See you in a Weil

George Ryan stood tall on the steps of the temple—scanning the crowd for signs of recognition. Suddenly, he locked eyes with his next victim.

“There’s my lawyer. Hey, Webb. Webb!”

Sixteen steps below, the infamous Dan Webb saw his former client. The wonder boy from Macomb looked shy and a little guilty, as though he wanted to forget the biggest defeat of his career.

“Governor. Governor,” Webb said as he ambled up the stairs. Oddly, he did not shake the pharmacist’s extended hand.

“Nice to see you,” Webb mumbled. Then with a sudden burst of trial adrenaline, Webb blurted: “We should do dinner…and I’ll pay!”

“We’ll Webb,” grinned the Governor, “you better hurry up.”

Dan Weil would have loved that exchange—unfortunately, it occurred at his funeral. He would have laughed hard, and then asked you a pointed question:

“So, do you know the name of the Governor who gained fame by firing his lawyer on the eve of his corruption trial?”

I rarely knew the answers to his teases. But it did signify the start of a lengthy political debate filled with laughter, intrigue and friendship.

Dan possessed amazing political instinct, and offered solicited and unsolicited advice to many pols, including Colin Powell, Jean Kirkpatrick, Mike Madigan, Dan Webb, the Daley clan, Jim Thompson, Jack O’Malley, Anne Burke, Dan Rutherford and many, many others.

Dan was a true friend, mentor—a modern day Obie Wan, boldly engaged in the dusty political arena. He loved politics because he loved people.

I will miss his advice—and the political arena, and life, will be less interesting without this warm and daring soul.

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Novak: Emanuel as next Speaker of the House?

Novak speculating,

The highly regarded Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, second-ranking in the House hierarchy as Democratic whip, ordinarily would be in line to succeed Pelosi. However, tension between Pelosi and Hoyer has been so great that many Democrats would prefer somebody not identified as her antagonist. Consequently, there is speculation about Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, a second-termer who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, as Pelosi's logical replacement.

Back to back Illinoisans...

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A little Adlai Stevenson blogging....

Crossposted on Marathon Pundit.

It's been a while since I did some Adlai E. Stevenson blogging....

Whoah....actually, I've never blogged about the former Illinois governor, two time-Democratic nominee for president, (lost to Eisenhower both times), and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Little Marathon Pundit had her dress rehearsal for her first play, and it took place at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, IL. Adlai owned a farm in nearby Libertyville--an excellent town to say you're from if you're a politician.

With my reliable Motorola V3 RAZR, I took a picture of the Stevenson display just inside the main entrance of the school.

Oh, some guy named Sufjan Stevens recently released a song titled Adlai Stevenson, apparently it's a leftover track from his Illinois CD.

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Corruption Coming to a School Near You

Saturday's Chicago Sun-Times headline:

Feds probe company over use of gift cards

It's on a page three article by Natasha Korecki. (When she was an intern in Springfield, Korecki's parents ran Algonquin's Edella's Family Restaurant south of where the old post office used to be on Route 31, just south of the hiking/biking trail. Korecki also covered the George Ryan trial.)

The gist of the story is that a Des Plaines school (and other government) supply firm with $420 million of sales last year is bribing school officials with supposedly untraceable Winners Choice gift cards in direct proportion to their purchases, as an inducement to purchase their products.

The last time something like this came up, it was cleaning supplies, I believe. Townships took a big hit.

Also posted at McHenry County Blog.

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Blagojevich's Welfare State

Bruno Behrend finds a new study on Canada's Childcare program. Since 1997 Quebec has offered Childcare at subsidized child-care centers for $5 per-day. Bottom line was it pulled kids out of informal family managed childcare arrangemets and the outcomes weren't good for kids. (The study doesn't say how the subsidized child care owners fared).

John McCarron wrote a column yesterday about the rush to auction off State assets:

Before they auction off City Hall or turn the squad cars over to the Pinkertons, isn't anybody going to ask where we're headed, long-term, with privatization?

The word privatization stuck in my head yesterday because I was enthusiastic about Bush's Social Security ownership accounts, and Democrats called that privatization; meaning it's something bad.

Social Policy all comes down to power.

Put Child Care subsidies in a private account for a kid and it's bad privatization.

Offer the kid a queue (they wait in Quebec) to a slot in a subsidized child care center and it's good privatization.

Put your retirement contribution in your ownership account, and it's bad privatization.

But lease Illinios assests and give the money to the school system, and it's good privatization.

Give money directly to parents as school vounchers instead, and it's bad privatization.

Common theme here is: if you give funds to individual citzens, it's bad privatization; but turn over assets to contractors, it's good privatization.

And I think the differences have something to do with power.

We really need a study to tell us how the subsidized day-care owners in Quebec made out. Might help us think long-term as McCarron suggests.

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State-Paid Campaign Signs

Rich Miller asks why Governor Rod Blagojevich should force the display of re-election signs in pharmacies.

They are not the first blatantly political signs nor are they the most widely posted political signs that the Blagojevich administration has forced businesses to post.

This one is allegedly about the virtually bogus Equal Pay Act, a “headline bill,” if there ever were one.

It is designed to make women think they are not getting paid enough and that Uncle Rod can help them get paid more.

In a press release concerning the first two years of operation of the union-backed state equal pay for equal work law, Governor Rod Blagojevich is quoted thusly,

"Women doing the same work as men should be paid the same wages."

Anyone disagree with that?

Then the First Feminist, wife Patti, says,

"The fact that many women in the state are still making about 70 cents for every dollar a man earns is a stark reminder that we have more to do."

The problem with putting that canard in an equal pay for equal work press release is that it has nothing to do with the law being enforced. It is the slogan for those who wish to impose state regulations on private sector salary patterns.

It's called "comparable worth."

Here's what long-time employment law lobbyist Jay Shattuck told me several years ago:

"They’re mixing apples and oranges. The Equal Pay Act is about paying people paying people the same for the same work. The statistic is about comparing wages of men earned in male-dominated professions with wages earned by women in different occupations.

"That’s the old comparable worth issue. It’s not equal pay. Comparable worth’s goal is to bring the salary in female-dominated occupations to the same level as male-dominated occupations. A female doing the same work as a male on a construction project would be paid the same.

"That doesn’t mean that a construction worker would get paid the same amount as a nurse.

"Comparable worth is about imposing a societal, subjective value system, rather than a market system for determining wages."

The incendiary poster shown above was forced onto every employer's wall by the Blagojevich administration.

So, the mandated pharmacy sign is not the first to have heavy political overtones.

Both signs are obviously aimed at convincing women to re-elect him.

And, on McHenry County Blog, read who is making an independent expenditure for radio ads on 8th congressional district Republican candidate David McSweeney's part.

And, if you have not dipped into the California Democratic primary, which features Chicago Democratic crook Joe Cari, I think you should. It sounds a lot like what I think the last week of our Illinois gubernatorial election will be. In the following, just change the names and the issues:

If viewers believe the negative ads by Westly, they might well conclude Angelides is a tax-raising, wetlands-filling, Lake Tahoe-polluting developer in the pocket of big oil and a Sacramento development baron, Angelo K. Tsakapoulos.

And if they believe the advertising by Angelides, they may think Westly is a tax-raising, pay-to-play politician schmoozing with corrupt businessmen and taking money from school children as a "twin" of Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

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Don't Touch that Dial

Cross posted from ICPR’s blog, The Race is On:

Candidates in the March Primary election spent nearly $12 million to broadcast more than 8,500 TV ads to the Chicago market. But while the primary ended on March 21, the ads have not. Gov. Blagojevich, in a highly unusual move, continued to air spots after the primary. The third wave of these post-primary ads begins today.

Over the course of the primary, four TV station in Chicago billed over $1 million for political ads. WLS (ABC- Channel 7) led the pack with $4.2 million in billings, followed by WMAQ (NBC – Channel 5) with $3.0 million.

Ironically, the top spenders on ads lost the primary. Republican gubernatorial candidate Ron Gidwitz spent over $2.4 million during calendar year 2006, only to finish fourth in his race. Cook County Board President hopeful Forest Claypool spent $1.9 million, but he, too, came up short at the ballot box. Gov. Blagojevich was the only of the top three spenders who won his primary.

Immediately after his primary victory, Gov. Blagojevich continued to air spots. These post-primary ads have come in waves, the third of which begins today.

• The first wave, which began immediately after the primary and continued through mid-April, featured 30-second spots. In frequency and distribution, this wave was largely similar to the pattern he established in the primary, with a high concentration in news and public affairs and daytime programming.
• The second wave, which began in late-April and ran for about three weeks, featured 15-second spots bookended during ad breaks.
• The third wave, which begins today and runs at least through next week, appears similar in placement to the second. We don’t know how broadly this third buy will run; contracts at WLS call for $136K worth of ads.

All told, the governor has now spent more after the primary than before; this calendar year, he has spent nearly $4 million running ads in the Chicago market alone.

Charts summarizing the ad buys will be available through ICPR’s homepage later today.

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Silly in Chicago

I like Mayor Daley. We're about the same age. I think we talk the same way. I'd be a disaster in a press conference. My best performance would be Daley at some of his classic worse moments. I'd blow up like him too.

My wife mentioned last night she heard this exchange on the radio and said he sounded terrible,

Mayor Richard Daley seemed intent on personally opening up the summer "silly season" of frivolous news stories Wednesday.

Court testimony this week that Chicago Skyway tollbooths were fully staffed to help ensure an unimpeded ride to his Michigan summer home was, well, "silly," the mayor said.

Then he said it again. About 20 times.

"Silliest thing I ever heard in my life," the mayor declared. "It really is silly.... It's silly, silly, silly, silly."

I haven't heard the audio but I wondered if this was more than the usual tangle and instead the sounds of nerves in a guy who feels the walls closing in and the air getting thin.

I got a feeling he's coming to a sad end. My father-in-law rode the Lake Street 'L' into the loop Tuesday and said the city's never looked better. He's known that stretch of street since the 1930's so he has some reference. Everyone in my family attributes it to the Mayor. We just hate to see him end on a bad note.

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Singin' the two-party system blues

Back when I was in grade school, I learned about America's great "two-party system." Basically, the theory was that because there were two distinct parties in the United States that competed for office, there was always a choice for voters. Yet, because there were only two parties, the government remained fairly stable.

Trouble is, there's nothing in the Constitution setting up political parties. In fact, George Washington warned against them.

But now, anyone not in one of these two unofficially official parties is essentially frozen out of the process. If the Founders had known this would have happened, they would have gone back to the drawing board.

The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan says it's increasingly clear this is a bad idea:

Right now the Republicans and Democrats in Washington seem, from the outside, to be an elite colluding against the voter. They're in agreement: immigration should not be controlled but increased, spending will increase, etc.

Are there some dramatic differences? Yes. But both parties act as if they see them not as important questions (gay marriage, for instance) but as wedge issues. Which is, actually, abusive of people on both sides of the question. If it's a serious issue, face it. Don't play with it.

I don't see any potential party, or potential candidate, on the scene right now who can harness the disaffection of growing portions of the electorate. But a new group or entity that could define the problem correctly--that sees the big divide not as something between the parties but between America's ruling elite and its people--would be making long strides in putting third party ideas in play in America again.

I'm no longer a member of the Libertarian Party, but I sure would like the opportunity to vote for Libertarian candidates here in Illinois, just like I have for president and vice president.

But as Jeff Trigg constantly points out, the Land of Lincoln requires third party candidates to meet ballot requirements that are far tougher to meet that those faced by the Democrats and the Republicans. No doubt he'll read this post and let us know the number of signatures.

I can't help but to think that if there were more parties -- whose candidates had some possibility of success -- that would make all parties somewhat more ideologically based, giving voters real choices in the ballot box. These parties would have to learn to cooperate with each other on issues with which they agreed, and fight it out on issues with which they do not. Cooperation, not constant bickering over wedge issues, might lead to better government.

But I remain convinced that the Big Government Party likes things just the way they are.

Cross posted to Peoria Pundit.

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Cook County judge gives thumbs-up to Klocek case against DePaul

Crossposte on Marathon Pundit.

Late Wednesday, Marathon Pundit has obtained a copy of the below press release about the Thomas Klocek free speech case from TC Public Relations.

Covering the crimes against free speech by DePaul University has almost become a full time job for me.

(May 31, 2006, Chicago ) Today the most significant hurdle was cleared in the defamation law suit of Professor Thomas Klocek against DePaul University. Judge Stuart Nudelman of the Illinois Circuit County Law Division Court agreed that Klocek’s claims have merit, which will allow his suit against DePaul to move forward toward a trial by jury.

Judge Nudelman believes that DePaul’s actions to discipline Professor Thomas Klocek went to such extreme that their conduct rose to the level of defamation. He noted that DePaul exhibited destructive political correctness when it gave way to its fear of students’ reactions to Prof. Klocek’s challenges to the student groups’ literature and perspective on the Middle East conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Judge Nudelman also commented that if such limited debate took place when he was a student, it would have resulted in having an inferior educational experience.

Judge Nudelman also stated that DePaul’s public disclosures about Prof. Klocek defamed him in that they denigrated his ability to perform as a professor.

"We have cleared the biggest hurdle before trial. The judge has agreed with us that we have properly stated valid claims for defamation charges against DePaul and individual defendants, including DePaul’s president," said Andy Norman, Klocek’s attorney with the law firm of Mauck & Baker.

Background of Case:

A defamation suit was filed in Illinois ’ Cook County Chancery last June charging that DePaul University and its leadership defamed Professor Thomas Klocek when DePaul publicly characterized arguments he presented to members of Palestinian and Muslim student groups as racist and bigoted. The suit seeks damages against DePaul for maligning Klocek’s integrity and professional competence. The defendants named include: DePaul University ; Rev. Dennis Holtschneider, President of DePaul; and Susanne Dumbleton, Dean of DePaul’s School for New Learning.

For much more on the Klocek case, visit FIRE and read Professor Suspended for Expression Without Due Process

Previous Marathon Pundit post: One year anniversary of the Thomas Klocek press conference at DePaul

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George Dunne Helped Penny Pullen's HIV Bills

Many people might remember what brought down George Dunne, but probably no one knows how he helped protect Illinoisans from the spread of HIV.

He had to go around the radicals who were running Cook County Hospital to do it.

What brought him into the issue was a bill sponsored by State Rep. Penny Pullen (R-Park Ridge) that required health care workers involved in invasive procedures to tell patients if they were HIV-infected. Some physician at County Hospital was HIV-infected and Dunne was trying to assign him to administrative duties over the objections of his left-leaning advocates.

In Springfield, the health committee was, as usual, dominated by liberals, who had already cleared the AIDS Confidentiality Act that tied the hands of public health officials.

For the same committee to approve a comprehensive public protection package required divine intervention, in this case, of the human variety.

That intervener was George Dunne.

And, because of that intervention, Illinois did not go the way New York and California. Our HIV laws are a mixed bag, but relatively protective of the public’s health.

Dunne's wife, Claudia, is Chairman of the National Day of Prayer for Chicago.

A summary of May stories on McHenry County Blog can be found here.

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Why doesn't the GOP ban abortion now?

EMILY's List is fundraising group dedicated to electing pro-abortion women candidates.

Two of the 21 women EMILY's List is promoting are from Illinois - Melissa Bean (CD-8) and Tammy Duckworth (CD-6).

But Bean and Duckworth may not want to publicize that, since EMILY's List has such a poor track record. In 2004, it amassed only a 39% success rate, while 80% of its counterpart's (Susan B. Anthony List) candidates won. In 2002, 17 of EMILY's 21 candidates lost.

The pro-life issue is a winner. Properly framed poll questions show most Americans are against most forms and reasons for abortion.

So, the question posed by Human Events editor Terence Jeffrey yesterday is good: "Why not ban abortion now?" Jeffrey stated:

When I asked [Republican National Chairman Ken] Mehlman... whether the pro-life issue was good for Republicans, his response was instantaneous. "Absolutely," he said.

As proof, he pointed to the 2002 Senate races in Missouri and Minnesota....

Mehlman insists, however, that the GOP should advance the pro-life cause "because it is morally right," not because it is politically advantageous....

Mehlman's analysis can explain the self-contradictory behavior Democrats often exhibit on abortion. But it cannot explain similar behavior by Republicans. Democrats find themselves caught between the demands of commonsense and good morality on the one hand and a core constituency adamant about preserving legalized abortion on the other. They forsake commonsense and morality to appease their base.

But why are Republicans so timid about advancing a cause where they occupy the moral and political high ground?

Consider one of the few things President Bush, Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist, House Republican Leader John Boehner and Sen. John Kerry... have in common: They all say human life begins at conception....

The Republican Party's pro-life platform... endorses "legislation to make it clear that the Fourteenth Amendment's protections apply to unborn children."

In this Congress, Rep. Duncan Hunter, the California Republican, introduced H.R. 552, the Right to Life Act, which follows through on the platform by defining as a "person" for 14th Amendment purposes "all stages of life, including but not limited to the moment of fertilization or cloning."

It recognizes in law what Bush, Frist, Boehner and Kerry already recognize in fact....

Today, we are having a great national debate, driven by a president at odds with the base of his own party, over how many immigrants we should allow into our country and by what means -- so we can fill a shortage in workers. What if we had a great national debate driven by a president, in unison with the base of his own party, over how many babies we can save?

South Dakota had that debate this year, and the pro-lifers won.... What South Dakota proved is that truth is persuasive. All you need are politicians who will fight for it.

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