In the case of Illinois state government, the bus driver (or perhaps the more professional term is operator) is the governor. And don't think other leaders in this state get a pass. Yeah we do have Senate President Emil Jones and House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, but what about Republican leaders in the General Assembly? The budget process now since June 1st or so (well whenever the overtime session started) requires a super majority which means that although Democrats have a much larger majority in the General Assembly (especially in the state Senate), they have to play ball with the Republican and I suppose the Republicans can run with the ball if they so choose.
Anyway let's have a look at the column...
Blagojevich, a politician who in person and in public can charm the socks off a snake, has from the very beginning of his first term in 2003 shelved his considerable people skills in favor of alienating just about everyone he needs to get something of significance done in Springfield.
From the moment he took office, he began cutting himself off, demonizing legislators of both parties for spending ''like drunken sailors'' and inexplicably refusing to return phone calls from fellow governors or even Illinois' senior U.S. senator, Dick Durbin.
Blagojevich made it clear from the beginning that he was going to go it alone. A solo player, the ultimate visionary populist.
There is no better example of that than his announcement early this year that he would push for universal state health care funded by a gigantic gross receipts tax on business. His proposal came out of the blue and was met with deafening silence.
Had Blagojevich prepared anyone for that idea during his 2006 re-election campaign?
No.
Had he built a bipartisan consensus or engaged the business community in discussions to prepare the way for such a grand plan?
No.
Had he galvanized public support in behalf of it?
No. No. No.
And yet, today, the governor hangs onto his health-care plan like a life preserver on the Titanic, last week threatening a shutdown of state government if he doesn't get his way, as other state services risk being thrown overboard.
There are icebergs ahead, one of them being the next two years' worth of pension payments that make this year's look like small change.
And, in addition to already unpaid Medicaid bills and struggling schools, there is the looming question of infrastructure. Last week's collapsed bridge tragedy in Minneapolis is not a Minnesota problem, it's our problem too, a warning of a ticking time bomb that, like so many other urgent needs, has been deferred because of a lack of smart legislative strategies, wise spending and, above all, leadership in finding a dependable, equitable source of new revenue.
Rod Blagojevich doesn't take all the blame in this battle. House Speaker Mike Madigan is no altar boy, nor is Senate President Emil Jones. And the Republican leaders have no halos.
But somewhere, I don't know where, a collective sense of statesmanship needs to be summoned by the egos at the top and most particularly by the governor -- not just to navigate the next few months, but the next few years.
Like passengers stuck on a busted bus, people may not know exactly where to focus their anger. But they're figuring it out.
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