Hope & History Rhyme

Illinois State Senator Mike Jacobs (D-Denny Jacobs) provides an example of why leaders in the General Assembly don’t like the idea of letting the members make decisions.  Also, KEVIN LEE of the Quad City Times successfully spells and uses the word “umbrage” in a sentence:

Patrick Collins, head of the reform commission, took umbrage when the senate committee rejected the commission”s proposals but unanimously approved of a reform measure sponsored by state Sen. Dan Kotowski, D-Park Ridge.

“I asked my commissioners to change their lives to engage in this process for 100 days. I am not going to participate in a process like the one that happened in there. If any of you think that”s a fair process, that”s wrong,” Collins said.

Senate President John Cullerton, who has discussed reform measures with the commission, defended the process.

“The subcommittee had hearings, people testified, people voted and his bill didn”t pass. That happens all the time in Springfield. That is the process,” he said. “People are, of course disappointed that their bills don”t pass, but the process is the same.”

State Sen. Mike Jacobs, D-East Moline, said the commission”s proposals were too broad.

“All I can say is ‘Waah waah waah, I want my Mommy,” ” Jacobs jokingly sobbed. “For him to think that we should drop whatever we”re doing to make sure he gets whatever he wants is amazing. Patrick Collins ought to learn that this is a give-and-take process. You just don”t get whatever you want.”

http://mywebtimes.com/archives/ottawa/display.php?id=380935

This is a guerrilla war where even your legislative friends are really your enemies because, in the end, they’ll never vote against Madigan, who controls the vast Democratic Party war chest that can make or break them in their next bid for re-election.

Mess with Madigan and he can crush you politically. The rank-and-file members of the Legislature have been scared silly of being voted off the island.

In Illinois, money is power. So when Collins’ commission argues that there should be real limits on campaign contributions and that leaders such as Madigan can’t be allowed to give limitless donations to designated legislators, well, you know this is the front line in the war for reform.

Do lawmakers care that you’ve been calling and e-mailing and faxing in your views on passing a real package of reforms in Illinois?

No. It’s not an election year.

And when the legislative leaders don’t bother to respond to your calls — a number of you have written in anger and frustration after failing to reach Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton — then you get the picture about how important you are vs. how important they are.

And if nothing else drives home that point, consider this: Tucked inside the capital bill that will bring home the bacon to lawmakers’ districts in the form of bridges and roads, there’s an interesting little window into their priorities.

The Senate bill sets aside $250 million to refurbish legislative offices in Springfield but is eliminating $100 million set aside for affordable housing in Illinois.

That outrages Greg Pierce, a longtime affordable housing activist with United Power for Action and Justice. “To spend $250 million to buy yourself better drapes and cut out the first $100 million ever for state-sponsored affordable housing . . . dem-onstrates how legislative leaders don’t understand what’s going on.”

A reform rally in Highland Park last weekend drew a whopping 800 to 1,000 people who showed up to cheer Collins.

CAROL MARIN, The Chicago Sun-Times

http://www.suntimes.com/news/marin/1588368,CST-EDT-carol24.article

KARI ANDREN of the St.Louis Post-Dispatch finds the absurdity and fundamental cynicism of Illinois politics that Illinois media seems to miss.  The Post-Dispatch doesn’t try and pretend that the General Assembly is a legitimate democratic institution.

Patrick Collins, the head of a panel Gov. Pat Quinn created to clean up state government, was remarkably angry and visibly shaking at a news conference following the committee hearing.

Collins hinted that lawmakers were trying to pass token reforms rather than address large-scale anti-corruption measures.

“Maybe this happens every day in Springfield,” Collins said. “I’m not used to that.”

The Senate committee rejected nine “game changing” reform measures brought by Collins’ panel, including efforts to allow state’s attorneys to use wiretaps, expand state criminal law and prevent officials convicted of certain high-level corruption charges from being sentenced only to probation.

Senators continually said they lacked time to fully review the measures despite the panel’s report having been issued nearly a month ago.

The committee then advanced a separate bill distributed to members that morning, and the full Senate later passed the measure on a 58-0 vote with little discussion. It would allow prosecutors to go after the personal assets and campaign funds of corrupt politicians.

“That’s not the process that we were promised,” Collins said. “There’s a question of fundamental fairness. … I have a question of whether we were treated fairly today.”

Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, later told reporters that the commission’s proposals, and other proposals, were all still in play. “Everybody should just calm down, take a deep breath and relax,” Cullerton said.

But Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont, accused Cullerton and his fellow Democratic leaders of running out the clock on real reform measures, which she called “a very time-tested tactic” in Springfield.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/illinoisnews/story/084859F1D159BE53862575BF00135C47?OpenDocument

From Chicago Public Radio’s World View:

The dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet ended in 1990. Since then Chile has experienced an economic boom. It’s often been called South America’s tiger. Poverty rates have fallen but unemployment has increased in recent years.

Claudio Orrego is the Mayor of Peñalolen a district of Santiago, Chile. Orrego was in Chicago to accept the 2009 Gus Hart Fellowship from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. He believes that the internet can help Chile battle unemployment and provide better services to Chilean citizens. Orrego led Chile’s Modernization Committee, an online effort to make government accessible to Chileans. His interest in technology blossomed when he founded of El Encuentro, an organization dedicated to closing Chile’s digital divide.

www.chicagopublicradio.org/Content.aspx?audioID=34377