our political people might wind up looking good for not giving in too quickly to the retailer – which has hinted it would like to have up to five of its stores scattered across Chicago.

What else was noteworthy about the view of the world from the southwestern shores of Lake Michigan?

FROM McCORMICK PLACE TO IMMIGRATION REFORM: Juan Ochoa has spent the past three years running the government agency that oversees McCormick Place and Navy Pier. Now, he wants to be at the forefront of the political fight over reforming the nation’s immigration laws.

Ochoa resigned as CEO of the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, saying he’d like to find work with an organization that will allow him to be involved in the politicking that will take place in coming years to get changes in federal law that make it easier for people already in this country without a valid visa to remain.

He used to work for the Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, although it is not likely that organization would want to get too much at the forefront of this particular issue.

Not that this move is all too altruistic. The General Assembly is considering changes in the state laws that regulate the agency, and the Chicago Tribune reported that if they get approved, then Ochoa likely would have been released from his job – to which he was appointed by then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

LET’S GO, GO-GO WHITE SOX, FAR FROM ARIZONA: Should the fact that the Chicago White Sox play in a stadium owned by Illinois government make it illegal for them to hold spring training camp in Arizona?

State Sen. Martin Sandoval, D-Chicago, said Wednesday he does not think businesses being subsidized by Illinois government should be contributing to the Arizona economy – on account of the fact that state passed a new law requiring local police to engage in vigorous enforcement of federal immigration laws.

I don’t mind Sandoval making a statement against Arizona’s conduct. I don’t even mind him suggesting that the White Sox would have been better off staying in Florida (they used to have training camp in Sarasota until White Sox owner (and Arizona resident) Jerry Reinsdorf relocated the operation.

I just find it ridiculous that the state thinks it can now bark out orders and expect the White Sox to listen. After all, the team’s lease with the state gives the White Sox virtually all the financial perks while the state has the financial obligation to maintain the building. The state lost the high ground in this area a long time ago.

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Giannoulias “resume” is feeble gimmick

I will give the Illinois Republican Party a little bit of credit. The political entity that likes to flood my e-mail inbox with all kinds of pot shots at the Democratic Party’s ticket (which, after all, is what a political party is for) came up with one on Tuesday that caught my attention.

Specifically, we get to see the resume for Alexi Giannoulias. Not his actual resume, but the one that GOP political hacks put together for him – in short, the way they want us to perceive him through their eyes, rather than honestly through our own.

IT IS ALL part of the strategy to make people so wary of the one-term Illinois treasurer who wants to be Mr. Smith and go to Washington that they will feel better about voting for the guy who has been a part of the Washington scene for a decade (admittedly, in the House of Representatives) – even though the “theme” of this election cycle is that we hate anything tied to Washington or incumbency.

In theory, it ought to be Kirk, the congressman from the North Shore suburbs, who should be struggling with the faulty public perception. Instead, we’re getting whacked-out images of both of the major party candidates – enough that a part of me wants to check out LeAlan M. Jones, the Green Party candidate.

Then, I remember the kind of impractical and unknowing people that tend to get excited about the Green Party, and I come to my senses.

Hence, we get the GOP “resume” for Giannoulias that says his objective is to be, “the first failed banker to serve on the U.S. Senate Banking Committee.” Cute. Get the one-time family-owned bank on Broadway that is now a branch of MB Financial Bank into the mix.

AS THOUGH OUR Congress has never had members who failed in life outside of Capitol Hill. I doubt it. Heck, if Republicans really want to complain about resumes, they ought to look at the inflated one that their party’s nominee for lieutenant governor used during the primary election season.

Actually, the part of their Giannoulias “resume” that bothers me the most is the reference to the fact that Giannoulias as state treasurer actually managed to resolve a problem that had been lingering for decades.

The one-time President Lincoln hotel in downtown Springfield had fallen into the control of the state because its original developers never could bring in enough proceeds to repay the loans they received with state help to build the project (which was intended to be a luxury hotel in the Illinois capital city) in the first place.

As what often happens when you get stuck in a situation like this, you take whatever you can get so long as someone is paying cash up front.

AS THE GIANNOULIAS “resume” tells us, he sold the facility for less than half of its appraised value that “lock(ed) in an $18 million loss” for our state’s taxpayers.

The problem with viewing the issue in that mini-minded manner is that it is unrealistic. No one was ever going to get full value. The people who ought to get “blame” for this issue are the ones who made the loans in the first place.

Of course, those people happened to be Republican allies, since the governor back then was James R. Thompson and there once was a time when Republicans weren’t completely irrelevant in state government (mainly because they didn’t play the partisan politics as intensely as they try to now).

I can remember when then-Illinois Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka tried to sell off the hotel properties in the early 1990s for about one-quarter of what they were worth, and I can remember the Republican Party establishment coming to her defense as trying to make the best of what was a sloppy deal for the state -- with those people trying to score political points for themselves at Topinka's expense being the ones who criticized her.

THEN AGAIN, JUDY has the “R” following her name. So trying to do the same type of action that Giannoulias ultimately accomplished did not get her the same type of trashing. Of course, the fact that Topinka can think sensibly is likely the reason she will do well in her bid for state Comptroller against Democratic nominee David Miller.

Other “points” brought up on the Giannoulias resume include the “Bright Start” college savings plan that turned into a financial mess, and where some people who used the program to save money to pay for their childrens’ future college tuition wound up losing funds – and where we learn that the Illinois treasurer’s office purchased a Sport Utility Vehicle with Bright Start funds.

Then, there also is the trivial. Giannoulias played basketball professionally for one season after graduating from Boston University (not the NBA, the professional leagues in Greece). Usually, anything that can be seen as an athletic accomplishment is touted as reason for praise if it is a Republican official.

Only when it is a Democrat does it come off as trivial in the minds of Republicans.

NOW IT SHOULD not be assumed that I am writing that Giannoulias is above reproach. He has things he has to answer for during this campaign season, and we should be nit-picking him if he does not come clean in his answers.

A problem develops when people become more interested in making attacks on a candidate, rather than trying to find out something resembling the truth. That is when we quit listening because we’re only interested in hearing ourselves.

I have often told people that everything that comes from a political campaign, regardless of its partisan leanings, ought to be scrutinized because there likely are strong elements of exaggeration in it.

This “resume” definitely falls into that category.

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Cohen thinks he’s back; I’ll believe it when I see nominating petition signatures

“Illinois needs honesty more than perfection.”

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Moreso than the stories of holding a knife to a prostitute’s throat or being a deadbeat who fell behind on child support, that line ought to be the political legacy left behind by Scott Lee Cohen, the man who for two weeks was the Democratic Party’s nominee for Illinois lieutenant governor.

By now, anybody who cares has heard that Cohen staged himself a press conference Monday outside the Thompson state government building to announce he is running for governor as a political independent.

SO WE NOW have people getting all worked up that Cohen is in this campaign to wreck his revenge against the Democratic Party for not standing behind him by scuttling the gubernatorial hopes of incumbent Pat Quinn.

Is Cohen, the CEO of State Pawners (the pawn shop founded by his father) the type of guy who would give the people of Illinois “Gov. William Brady” to make himself feel better about the fact that his political career ended before it ever began?

It could be. People who run for electoral office are capable of being that petty.

And it’s not like Cohen was ever the typical political person. He came out of nowhere to run for an office with such a low profile that he figured he could slip into a position where he could then catapult to the top. This isn’t someone who is interested in working his way through the ranks of government and learning about public policy.

WHICH IS WHY I find it laughable that he now portrays himself as the pillar of political honesty.

That particular quote came in response to questions about whether his personal past that caused the Democratic Party to dump on him for lieutenant governor could be overcome in the minds of the voters when they decide Nov. 2 who to pick for governor.

The line that Cohen backers (they do exist, they like the idea that he ran a small-scale business and is unpolitical so much that they will ignore any sordid details about his life) tout is that it wasn’t Cohen himself who ever tried to cover anything up. Some people go so far as to try to blame newsgathering organizations for not thoroughly exposing every sordid detail of Cohen’s life, although I have to wonder how much any outfit would have been laughed at hysterically had they spent any time worrying about the lieutenant governor’s race.

After all, there was a Senate campaign on the Republican side and a gubernatorial fight for the Democrats. Plus, Chicago-area reporter-types were absolutely determined to dig up every detail possible so as to ensure that Todd Stroger didn’t pull off some sort of upset and manage to win the Feb. 2 primary for Cook County Board president.

BUT LET’S BE honest.

People didn’t pick Cohen to be the lieutenant governor nominee because they thought he had any special qualifications. He won because he ran in a field of nobodies (political observers tend to forget that real people had never heard of the so-called front-runner, long-time state Rep. Art Turner, D-Chicago) and used his personal wealth to run enough campaign advertising that his name was probably the only one many people sort of recognized.

Cohen is correct in one regard. We should get more honesty from our political people. In some ways, Cohen isn’t any more sordid than anyone else who runs for political office. I’m not even sure he’s the official with the worst reputation.

Seriously, how low do many people regard Rod Blagojevich? Or has Cohen the alleged wife-beater managed to sink even below Milorod on the Illinois political scum scale? (Which, by the way, contains people of all the major political parties).

BECAUSE OF THE fact that Cohen’s reputation is just so low, I can’t say I take seriously the idea of any independent campaign he might run.

A part of me will be amazed if he can get the 25,000 valid signatures of support required of any political independent (compared to 5,000 for someone running for an established political party’s nomination) to even get on the ballot.

Which means that Cohen’s campaign may have reached its peak on Monday, a month-and-a-half before it officially began.

How many people are going to be willing to sign one of his nominating petitions, except as something resembling a gag (just like all the people who vote for “Mickey Mouse” for president – come to think of it, didn’t he win in ’00 and ’04?).

SOMEONE WHO ISN’T convinced how hard it is to get valid petition signatures for a populist movement ought to ask the League of Women Voters what ever became of their petition drive on behalf of reforming the means by which we redistrict legislative and congressional district boundaries every 10 years.

Their deadline came and went without them even getting close. I could see the same thing happening to Scott Lee. If, by chance, it appears that he will hit the 25,000 figure, I could envision all kinds of people aligned with the Democratic Party crawling out of the woodwork to challenge his legitimacy.

He could wind up having to engage in a massive legal fight for the right to get 1 percent of the vote come Election Day.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: Scott Lee Cohen will attract a certain type of person who resents government and will want to vote for anyone who thinks just like they do. People with any sense will, and in fact already are trying to, distance themselves from him.

There were no “good guys” when it came to Illinois’ redistricting proposals this yr.

I may well be the one person who is pleased that both of the major measures that were supposed to reform the way Illinois redraws its political boundaries to reflect population changes went down to defeat.

State legislators affiliated with the Democratic Party used their power to kill off the Republican alternative – the one that actually got the League of Women Voters and other good government groups to sign on. More gloom and doom at the Statehouse on account of redistricting "reform" failing to pass? I prefer to think we were saved from something equally as bad, no matter which plan had passed.

THEN, THE GENERAL Assembly last week failed to approve the “reform” plan that was preferred by Democrats. I write it as “reform” because it was really a measure that was meant to do as little as possible, while letting officials say they voted for something to impose change.

As someone who takes great interest in the reapportionment process because I find it intriguing the way a neighborhood’s partisan representation can be impacted by the way it is carved up by legislative boundaries, I fully realize the flaws of the current measure – the one enacted by the Illinois Constitution in 1970.

All too many people are quick to jump on Illinois’ tie-breaker function, which says that if the Legislature is unable to agree on a political map and if an eight-member commission can’t do it either, then a person nominated by a legislative leader whose name gets picked out of a glass bowl, or a hat, or some other object, gets to be the tie-breaker.

It was thought by the people who crafted the state Constitution that such a random act having the ability to give total control to one political party’s officials would be so terrifying that legislators would deliberately go out of their way to work together to create a map that would reflect all interests.

PERHAPS SUCH THOUGHTS were the after-effect of some late 1960s “acid” trip. Because the effect of that law has been that our legislators don’t even try to compromise on a bill, nor does the eight-member commission (four people from each major political party) do much of anything – until the name is picked out of the hat.

In short, our political people are swayed by greed. The thought that they can get total control if they hold out, and can give their opposition absolutely nothing, is just too tempting an opportunity to waste on actually trying to negotiate a map.

That attitude is the real problem, not the procedure imposed by the Illinois Constitution itself. In fact, I personally have always thought the image of picking a name out of a hat or glass bowl that once belonged to Abraham Lincoln was some sort of cute quirk that made us unique.

I am not convinced that any of the so-called reform measures would have done anything to change the situation in Illinois, in light of the fact that we have a highly-partisan state. The “greed” is still there to want to have everything.

UNTIL THAT CHANGES, no procedure is going to make that much of a difference.

This whole debate actually reminds me of the activity that took place a decade ago with regards to liquor distributors. William Wirtz, who operated the largest distributorship in Illinois and one of the largest in the United States, used his political clout to get legislators to make changes in the law that protected his business interests.

That caused his opposition to go out of their way to stir up so much resentment to Wirtz that the changes were rescinded by the General Assembly a couple of years later. But that issue ultimately came down to two sets of business interests fighting it out in the Legislature – with neither side having a moral high ground (even though I can still remember the lobbyist who became all offended when I disputed her statement that she was the “good guy” fighting against Big, Bad William Wirtz).

This issue is similar because neither side has the moral high ground. It’s all about partisan quarrelling by a pair of groups behaving like political hacks, trying to make themselves appear to be less guilty than the other side of causing the problem.

THAT IS WHY I am glad neither can claim a victory – even if it means that the same procedure that has applied for four decades will now be used for a fifth decade when Illinois officials change the legislative and congressional boundaries to reflect the movement of people around our state (a little less in Chicago proper, many more less in rural Illinois, and increases in parts of the Chicago suburbs).

I know that the “good government” types will claim their reform proposal took control of the process away from the legislators by having eight members chosen by the four legislative leaders (two each, which is the same as now), and having the ninth “tie-breaking” person chosen by the eight members.

That might force people chosen by political parties to have to work together. Then again, it might not. It might just create a deadlock that results in endless delays to create political maps, which will need to be done this year.

Do we really want endless delays of the kind we have seen with the Illinois Legislature in recent years to craft state budgets to now impact the boundaries that determine who actually represents us in the General Assembly and in Congress?

THEN AGAIN, I don’t consider the Democratic alternative to be much better. It talked of “transparency” in the way the commission operates – which basically means we will get to see for ourselves just how greedy our political people get when it comes to reapportionment.

So as much as I find it ridiculous that Democrats denounced their Republican colleagues for not backing their Citizens First Amendment, it was no more absurd than the Fair Map Amendment touted by the GOP. Both sides wanted reform “credit” for doing next to nothing in reform.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: Greed and self-interest among elected officials will always find a way to undo any political mechanism created to try to overcome it.

Everybody wants us to believe that it’s the other guy’s fault that truth and justice did not prevail when it comes to reform of the redistricting process in Illinois. People with sense will disregard all such rhetoric.

Who has more Ariz. pull, Quinn or Cubs?

When it comes to all the elements that make our beloved Chicago so unique, who or what has more potential to actually influence all those people in Arizona who actually believe their state Legislature did the right thing in passing a nativist-inspired immigration measure into law?

Pat Quinn, or the Chicago Cubs?

THE SAD THING is that the latter probably would have more influence, although it is The Mighty Quinn who is most likely to open his mouth on the issue.

He did so on Friday, giving us a predictable statement saying he thinks Arizona goofed big time in passing the measure that now requires local cops to take actions in enforcement of federal immigration laws.

Quinn says he agrees with the critics who say that people whom some cop might think “look” Latino or have a Spanish-sounding surname are most likely to suffer harassment, which Quinn calls, “un-American.”

He also said that anybody in Illinois who thinks the Land of Lincoln should enact a similar measure can forget it. He would veto it, and he is among those who wants federal government officials to pass some sort of reform measure that makes it clear many of the people who will be singled out by Arizona’s laws DO belong here in this country.

NOW I PERSONALLY do not have a problem with anything that Quinn said. I like it that I’m not the only person using the phrase “un-American” to describe this measure. In fact, I’d go farther in saying that most of the rhetoric and actions that come from the opposition to immigration reform is “un-American.”

Could it be that these people see all these Latin American newcomers to our country and feel threatened because their work ethic makes it likely they will become more worthwhile assets to the United States than these people could ever hope to be?

That’s laying it on a little thick. I don’t expect anyone to seriously be swayed into a sensible position by it. Which is about how I expect Quinn’s rhetoric will come across. It will be ignored by Arizona nitwits who don’t want to hear anything coming from anyone outside of their home state.

As for people in Illinois, the ones most likely to sympathize with Quinn’s view are the people who already are most solidly in his camp come the Nov. 2 elections. The question I have is how far will Republican gubernatorial nominee William Brady go to avoid saying anything about this issue?

KEEP QUIET AND draw no attention to immigration, and perhaps he can pass unnoticed. Express any kind of view, and he goes further toward driving more nails in the campaign “coffin” that says he’s too much a product of the rural part of Illinois to govern a state where two-thirds of the population lives in the metropolitan Chicago area.

Keep quiet, and maybe he’ll be able to keep part of that 7-point lead that recent polls show he has. Open up, and he fizzles into a loser. I expect Brady to say nothing, so this will likely not amount to much of an issue in our local elections.

But like I said, the Chicago Cubs could be the ones who have a bigger effect on the matter – because they can hit Arizona in its wallet.

Remember that deal Arizona officials negotiated by which a special tax on all baseball spring training game tickets would be charged to raise money to help pay to build the Cubs the upgraded training complex they so desired?

THE CHICAGO WHITE Sox might be able to relax that their fans are going to have to help pay for it, because the same Arizona Legislature that approved the nativist law never did get around to passing the bill that would approve the tax.

So it’s not official yet, and there were clauses in the agreement that the Cubs signed with Arizona officials that allowed them to negotiate with other cities that might want to host Cubs spring training if the Legislature failed to keep its end of the bargain.

Well, the Legislature failed. Could we now get the officials of Naples, Fla., who previously wanted the Cubs to relocate to renew their offer? Could the combination of political ineptitude combined with political idiocy cause the Cubs to think that now might be a good time to leave Arizona?

No matter how many activists picket outside of Arizona Diamondbacks games in Chicago and other National League cities nor threats to pull the All-Star Game from Phoenix in 2011 are likely to sway people. Not even getting baseball officials to join the Major League Baseball Players Association (the ballplayers’ union) in issuing statements condemning Arizona for its actions will do much.

BASEBALL’S BIGGEST HAMMER is all those spring training camps that liven up the economy and bring national attention to the suburbs of Phoenix every March.

Let’s not forget that the Cubs are considered the jewel of the whole Cactus League scene, with their games in Mesa usually selling out and all those Chicago-area tourists deprived of bad baseball being willing to cram their way into other teams’ ballparks to gain a glimpse of their cutesy Cubbies.

I don’t know what, if anything, the Cubs are inclined to do about this situation. But I can’t help but think that our city’s biggest hammer on this issue might very well be the baby bears clad in blue. And if it meant that the team could take a meaningful action, then for once, I might just have to chant, “Go Cubs!”

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