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 In the battle over the state budget, the governor has said the House speaker is "a George Bush Republican" in disguise and threatened a lawsuit over what time House sessions begin. Rank-and-file lawmakers labeled the governor "cowardly" and "a madman."
The lieutenant governor even publicly repudiated his boss, and the Senate president barred a member of his own leadership team from strategy sessions.
"It's gotten to the point with party infighting and clan rivalries that we're making the Iraqi parliament look good," said Democratic Rep. John Fritchey of Chicago.
The budget was supposed to be approved by May 31, but officials are nowhere close to an agreement, and state government is operating only because the Legislature passed a budget extension that expires at the end of July.
The dispute is delaying decisions on a major new health program and increased school spending. If it drags into August, state government could shut down, meaning schools would not be able to plan budgets for the new school year, and hospitals and nursing homes might not be paid for treating the poor.
This isn't what Democrats expected in November, when they won the governor's mansion, every statewide office and large majorities in both the House and Senate. They dreamed of cooperating on a long list of social issues.
But those dreams have been dashed -- completely.
When the House defied an executive order by meeting in special session at 10 a.m. instead of 2 p.m., the governor's top lawyer declared it a constitutional violation and said Blagojevich was considering legal action.
Lawmakers were stunned that Blagojevich would make an issue of the time.
"We have a madman," Democratic Rep. Joe Lyons of Chicago told reporters. "The man is insane."
That came a day after Blagojevich accused House Speaker Michael Madigan, chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party, of conspiring with Republicans to block a budget that would expand social services.
"The way to be able to finally get budgets that achieve the objective of health care and education for families is to get Mr. Madigan to be a Democrat again and stop being a George Bush Republican," Blagojevich said.
He even took that message to church Sunday, telling parishioners at a Springfield church that Madigan had "betrayed" party values.
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It's not the first time Blagojevich, who began his second term this year, has butted heads with Madigan, a fiscal conservative who has resisted dramatic increases in state spending. The governor also has a poor relationship with rank-and-file lawmakers, who see him as disengaged and dictatorial.Blagojevich is pushing a costly program that would guarantee everyone in Illinois access to health insurance and initially proposed to pay for it with the largest tax increase in Illinois history, a $7.6 billion levy on businesses.
The proposal landed with a thud. The House rejected it in a jaw-dropping 107-0 vote.
Before that, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn condemned it as "the absolute worst way" to increase revenues. Madigan refused for weeks to discuss the budget with Blagojevich, insisting that he was too busy.
Blagojevich didn't help improve relations among Democrats when he began criticizing the House and Senate for not meeting five days a week, even though he rarely showed up at the state Capitol.
Even when he began visiting on a regular basis, he flew back to his Chicago home at the end of each day, at a cost of thousands of dollars to taxpayers. Ridiculed by lawmakers, editorial cartoonists and voters, Blagojevich recently abandoned his daily flights home.
The governor's relationship with legislators is so strained that even his efforts at diplomacy blow up.
Blagojevich met with Democratic Sen. Mike Jacobs to talk him into voting for the health insurance plan. Jacobs came out in a rage, saying the governor had screamed obscenities at him and threatened to ruin his career. If Blagojevich had talked to him that way at a tavern, Jacobs said, "I would have kicked his tail end." Blagojevich won't comment.
Relations within the legislative branch aren't much better.
Senate President Emil Jones, also a Chicago Democrat, barred a member of his leadership team from strategy sessions out of fear that he was leaking information to the opposition
-- not Republicans but House Speaker Madigan.
Republicans hope the Democratic disarray will translate into gains for the GOP next year. They're watching the turmoil gleefully, speaking up occasionally to mock the majority party.
"You had everything that the political world could give you, and you have squandered it. You have squandered it at taxpayers' expense," thundered Republican Rep. Ron Stephens. "Democrats, with all the power the people could give them, have failed the people of Illinois."
[Associated Press;
by Christopher Wills] |
