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The most positive thing to come out of last
week’s umpteenth special legislative session was that Gov. Rod
Blagojevich didn’t call another one for the next day. Blagojevich had threatened to call lawmakers to town
every day until they passed a bill funding mass transit for the Chicago
region. But when almost none of his Senate Democratic allies bothered to
show up last Wednesday it was obvious that they were voting with their
feet, so once again the governor conveniently forgot about a promise and
skulked home to Chicago.
Just eight Senate Democrats — of 37 —
made it to Springfield last Wednesday. Senate President Emil Jones, the
governor’s staunchest ally this year, was a no-show. Sen. Carol
Ronen, the governor’s floor leader, who is about to retire,
didn’t show up, either. Sen. Rickey Hendon, the toughest critic of
House Speaker Michael Madigan in the “upper” chamber, was also
not there (although Hendon was reportedly not feeling well). Sen. James
DeLeo, the governor’s go-to guy for Hannah Montana tickets, was
nowhere to be found. The governor sued Madigan last year in an attempt to
compel him to force his members to town during special sessions. Madigan
skipped last week’s festivities, but the House, at least, had a
quorum present. Seventy House members answered the roll call, compared with
14 or 15 across the Statehouse rotunda. There were almost as many reporters
present in the Senate as there were members. This turn of events put the governor in a bit of a
bind. He often seems to live to bash Madigan, but even Blagojevich
didn’t have the chutzpah required to slam the House speaker for not
coming to town when almost no Senate Democrats made the trip, so he
contented himself with releasing a generic slam on the General Assembly. “We’re disappointed that most lawmakers
failed to appear for the special session called by the governor to fund the
CTA and avert a planned Jan. 20 doomsday,” his spokesperson said in a
written statement. “Most” House members did show up, of
course, but the Senate dragged the curve way down. One never knows what will go through the
governor’s mind at a time like this. A couple of stray electrons in
his brain could bump into each other and set off an uncontrollable chain
reaction that his staff and top advisors would be helpless to stop.
Statehouse types waited around for an indication of what Blagojevich might
do next. Several had come to town prepared for the long haul, bringing
enough clothes to get them through the weekend.
Fortunately, sanity finally prevailed — or
maybe it was presidential politics. One of the reasons that so many Democrats,
particularly in the Senate, weren’t in town last week was that they
were in Iowa campaigning for former legislative colleague U.S. Sen. Barack
Obama. If the governor had called another special session for Thursday
— Iowa Caucus Day — and harangued lawmakers into showing up, he
could have been accused of sabotaging Obama’s campaign. Instead of calling yet another fruitless, futile, and
politically dangerous special session, then, the governor cut his losses
and went home. Considering the miserable legislative turnout, he probably
spent more on his flight back and forth to Springfield and his Chicago
press conference than the General Assembly spent on per diems. In the end,
last Wednesday was simply an expensive media opportunity for one of the
biggest publicity hounds in Illinois history. And the press pop didn’t even go all that well.
Chicago reporters wanted to ask him about the latest allegations contained
in a federal proffer that Blagojevich had bragged about how he could use
state contracts to raise campaign cash. The governor was forced to spend
most of his time denying that he was a crook and slamming the media for
focusing on the negatives while he was trying to do what’s right for
Illinois. It was a real George Ryan moment — and we all know how that
story ended.
Rich Miller also
publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and
thecapitolfaxblog.com.
This article appears in Jan 3-9, 2008.
