In an interesting use of media, The Illinois Policy Institute has a blog, A New Can of Worms, written by the Director Greg Blackenship.
What do I like about the Illinois Policy Institute? Not much and the next post will show one reason. Essentially it is another ‘think tank’ that is really cover for a political party.
That being said, Blackenship makes an astute observation about Rich Miller’s comparisons of Blagojevich to Dan Walker,
This says at all. The carping from the Capitol is deplorable. Thinned skinned state legislators and a culture that is used to operating like Leonid Breschnev’s Politboru are finally being challenged in Illinois. (Come to think of it the apathy toward not only our legislators and constitutional officers but the entire state government is also reminiscent of the Breschnev era. So, yeah, the Breschnev era might be good analogy.) While the Governor is being denounced for going back on his word — by people who have made a living at it — he is out using the trappings of the Governorship to gather public support for his positions. This is a no win situation for the constitutional officers and angry legislators. They need to get over it and adjust to the new realities.
Rich Miller has begun comparing the Governor and his strategy to Gov. Walker — the last Democrat to hold the office: "After about a year in office, nobody trusted Dan Walker, a self-centered, serial prevaricator with dreams of national office who thought he was smarter than everyone else and who relentlessly promoted himself as an independent by deliberately picking demagogic fights with other politicians. Sound vaguely familiar?"
Rod Blagojevich isn’t Dan Walker. Walker tried to replace Mayor Richard Daley the First as head of the IL Democratic Party. Blagojevich isn’t picking fights with the Party (Speaker Madigan is its leader) and, unlike Walker, Blagojevich has a few years of national politics under his belt. Watching Bill Clinton and George W. Bush up close and working with Ald. Dick Mell (his father in law) and Clinton strategist and Fmr. DNC Chairman David Wilhelm gives Blagojevich a base of support and political smarts that Walker never had. No, Blagojevich is not Dan Walker.
Like a President, Governor Blagojevich is seeking a public debate on matters of state. This is what I want, debates on prescription drugs, taxes, Medicaid Reform, and fiscal reforms. Just like we are winning at the national level, we’ll win at the state level. If we are confident in our ideas, then conservatives should be egging Blagojevich on.
Everytime the "insiders" demand the Governor come back to Springfield and negotiate — which means essentially to work behind closed doors — they look bad, not the Governor. He’ll win that one everytime. It is 2003, not 1903 and it is about time the Illinois political culture catches up with the times. Thanks to Internet, talk radio, and cable tv we govern publicly today, not behind closed doors. Our leaders either need to grow up and learn how to operate in the twenty-first century or move on.
In the end, Blagojevich may not be able to beat the establishment, the first guy to challenge rarely does. Think Glasnost. But he may weaken the establishment to the point where the next one who comes along does finally finish them off. If Blagojevich can at least do that, then he will have done a service to Illinois conservatives.
The Permanent Campaign is stupid, and hopefully counterproductive. The budget is slightly better, but still structurally a disaster. While I completely disagree with Blackenship on most issues and I think a public debate hurts his positions, his analysis of Blagojevich’s political skills is quite good. Other than angering the Hispanic Caucus, his moves so far haven’t really cost him much and probably helped him for reelection with Topinka’s ranting.
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