Daily Dolt: Ray Hanania

A rare back-to-back win for Ray Hanania

Archpundit takes sides, as he always does, with clout, rather than reason. And, to emphasize his ignorance, uses namecalling rather than logic to address issues. Typical. But then, how many journalism awards has he won? Come to think of it, did he ever even serve in the U.S. Military?

Let me repeat what I said in the post:

Now, many of Blagojevich’s critics are not terribly sympathetic themselves, but they do have the Constitution behind their positions.  The people are sovereign in the United States and that sovereignty is represented by the General Assembly that passes laws and appropriates money. The  Governor’s job is to execute the law and spend the appropriations according to law.  Suggesting that the Governor has more moral authority to be the representative of the people is an incredibly silly argument.  The Governor’s job when it comes to legislation is implementing or vetoing the legislation, but he doesn’t get to pass it.  In fact, he is very limited in his veto power because he can be overridden by the General Assembly.

The Governor cannot remove the General Assembly nor any individual members.  The Governor cannot set rules for the General Assembly.  The General Assembly can legislate control over the Executive Branch.

Madigan is elected by the voters.  As are the other members of the Legislature, few of whom are happy with Blagojevich and not because of some desire to give Mike Madigan more power.  The Governor is not elected to legislate, he’s elected to run the executive branch according to the law of the state–the law the legislature passes.

So, what exactly is Hanania taking issue with?  Does he think the Executive Branch should pass laws on its own?

Or perhaps he could explain how the Executive Branch is supposed to be dominant?

What I found obnoxious about the column was comparing Rod Blagojevich to Harold Washington and that’s why I addressed it.  Harold Washington was fighting a bunch of racist buffoons as Mayor.  Rod Blagojevich is fighting not just Mike Madigan, but 3 of the 4 caucuses in the General Assembly and a whole bunch of Democratic Senators.  Furthermore, everyone who has followed the entire ordeal should also understand that the program he’s trying to get now could have been passed in May.  He decided to sit through the summer and fight over a program he built no support for.

Harold Washington was the opposite. He didn’t play games like that and his ultimate talent was his ability to make a deal with people who were often viscerally opposed to him.  When white Chicagoans met the guy, they came away liking him because he didn’t let any political or social baggage get in the way of forming a relationship. Blagojevich does the opposite. When he has the opportunity Blagojevich choose conflict over trust building.  It is a complete sham to compare the two men as being alike in any way.
Of course, Ray isn’t paying attention, I’m one of the few public supporters of the GRT and the universal health care plan Blagojevich proposed. I just happen to think, as usual, the Governor has chosen conflict over compromise and now is trying to do something that is patently unconstitutional.

In terms of Madigan–I didn’t say only Madigan. I said Madigan and the the rest of the House.  Let’s remember the House as a whole voted against the GRT 107-0.

Most bizarre from Ray is this statement:

but he also has the right to intervene and insure the legislature does the right thing

in fact, the Governor has no such power. He can call the General Assembly to a special session, but he cannot make them do anything.  The General Assembly is the sovereign power of the State of Illinois. We don’t have kings in this country.

Finally, Vasyl points out the stupidity of trying to claim that Blagojevich has popular support for a program he never mentioned in the election:

Madigan had a shot at ousting Blagojevich in the last election. He took it and he lost.

?????

What is he talking about here? There was no Madigan-back primary challenge to Blagojevich in the last election, and while he was unenthusiastic, Madigan did support Blagojevich in the general.

And here’s where Hanania’s argument falls apart: Blagojevich did not campaign on a health care plan financed by a gross receipt tax. If he were explicit about this plan, and then won the election, Hanania might have a point about defying the will of the voters. (He’s still be wrong about deferring to the executive, but whatever.) Instead, Blagojevich was pretty adamant about running on a platform that he would not increase general taxes, and never mentioned a word about Illinois Covered and the GRT.

The voters aren’t psychic, so it’s tough to see how they were backing the GRT and Illinois Covered.

To suggest Eisendrath was a Madigan plant is funny, but not very serious.