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Last week was way over the top, even for an
over-the-top guy like Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Blagojevich sent out a blustery press release,
threatening to shut down the government if he doesn’t get exactly
what he wants in the state budget. He also told reporters that he had no
problem keeping the overtime legislative session going for another year if
that’s what it takes to get the budget done to his liking. It’s assumed that these actions were designed
to frighten legislators into taking some action and warn their leaders that
their plans for a relatively slimmed-down budget were unacceptable. But the governor’s antics were mostly met with
howls of derision at the Statehouse. Nobody takes the man seriously
anymore. Legislators have finally realized that they could do whatever they
wanted without him as long as they stuck together, and he has flip-flopped
so many times this summer on so many issues that he simply has no
credibility left. • He promised to call special sessions seven
days a week until the budget was completed, then dropped the subject after
just one weekend in Springfield, and then showed up for a Cubs game the following Sunday. • He threatened to call legislators into special
sessions until the cows came home if they passed an income- or sales-tax
hike and then overrode his veto but is now expected to abandon that pledge
if a modest sales-tax increase is approved for mass transit. • He flatly rejected one-month budgets as a
right-wing Republican conspiracy, then embraced them as a useful tool for
getting what he wants. • He completely ruled out any tax hikes on
“people,” then fully supported a massive increase in the
cigarette tax, which is obviously paid by “people.”
• He chastised the General Assembly’s
leaders for using state employees as political “pawns” in the
budget-negotiations game and then threatened to shut down the government
and lay off most of those very same state workers if he didn’t get
everything that he wanted in the state budget.
Is it any wonder that the Illinois AFL-CIO now feels
comfortable challenging the Democratic governor’s pledge to veto any
income-tax increases? The State Federation of Labor has been a staunch
Blagojevich supporter for years, but its leaders demanded last week that
the General Assembly ignore the flailing, wild-eyed, veto-threatening man
behind the curtain and approve a bill to increase the income tax by a
quarter-point a year for four years to fund public schools.
More important, though, the AFL-CIO got behind a
proposal to cut Blagojevich out of the distribution of those new education
dollars by putting all the cash into a “lockbox” completely
controlled by a three-fifths majority of both legislative chambers. This
was done because nobody trusts the governor to distribute the funds
equitably.
For the AFL-CIO to essentially admit that the man it
has supported since before the 2002 primary is now completely untrustworthy
and should be ignored, bowled over, and cut out of the loop shows just how
far Blagojevich has sunk. Almost every ally he’s had is bolting for
the exit doors.
The unions are also bankrolling a new advertising
campaign on black radio stations in Chicago that starts out, “I voted
for him, but the man is wrong.” The ad is about the governor’s
adamant refusal to support an income-tax increase for schools. The spot is
running in heavy rotation beginning this morning. The fact that organized
labor has chosen to slam Blagojevich in his most loyal voting base shows
just how far labor has drifted from this man. Even the Daley clan is getting into the act. Bill
Daley, the brother of Chicago’s mayor, wrote an op-ed for the Chicago Tribune last week
in which he compared the governor to the unbendable, unpopular President
George W. Bush. Daley urged Blagojevich to drop his expensive idea for
universal health insurance (which he’s demanding in return for
keeping the government open), stop the sniping, “demonstrate
thoughtful leadership,” and start compromising on other issues so
that he can “earn a second chance.”
I don’t know how Blagojevich thinks he can
govern effectively for the rest of his second term if he stays on this
crazy course. It’s like he’s taken every goofy trait of his
from his first term and magnified it tenfold. Maybe when he finally winds
up truly alone he’ll begin to take notice.
Rich Miller also
publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and
thecapitolfaxblog.com.
This article appears in Aug 2-8, 2007.
