I didn’t think he could make this much worse, but The Blagorgeous response to the Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s blocking the mortgaging of the Thompson Center is perhaps a classic in stupid things said by public officials.
“It’s her father, you know, I can’t fault her,” Blagojevich said. “I don’t want to get involved in a family deal here, but you know it’s her father. I’ve got two daughters. I hope they back me on stuff that I do.”
Steve Brown, Madigan’s press guy and all around aide responds with just about the nastiest thing I’ve heard in a while in Illinois politics
It speaks more to the pathetic, simplistic world the governor sometimes lives in
So he has alienated the Attorney General and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. But that isn’t all, oh no, our boy Blagorgeous just pissed off the women on both sides of the aisle with that condescending poppy cock:
“She is not carrying water for her father,” said state Rep. Julie Hamos (D-Evanston). “She is the attorney general for the state of Illinois.”
“He is a complete Neanderthal, and I think it’s a complete insult to women,” said state Sen. Christine Radogno (R-Lemont) of Blagojevich. “She’s a professional. There are a lot of professional women, and we don’t necessarily do what our fathers and husbands say.”
State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, who also is head of the state Republican Party, called Blagojevich’s remarks “shameful and chauvinistic” and said the governor should apologize to not just Madigan but to all women in the state.
But to really make matters worse, it appears that Lisa Madigan is right:
Though most legislation requires only a simple majority of the House and Senate for approval, Madigan noted in her opinion that the Illinois Constitution requires a special three-fifths vote on measures that authorize new state borrowing. Ironically, Michael Madigan was a sponsor of the Thompson Center bill, which passed his chamber 72-44, one vote more than needed to meet the three-fifths mandate.
But the Senate passed the bill by a 33-25 margin, three votes short of the number needed to attain three-fifths approval.
Blagojevich aides disagreed with Lisa Madigan’s interpretation of the three-fifths rule. But former University of Illinois law professor Ron Rotunda, an expert on the state constitution, sided with Madigan’s view.
“The framers [of the constitution] created this rule to be airtight,” Rotunda said. “The only way the framers could have been any clearer would be to add a sentence at the end of the clause that says, `We really mean it.'”
Never mind that financing current operations out of debt creation is really stupid.
Is Blagorgeous another Gray Davis? Can you guys recall him?
There is no recall in Illinois.
And thank goodness there isn’t.
How I wish I could go back in time and actually *vote* in that primary. Paul Vallas would have been a fantastic governor, I think.
I’m kind of enjoying the train wreck personnally.