A bedtime story -- Blagojevich's aides use mansion

I hope everyone had a great holiday yesterday. We celebrated an important date in history. Now onto the next story.

I'm sure last year when people were looking at the governor's race that they had the gripe about our current one. The current Governor refuses to stay in Springfield. Now that we're in overtime, it seems that he plans to stick around since he's called a special session and all.

Still, we would imagine if since the governor won't stay in Springfield and commute by plane back and forth between there and Chicago that the mansion is often or totally unoccupied. Well this column from the State Journal Registers indicates that this isn't the case. And I really like this part of this story...

Back then, Blagojevich hadn't yet done his near-complete withdrawal from non-scripted public appearances or encounters with reporters in Springfield. He told me how he met a girl with cancer when he was in Utica after a tornado, and she ended up staying at the mansion.

"Every so often I meet somebody along the way like that little girl. ... It just seems like an interesting opportunity for someone to get a chance to be part of a mansion that belongs to the taxpayers and the people anyway," the governor said back then. "So every so often, I'll offer it out."

Rausch said last week that the governor "has been known to invite various people he meets to be guests at the mansion." Staff members arrange the stays.

That is really nice. I like to hear stories like this.

Of course other than special guests, the mansion is where some in his staff might stay. There apparently are any records kept of who stays there. It wasn't always so since the column says that Gov. Edgar kept records of who stays there. The justification for the current policy is that the governor's mansion in Sprinfield is a private residence, but I guess it's up to the individual governor whether or not to keep records of who stays there.

BTW, there is a question raised here, you wanna see it...

The fact that senior staff members of the governor are using the mansion as a fancy hotel raises the question of whether those staffers are getting any per diems that could be considered lodging money. The answer appears to be no. A check with the comptroller's office showed that since Jan. 1, 2007, no travel money was claimed by Nix, Filan or Harris. Quinlan was reimbursed just $178 for a round-trip by auto from Chicago to Springfield and $21 for meals, all on April 12-13.

It's funny that this portion ends with "at least someone in the administration can drive".