Ill. Gov. Angers Lawmakers So Many Ways

[January 22, 2008]  SPRINGFIELD (AP) -- Dictator. Madman. Unruly child. Gov. Rod Blagojevich has been called all that and more -- and that's just by his fellow Democrats.

A series of policy defeats and bitter confrontations has driven Blagojevich's relationship with Illinois legislators to a new low.

He's suing the speaker of the Illinois House over the timing of legislative sessions. He's being sued himself for launching health care programs without legislative approval. He broke his promise never to raise general taxes, which had been the bedrock of his political career.

Coupled with a federal corruption investigation, the situation leaves the second-term governor with few allies and little political strength.

Rep. Jack Franks, a Democrat from Woodstock, compared Blagojevich to an unsupervised 3-year-old touching everything with messy, chocolate-smeared fingers -- "just gleefully running around making the biggest mess he possibly could and then leaving it for us to clean up."

Furious lawmakers accuse the governor of ignoring the legislative branch to score political points, most recently by blindsiding them with a proposal to give senior citizens free rides on mass transit. Many saw that as an attempt to distract the public from his reversal on taxes.

"We criticize guys like Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, who run their countries like dictators. Well, this isn't any different," Sen. Martin Sandoval, a Chicago Democrat like the governor, said during a recent debate. "Today, we might as well just lock the doors up, forget about the legislative process and let Governor Blagojevich write all our bills the way he wants them."

Some legislators are calling for constitutional amendments to limit his veto authority and give voters the power to recall him.

Blagojevich, 51, attributes any problems to "natural tension between the legislative branch and the executive branch" and says lawmakers should focus on helping people instead of criticizing him. His office didn't respond to a recent interview request.

A year ago, it looked like Blagojevich had reason for optimism.

He had just won re-election despite a federal investigation that had resulted in the indictment of one top fundraiser and a guilty plea from one of his appointees. Democrats had expanded their majorities in the General Assembly. The first initiative of his new term -- raising the minimum wage -- sailed through.

Then everything fell apart.

Blagojevich proposed a universal health care program, a 23 percent expansion of education spending and costly aid to the state's ailing pension systems. To help pay for it all, he proposed privatizing the state lottery and raising business taxes by $7 billion, by far the largest tax increase in Illinois history.

His grand plan landed with a monumental thud.

People from all points on the political spectrum found something to dislike, but Blagojevich refused to give up and insisted he was "on the side of the Lord." The result was months of stalemate and finger-pointing at the state Capitol.

Blagojevich watched the House vote 107-0 to reject his tax plan. He ordered special session after special session until lawmakers stopped showing up. Then he sued House Speaker Michael Madigan for not forcing lawmakers to attend and for holding sessions at times the governor hadn't requested.

The lawsuit prompted one exasperated lawmaker to question the governor's sanity. "We have a madman," Rep. Joe Lyons, a Chicago Democrat, told reporters.

When legislators finally passed a budget, Blagojevich punished his opponents by vetoing the pork projects they had requested while sparing the projects of his allies.

He decided to go forward with his expansion of health care services even though legislators didn't approve money for them. That, too, produced a lawsuit.

The latest clash between Blagojevich and the legislature involved mass transit.

Negotiators have been working for years on a plan to pump money into Chicago-area bus and rail systems. They finally agreed on a small increase in sales taxes in the Chicago region, but Blagojevich threatened to veto the legislation in keeping with his history of opposing "general" taxes.

That triggered more rounds of panicked negotiation as officials searched for a funding alternative before the arrival of "doomsday" -- when cash-strapped transit systems would be forced to slash service, lay off 2,600 employees and raise fares.

In the end, no alternative could pass, so Blagojevich agreed to sign the tax increase, and the measure got just enough legislative support to push it through. Then he stunned everyone by using his amendatory veto powers to rewrite the legislation so senior citizens could ride for free.

That meant the measure had to go back to the legislature, where the whole deal might fall apart -- just to approve an idea that Blagojevich could have brought up months earlier.

Beneath all the insults and accusations lies the fact that Blagojevich and legislators will, in all likelihood, have to work together for three more years. And Blagojevich doesn't show any sign of changing his approach.

"I'd be a governor that I wouldn't like," he said, "if I simply sat there afraid of the criticism."

[Associated Press; By CHRISTOPHER WILLS]

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