Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, September 10,2009

The Governor blames everybody but himself

As expected, former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s new book paints himself as the hero of Illinois politics and blames everyone but himself for his troubles. He also tries to settle an old score. Blagoj

Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, September 3,2009

Hynes challenge could toughen up Quinn

By Rich Miller

There’s been quite a bit of private grumbling by Democratic county party chairpersons and other party leaders about Comptroller Dan Hynes’ decision to run in the February primary against G

Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, August 27,2009

State Republicans energized for the good ol’ days

By Rich Miller

Republicans, as a class, tend to pine for the good ol’ days — mainly, the eras when they were in power. That’s been especially true in Illinois as the Republicans, uniformly blown ou

Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, August 6,2009

Clayborne would be a different sort of candidate for governor

By Rich Miller

While fellow Democrats Gov. Pat Quinn and Comptroller Dan Hynes were hurling insults about the state budget at each other several days ago, I picked up the phone and called Illinois Senate Majority

Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, July 30,2009

Drowning in red ink

Erasing five years of preschool progress, and other travesties

By Rich Miller

Moments after members of the Illinois State Board of Education voted to cut the board’s budget by a net $180 million last week, an activist group called Voices for Illinois Children sent out a

Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, July 23,2009

You call this a budget?

By Rich Miller

The budget — if you can call it that — which passed the General Assembly last week has as much as a $5 billion hole in it, borrows over $7 billion from Wall Street and state ve

Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, July 16,2009

Mike Madigan’s agenda revealed

By Rich Miller

“You guys are going to have to come up with a new conspiracy theory,” Attorney General Lisa Madigan told Rockford Register-Star columnist Wally Haas last week about her decision to go for

Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, July 9,2009

Quinn learns to play the blame game

By Rich Miller

As with any state legislative overtime session and possible government shutdown, “Job One” right now is making sure somebody else gets the blame. Last week, Gov. Pat Qu

Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, July 2,2009

When will Lisa Madigan come out of hiding on tax hike?

Meanwhile, Republican governor hopefuls posture and pontificate

By Rich Miller

Every Republican governor this state has had for the past 40 years has raised taxes. Republican legislators and most of their leaders have always been involved with those tax hikes.

Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, June 25,2009

If voters ran government, mess would be worse

By Rich Miller

Usually when polls are taken about tax hikes, the respondents are “informed” about the benefits of raising more government money, whether it’s for education, public servic