The Governor is one smart cookie. He is finally using all the power the Illinois Constitution gives him to create and administer the programs he wants for this state. Rewrite to Do Right is a stroke of genius. The Governor knows that the Senate President has got his back and he knows the judicial process is so excrutiatingly slow that whatever he does has little consequence for him.
This is about the level of Rod’s understanding of the Illinois Constitution. The Amendatory Veto doesn’t give the Governor the sole power to create a program and administer it, it allows a Governor to initiate legislative changes and have the Lege concur with a majority vote, override with a 3/5 vote or let the bill die.
In a strict sense it’s not a typical Executive power, but it’s far from a unilateral power. The Governor’s campaign (and what the hell else does he do,but campaign) is an effort to try and blame the Legislature for poison pills he inserts into bills and tries to blame them for not passing his changes. It’s transparent, juvenile, and will only exacerbate the problems.
Furthermore, the quote illustrates the same kind of irresponsible behavior we see in DC where the Executive does something regardless of the legality and then assumes the courts will take too long to fix it. The problem is the Lege here and in DC seem to think impeachment is too hard….
Taking the dumbest comment of many out of a Capitol Fax post and then using it not to attack the person who wrote it, but rather to attack a 3rd party who had nothing to do with the comment is probably intellectually inconsistent.
It might be if it wasn’t perfectly consistent with what the Governor is saying.