As a Chicago lawyer for thirty years, I have fought for working people in the Fifth District and throughout the city. I have represented unions as well as people with no unions to protect them. In plant closings I have helped them recover health and pension benefits. I obtained health care for the uninsured. I've been pressing the State of Illinois to crack down on payday lenders.
In my life as a lawyer I have lived out a commitment to one cause above all - to bring economic security to working Americans, in our District, in our country. That's the same commitment I will bring to Congress.
We're deep in an economic crisis unlike any other we've known. It may last years. We need new and creative ways to protect working Americans, especially our older working people who have no real pensions to live on.
For years we've heard the doomsayers: "We can't afford Social Security." "We can't afford 'single-payer' national health." One thing we all learned from the $700 billion bail out: We've got the money to do all of this and more.
At the moment, the Federal Reserve is literally printing money, to give not billions but trillions to banks and financial firms. To the people of this District, the banks and others have gotten their money. Now it's your turn.
(I'm promoting this as I will all other candidates' posts in this race, if they post here on PSB - promoted by BobB)
The incomparable Michael Jordan did amazing things when he first reached the NBA. Even if you’re not a sports fan, you’ve probably seen the videos.
But even Michael Jordan didn’t win an NBA championship until he had a team that provided him with the support to take his game to the next level.
My point is simply this: Achieving success that makes a lasting, unmistakable impact can’t be accomplished by one person, even if that person is amazingly gifted.
President-elect Obama is blessed with the vision to see a new way of governing and the skills to energize people to work towards that goal, but he can’t do it alone.
In Friday's Chicago Sun-Times Dick Simpson had an editorial asking for a "long term fix for the 'Chicago Way'." He states:
Our problem isn't just a few rotten apples. It's a rotten apple barrel. We have a political history and a political culture of corruption tied to Machine politics. Nothing short of a comprehensive reform program sustained over more than a decade will change what the national media now derisively call "The Chicago Way."
He then suggests six things that must be done to acheive this reform. I would like to hear people's opinions on his proposal. Is what he suggets enough to get the job done? Are there elements he is missing? Is it possible? Would it work?
His six points are on the flip (but please click through to the link above to read the whole article -- it is really good).
Even if the General Assembly had created a special election provision to fill the U.S. Senate seat, it would not have prevented what happened yesterday. The election code amendment did not (and could not) strip the Governor of his power to appoint.
The truth of the matter is our legislature failed to do its job.
Had our elected officials done their job, there would have been no need to amend the election code (an effort that was too reactive to succeed; ad hominem legislation is, among other things, an after-the-fact determination of public interest). Had our elected officials done their job, there would have been no opportunity for our Attorney General to face prime time television before appealing to the State's Supreme Court (a motion which was right to fail).
Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn has estimated that Blagojevich could be out of office by early February, before Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday. The source told us that this projection still seems to be about right.
"It would be difficult to generate the trust level people would have to have in me. I just decided there was too much turmoil, too much disagreement. It was something I wanted to do, but I said I would not take an appointment from the governor."
There was a moment there where Blago was playing with the media and supposedly let slip that Danny Davis was going to be his choice. During that time I heard Davis speak at a Rotary Club luncheon, and Davis was beaming with pride to be considered. But he is way to classy to tarnish a good and decent reputation in a way that Roland Burris now has done to his reputation.
And as a response to Bobby Rush:
Davis, an African American, disagrees with Rush. It's not all about race.
Said Davis, "I always said that I don't think it is a seat that belongs to anybody. . . . The person should be who can best unify the state and bring back a sense of integrity and trust. . . . The seat does not belong to any race or any ethnic group or any category of individual. It belongs to the voters."
Here's an idea kicking around that I like a lot. If state and local budgets are hurting and they think the answer is privatizing assets like parking meters, airports and highways, then how's about the federal government stepping in and buying those assets? The feds can borrow where the states and cities cannot. And an added bonus is the greater likelihood of keeping union labor. I'm all for it.
This morning, Lynn Sweet posted the link to access the exhibits, letters and audio/video being generated by the House Special Investigative Committee. Thanks, Lynn! And thanks to Taegan Goddard for posting that it was available!
One question David poses, is why, if Burris is clean, he would accept an appointment from such a tainted governor. Not sure I have a good answer to that one.
One answer is that he intends to be a caretaker and that he doesn't want Illinois to be short a Senator. He could ask the legislature for a vote of confidence before taking the seat.
Complaints of misbehavior have swirled about Governor Blagojevich for almost as long as he's held this office. Ignoring for a moment his unprecedented fundraising and the high correlation of donor dollars to donors' receiving benefits, this Governor's propensity for skirting the rules and evading legislative processes have hobbled the state's ability to function and clobbered the electorate's faith in the idea that government can work for them.
The Governor's political and fundraising imbroglios have not evaded the scrutiny of government watchdogs and good government advocates. They did, however, fail to activate state lawmakers and, it seems, Attorney General Lisa Madigan until the U.S. Attorney's office arrested Governor Blagojevich and his Chief of Staff, John Harris on December 9, 2008.
These hearings have not enraptured me the way Souter's nomination hearings did. Nothing since then has, I'm afraid. But even though most of what's transpired so far has been a procedural snore, there's an undercurrent, a sense of possibility that this committee might actually (or accidentally) ask the one question or subpoena the one witness that yields even more damning accounts than those contained in Fitzgerald's recent complaint. Are you listening? What do you think?
