The Illinois House dealt a body blow Friday to Gov. Blagojevich’s plan to lease the lottery for $10 billion to help pay down the state’s colossal pension debt.
The governor shot back at House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago), calling the powerful Southwest Sider a “George Bush Republican.”
A bill authorizing a long-term lottery lease drew only six votes in the House, while 78 were against it.
“The governor’s proposal to lease the lottery is dead,” said House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie (D-Chicago), who sponsored the legislation but voted against it.
Critics argued the administration had no plan to make up for the $600 million-plus that would be lost in annual lottery revenues.
(See Governor Sexist for his earlier treatment of Flynn Currie)
Then Governor Blab Tab called Madigan a "George Bush Republican". Madigan's spokesman called the gov "immature".
Illinois Democrats, in charge in Springfield.
Meanwhile the unfunded pension debacle is unresolved.
The saga continues on Saturday---now it's a constitutional crisis! Sun Times:
Blagojevich ordered the Legislature to convene at 2 p.m. and again at 2:30 p.m. Saturday to discuss the state’s pension debt, but Speaker Madigan ignored the directive.
He opened the House at 10:10 a.m. and by noon had dismissed it until late Sunday to the delight of many rank-and-file lawmakers embittered by the feuding at the highest levels of state government.
“I'm not sticking around here all afternoon," said Rep. Bill Black (R-Danville). "I have a yard to mow. I have things to do at home. I got a call last night from my dog."
Now the I word has been mentioned--plus this: Like Bost, Democrats slammed the governor and his brass-knuckles tactics. Rep. Joseph Lyons (D-Chicago), a normally civil, soft-spoken lawmaker, approached the House press box without provocation and volunteered, “We have a madman on the second floor. Please tell it like it is. The man is insane.”
Governor Madman, Democrat. Married into the Dem machine, nominated by Democrats, elected by Democrats, twice to the governor's office, now pilloried by a Democrat legislature and the Dem Speaker of the House, who expects us to call him a hero when he's gone along with this stuff for years.
We all know he's only tackling the mess now because he doesn't want his little girl Lisa to inherit a bankrupt state.
The feckless Illinois Democrats, undeserving of our vote.
UPDATE: Sun Times on a Sunday meeting:
Blagojevich and Madigan mostly remained quiet during the session, led by the governor's budget director, Ginger Ostro. She provided data showing $827 million in anticipated revenue growth next year and $1.7 billion in spending pressures before any major program expansions are added to the mix.
The $874 million gap doesn't include increases for school spending, Blagojevich's Illinois Covered health insurance program, mass-transit funding or a capital program.
Illinois Review with a few more choice quotes from Saturday:
"I'm not supposed to tell you this, but I asked the governor how we are supposed to negotiate a budget if he's taken everything off the table, and I got the same garbage," Lang said Saturday during an emotional House floor speech (as pictured here from State Journal-Register's latest photo gallery).
"He said to me, 'Rep. Lang, do you know that 1.4 million people in Illinois are without health care?"
"I said, I know, Governor, but how are you going to pay for it?" Lang said he asked.
"Representative, do you know there are 1.4 million people without health care in our state?" the governor replied again, Lang said.
After Lang asked once again how he was going to pay for it, the governor said "The GRT."
Lang said, "The GRT lost 107 to nothing, Governor!"
Trib with more on Rev. Blagojevich, thumping the bible again: At church, Blagojevich said, he gets motivated and inspired to "fight the battles" to get health care for everyone.
The latest from the Kingdom of Illinois.
"Righteousness shall exalt the kingdom," Blagojevich said.
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