But Would Rod have A Cushion

From the Capitol Fax:

THE BUDGET (Excerpt) The governor is screaming about how the Legislature should pass tax hikes that don’t solve the budget problem, and the Speaker is threatening budget cuts that most of his members find abhorrent. Somebody needs to knock their heads together. Soon.

I mean, with all that Blagorgeous hair, would he even notice?

But seriously folks…now The Blagorgeous* is threatening to shut down the government?

Where did this idea come from? Why all of sudden is there a need to shut down the state government?

Here’s an idea. The state has a plane, get your butt on it after preening around the Des Plaines River and meet with the Four Tops. Like today. If you actually bother to meet you might find a compromise.

Here’s a hint–they are in Springfield.

And threatening other Democrats with a shutdown of the government, affects a rather significant force in the Party who will side with them–AFSCME. So unless he thinks he is invulnerable to an intraparty challenge-I’m at a loss as to how he thinks he wins in the end.

Making matters worse-he may have a strained relationship with the father-in-law according to Rich Miller–subscription required for that info though.

Right now the only clear ally that Blagorgeous has is Jones, but Jones isn’t necessarily a reliable ally in the long run. He’s there because it is convenient and he isn’t going to go the distance with Blagorgeous over the unions and everyone else. Running against a Lege is usually a safe bet, but not always. New York in 2001 was looking like a similar situation except that the House Speaker, Sheldon Silver, was a Dem and from a different party. He and Bruno, the Senate President and Republican teamed up to override the Governor on several spending issues. The Governor was saved by 9-11, but ultimately may have faced a real challenge if not for that. I wouldn’t count on the toppling of the Sears Tower to win this budget battle nor a tough primary fight if he actually tries to take on key Democratic constituencies.

The argument the Blagorgeous is probably telling himself is that he can win because he’ll run against the insiders. There are multiple problems with this:

1) he isn’t clean–see the health care fiasco for state workers
2) some of those insiders are rather broad swaths of the electorate like state and local workers
3) he hasn’t set the agenda right

A note on 3. When Clinton pulled it in 1995 he had clear specific proposals including environmental protection to claim to be fighting for. Blagojevich hasn’t offered a similar argument for protecting schools (an analogous issue space for the state) because he refuses to look at substantive reforms beyond demagoguing and Jones just cut his legs out by passing a far different bill than the Governor wanted. He can yell loophole all he wants, but it doesn’t work–trust me–Bob Holden’s been trying it for nearly 2 years and no one is listening in Missouri.

*Shamelessly taken from Austin Mayor in comments