Springfield antics

A 14 page list of talking points and FAQs, purported to have been written by the staff of Illinois’ leading House Democrat Mike Madigan has been distributed to Democrat candidates for State Rep.

It lays out the case for impeaching the Governor and explains how it is done. It also contains a laundry list of Blago’s sins.

Now Gov Blago is not well-liked in the state but I can’t recall a time when his own party leaders have gone out of their way to destroy him. But this time they have.

As is often the case with such attacks, this document says as much about Madigan as it does about Blago. (Caution: Do NOT take these remarks as a defense of the gov. Far from it.)

The document makes it clear that the user is not to implicate Madigan in the scheme. Instead, the candidate is supposed to claim it as his own idea. I quote: “Are you doing this at Mike Madigan's behest? This has nothing to do with Mike Madigan. I'm doing this because, after carefully considering the facts and thinking about what is in the best interests of the state, I am convinced that it is the best course and now is an appropriate time. As far as I now (sic), the Speaker has been resistant to the idea of impeachment.”

There are some rather hilarious typos in the document as well.

So, is Madigan behind the document? Well, he hasn’t denied it.

Some other tidbits of information to help you digest this trickery:
1) Mike Madigan is also the Democratic Party Chairman for Illinois
2) Lisa Madigan is Mike’s daughter.
3) Lisa is our Attorney General.
4) Lisa has been named as a strong candidate for governor in 2 ½ years.

With all of this Democratic rancor you would think that the GOP is having a great year in Illinois. So far they have not.

Try as they might both parties are in self-destruct mode in Illinois. And there is good reason to believe that the GOP is in bad shape all over the USA.

If I might suggest what is happening. .. Politicians will have a rough go of it. After Watergate, reporters were out for blood and tried hard to expose corruption in government.

That same “gotcha” mentality has only intensified as a result of the Internet. With all the eyes on politicians almost anyone can find out what a politician had for breakfast and blog about it before lunch.

Our elected officials generate enough boneheaded bureaucratic nonsense in a week to last a lifetime. So, approval ratings are down because more is known about them than ever before. Times get tough. People get angry. The politicians get criticized.

So if it seems like our politicians are worse than ever, maybe part of the problem is that we know more about them than ever before. As they adjust to life in a fishbowl we will have scandals and low approval ratings.

Well, what do you think of my theory?