Chicago Daily Observer

By Dennis Byrne
Chicago Tribune
Is America, nay, the world, ready for a U.S. president—Barack Obama—who bubbled up from the sordid politics of the Illinois legislature? From a political party whose stranglehold on Illinois government has brought the state to the brink of insolvency?
The rest of America should excuse many of us here if we blanch at the idea that someone, anyone, who just a few years ago occupied a seat in Illinois’ laughable legislature might soon be president.
True, the first president to emerge from the Illinois legislature was Abraham Lincoln, but that’s little comfort. Today’s Illinois legislature is rock bottom, exceeded in incompetence only by the preening, useless Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich. And true, Obama can’t be blamed for the current madness in Springfield and the Democratic Party’s abject failure to govern. Yet, that’s where Obama cut his political teeth.
At last, ... Read More...

JIM NALEPA CAN WIN THE SENATE…IF—.

Those who feel Sen. Dick Durbin will be part of the Illinois political landscape forever don’t know the history of Illinois politics. Precedents are made to be overturned here. Peter Fitzgerald was a young multi-millionaire Republican with a reformist bent. He ran afoul of the Dinosaur patronage, George Ryan wing of the GOP headed by the Speaker of the House (of all people) who vowed that since Fitzgerald would not play ball with them on patronage and goodies, they’d knife him. They did when the newly-elected state Republican chairman, Judy Baar Topinka, stunningly refused to endorse him for reelection, laying the groundwork for dissension so that Fitzgerald, probably the purest, special-interest-adverse Senator in state history, decided not to run again. All because he named Patrick Fitzgerald over their wishes as U. S. Attorney…the man who convicted their ... Read More...

Blago Budget

At the end of his first term, Dan Walker, the last Democratic Party governor, held a press conference and bragged he had passed a budget.

Governor Rod Blagojevich’s comments to the press after the General Assembly sent him a two-month+ late, but record-setting $59 million budget was that it was “all about pork, politics and false promises.”

Blagojevich did not bow to the inevitable and claim victory as his predecessor did in 1973. Instead, in his fifth year in office, the Democrat hinted of a total or partial veto, calling legislators to stay in Springfield, as he had done repeatedly since the session should have ended.

Legislative leaders ignored that call and sent members home.

With a 98–8 vote in the House and a 52–5 vote in the Senate, however, the General Assembly showed a unanimity not seen since the Walker days. There could be little doubt that ... Read More...

Anne Leary questions infrastructure spending and the Interstate 35W bridge tragedy in Minnesota.