The truth is that Halvorson and Silverstein haven’t yet persuaded Senate President Jones to hold a Senate vote on this amendment. Without more delays. Without any so-called “improvements” intended to sabotage its passage.
They need to do that now.
Debbie, Ira, this is your life! This is the biggest test of your careers, and you’re flunking. You haven’t shown that you have the influence to force to a Senate vote a measure you say you support.
Let’s think about that. Recall, which would take until 2009 to become effective at least and might or might not effect the current Governor is the biggest test of their careers?
Is Dold going senile? Does anyone bother to tell him how dumb this overstatement is? C’mon, he sounds like a blogger.
In one case, the practical impact of recall would be nearly nil. In the other case, we might be able to actually make the income tax in Illinois progressive instead of regressive. Which impacts more people?
The measure is window dressing. It doesn’t solve the gridlock for two years, it make a structural change in the campaign finance system that encourages the kind of Legislative Leader power over their respective Chamber, and it doesn’t do anything to stop pay for play. Remember, we thought the prosecution of the last Governor might make people more cautious. Not so much apparently.
The reason there is no pressure on Jones isn’t because of anything Halvorson or Silverstein are doing, it’s because Jones, like the other three of the four tops, controls the campaign warchest and thus controls the chamber.
If you want a systemic change, go for the systemic problem, not some magic pony that the Trib has decided to beat some damn good legislators over the head with.
While the political gamesmanship is fun to watch I think we are taking our eye off the ball. This is a bad idea. Democracy is a full time job. The so-called solutions of the month are simply that, little nostrums that people think will solve problems but do just the opposite. They are substitutes for making hard decisions. First it was term limits that would solve the problems, then it was ballot initiatives. These silly ideas do little to solve the basic problem that we need to start having the courage to make tough choices and then sometimes be willing to say you know it is a tough choice and courage should be recognized.
Instead we have gutless politicians like Blago who says no to tax increases that are necessary to run our government and no to tax reform that might help our schools. Recall is not the solution, transplanting some balls and brains is what we really need!
I think this is an excellent point, but I’ll take it one step further. Term limits, initiatives, and recall all discourage political courage. They all focus on immediate efforts to alleviate a specific problem someone sees, but they each penalize those who might make those tough choices. Those with the most ability are often those with seniority and also have spent the time learning the issue so term limits hurt. Initiatives are easy devices to send an idea off to have killed by the public who doesn’t understand the trade-offs. Recall specifically discourages any kind of risk taking.
It’s a horrible idea. The balance in Congress works better because the pressure on fundraising and reelection runs both ways. Leadership needs a majority and fundraisers so the give and take tends to open up the bill process and at least decentralizes power to Chairman and every once in a while–regular members. Illinois has created a system where all the power flows to leadership where they control the committee chairs, the rules commmittee, and all of the money. That centralizes power to a few people and often keeps ideas from floating up from popular will.
Recall won’t solve that problem and it might make it worse by giving more power to the people with the campaign funds.
You are correct. You know all we need to do is look at the California experience. In my younger days California was the laboratory for the nation. Well they need to build a new lab. Remember the proposition that destroyed their property taxes, then their term limits. Not to mention the dastardly initiatives that they have enacted by voters over the years.
They have become a laughingstock because they treat every new political idea as the holy grail!