Call It A Comeback
Sun-Times endorses Jackson Jr. for Senate.
Except that Blagojevich hates Jackson almost as much if not euually Madigan. Laura Washington writes a good column on the story and makes a point that Blagojevich needs help in the black community. Her mistake? Assuming the Governor is not delusional.
Giannoulias Presser:
Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias is calling for the consolidation of the investment activities of all five of the state-funded pension systems into a single investment entity to curb ethics abuse in state government and save beneficiaries tens of millions of dollars annually.
The legislation Giannoulias is crafting aims to eliminate the fraud and abuse committed in connection with the federal Operation Board Games investigation. The consolidation would also cut administrative costs and management fees, saving beneficiaries up to $82 million annually.
A similar proposal to combine the pension systems surfaced in 2003, but was squashed by political powerbrokers William Cellini, Tony Rezko and Stuart Levine. Each has been implicated in the ongoing investigation spearheaded by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.
“The cost of corruption is real,” Giannoulias said. “If these corrupt insiders had not been successful in thwarting this worthwhile proposal, the state retirement systems would have saved substantial amounts of money over the last five years.”
The state could save $50 million to $80 million a year on administrative costs and management fees by merging the investment duties of five government employee retirement systems, according to the proposal. The overhaul also includes ethics measures that would set higher standards and stricter regulations for board members.
“The cost savings are going to be enormous, and then you have the ethics component,” Giannoulias told the Tribune. “We obviously know what took place in the past with cronyism and pay to play and people giving deals to their friends. We want to eliminate that.”
But the treasurer’s plan could face an uphill climb at the Capitol, where lawmakers say they welcome the ethics reforms but put the idea of combining the investments “on very thin ice.”
Kwame Raoul (the Kwame Tsunami) offers up a legitimate concern, but one that can be incorporated:
Sen. Kwame Raoul (D-Chicago), who heads the Senate’s pension committee, said he worries that forming one massive investment group could hinder the ability of smaller investment firms, particularly those headed by women or minorities, to get state business.
“Without the needed sensitivity, there’s likely to be the sentiment that they don’t want to waste time investing smaller amounts of money with smaller companies, and it’s been the good ol’ boys who’ve benefited from this historically,” Raoul said.
The essential idea is to create one pool, better regulated and overseen by a smaller group to reduce duplicated costs and create a smaller pool of potential scams.
Or as Cindi Canary says:
“Corruption has cost the Illinois millions of dollars and created a climate of cynicism throughout the state,” said Cindi Canary, Director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. “This bill will make it more difficult for influence peddlers to line their pockets and candidates to fill their campaign chests with money that belongs to state retirees. Merging the boards should have taken place long ago to prevent such abuse.”
Rest of the press release below.
It doesn’t matter what you want for the US Senate appointment in Illinois. A lone madman has the power and it’s largely irrelevant what any of us think–in fact, pushing good candidates too hard might hurt them.
The only thing we do know? It’s not going to be Jesse Jackson.
* This looks like another targeted leak designed to bust Jackson’s chops…
The Hill reported Blagojevich had placed calls to Chicago-area Democratic Reps. Danny Davis, Luis Guitierrez and Jan Schakowsky Tuesday and Wednesday. The Washington publication said it wasn’t clear whether the Democratic governor also had talked to Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., another Democrat who has expressed a desire to follow Obama to the Senate.
Jackson couldn’t be reached for comment, The Hill said
While Blagojevich’s office had no comment on the calls, Davis said he had “a great conversation” with the governor Wednesday afternoon. Schakowsky and Gutierrez also reportedly had upbeat talks with Blagojevich this week.
Apparently Durbin doesn’t get called back by the Governor
* The second most powerful United States Senator says he can’t get his calls returned by his own governor…
Democrat Dick Durbin, the state’s other U.S. senator, has said he wants to talk to Blagojevich about who might replace Obama. But spokesman Joe Shoemaker said Durbin’s calls to the governor haven’t been returned.
“He has not been able to talk to him. We’ve tried,” Shoemaker said.
*** UPDATE *** Lucio Guerrero responds…
Just to set the record straight: The Governor’s office reached out to Sen. Durbin’s office on Friday to check the Senator’s availability for a phone call on Monday. We have yet to hear back from them. Although some are trying to make this a big issue, the Governor will of course talk to the Senator about finding a replacement in the Senate. I am sure the two will speak in the near future, it’s just a matter of scheduling.
I’d hate to have the Senior Senator interrupt Blagojevich as he does his daily renditions of “I’m so Pretty!”
Via Rich
Durbin told a news conference that he first wants to sit down with the city’s top federal prosecutor and ask him what he wants in the future. Asked if he would recommend that President-elect Barack Obama renominate Fitzgerald, Durbin said: “Yes.”
“I think he has done an extraordinary job as U.S. attorney; I have the greatest confidence in him,” Durbin said. “I want to do what he wants to do, I want to support what he wants to do and I won’t presume what that is.”
To make it abundantly clear to the tin foil hat brigade, Patrick Fitzgerald can stay as US Attorney as long as he wants during an Obama administration. The only problem is does Patrick Fitzgerald want to make this one job his life’s work. I hope he does stay on, but eventually he will want to move on professionally. He is actually getting married and may want a life at some point.
For those waiting on the Lauzen whack, why would I do that? It only hurts Republicans to divide their party further–more power to him.
Given the Review’s doting on Bush, it’s a bit hard to figure they’d have anything to do with the Constitution Party which rejected Alan Keyes for:
The Permanent Candidate has failed to win the nomination of the paleoconservative Constitution Party. Eric Garris reports:
Last night, CP founder Howard Phillips strongly denounced [Alan] Keyes as a warmonger, neocon, and egomaniac. Phillips was subsequently attacked by Jim Clymer, the CP national chairman.
In spite of Keyes bringing in a lot of delegates, the CP remained true to their anti-interventionist views and rejected Keyes.
The nomination instead went to the antiwar conservative Chuck Baldwin, by a vote of 383.8 to 125.7. It’s a small but satisfying victory for two noble though possibly lost causes: the movement to end the occupation of Iraq and the transideological coalition to get Alan Keyes to shut up.
I pointed out a while back that the California affiliate of the Constitution Party is the old American Independent Party, a group formed as a political vehicle for the segregationist George Wallace. Jim Antle of The American Spectator, who has done the best reporting I’ve seen on the CP race, tells me that the California delegation backed Keyes, a black man — while the party’s two black state chairs were Keyes’ leading opponents. It’s a complicated world, innit
Fun story about the Constitution Party. When they had their 1999 Convention in Saint Louis I ended up riding Metrolink with a bunch of them. They didn’t appear to understand the contradiction.
The problem is….Simpson only pulled in 14 percent of the vote to about 30 percent for Cullerton and 50 percent for Rostenkowski. Stalking horses don’t pull in more than the ‘legit’ challenger not to mention, even Cullerton and Simpson’s votes together didn’t reach 50 percent.
There’s plenty to criticize Cullerton for, but he fought a tough race in 1994 and that isn’t one of them. The larger problem isn’t Cullerton, but that one of the better indepedendent candidates didn’t have a shot like Don Harmon.
State behind in paying for child care subsidies
Quality child care is an important determinant of future success. Making businesses operating on a small margin wait for their checks endangers the good providers out there who have made a go of it.
Blagojevich kills historic site funding over $2.4 million. Seriously.
The most publicized reduction that will go forward is $2.4 million that pays for nearly three dozen employees to run 13 historic sites. The sites are to close Nov. 30.
The tourist attractions include the reconstructed log home where Abraham Lincoln lived with his father and stepmother near Charleston and the Vandalia statehouse where Lincoln served in the Legislature before the capital moved to Springfield.
Such cuts are particularly prickly because the world will commemorate the bicentennial of the 16th president’s birth in February.
Among other reductions that Blagojevich did not agree to restore: nearly $7 million for the office of Attorney General Lisa Madigan, a potential rival for Blagojevich’s seat in 2010; nearly $21 million from the budget of Secretary of State Jesse White; and $3 million from the offices of the lieutenant governor, state treasurer and auditor general, all of whom have criticized Blagojevich.
He is a small, petty, useless man.
But he hasn’t raised income taxes.
Freivogel is a decent journalist and Yepsen is quite good, but both are journalists and journalists without a whole lot of background in Illinois. Not many people could fill MIke Lawrence’s shoes, but Turner is clearly a better choice in this case.
Hinz has a generally good look at the field here, but leaves out the guy with a $300,000 head start fundraising–Manny Flores. He raised the money for a potential race for Guitierez’s seat and has it sitting in a federal account if he makes a go of it.
Flores appears to be serious and in a divided field would have a built in constituency and money. I like several of the people thinking of getting in this race so I’m not pushing anyone, but ignoring Manny would be a mistake.
Where were those penetrating examinations of the response to Katrina?
That’s right–they didn’t happen.
ArchPundit