"I gotta cut back on the 'shroomsÓ
It was the "Hug heard 'round Illinois,"
but did it really mean anything?
Gov. Rod Blagojevich showed up late to the
Democrats' national convention in Denver. Most others arrived the weekend
before Monday's official kickoff, but Blagojevich didn't get there until
Tuesday, just in time to attend a reception that evening and then a Wednesday
morning breakfast sponsored by organized labor.
You all know what happened next. Blagojevich and his
lifelong nemesis House Speaker Michael Madigan held a long sidebar meeting at
the Tuesday evening reception. They talked about how they haven't talked in
months, and agreed to talk some more. Sen. Hillary Clinton's call for party
unity earlier that evening had apparently sunk in.
But the following morning's labor breakfast brought
seemingly stunning developments. At the urging of Congressman Jesse Jackson,
Jr., Madigan and Blagojevich hugged - and it wasn't one of those "I'm gonna hug you until I break your spine," hugs, either.
It looked almost, well, genuine. The two enemies who had locked each other in a
death vise for months were smiling ear to ear, patting each other on the back,
while the stunned partisan crowd roared its approval with an extended standing
ovation.
"I gotta cut back on
the 'shrooms," cracked one reporter who
witnessed the blessed event but still wasn't quite sure if he hadn't just
hallucinated the whole thing.
Party elders and labor union leaders were
immediately hopeful that the supposed new era of good feelings meant that the
odious Denver Boot which Blagojevich and Madigan had locked onto all four
wheels of state government years ago would finally be removed by the magic of
Denver's rarified air. Might a way finally be found to implement the
much-needed but perennially stalled multibillion dollar infrastructure program,
and patch the horrific state deficit, and resolve education funding reform, and
provide universal health insurance?
Maybe not.
"It's all theater," confided one top
Blagojevich aide later in the day. A Madigan lieutenant pointed out that
Madigan was the one who walked over to Blagojevich at Jackson's urging and had
to practically pry the governor out of his seat. No happy talk could be found.
But could it be that the aides de camp hadn't gotten
the message? That very evening, Madigan and Blagojevich continued their dŽtente
by sitting next to each other at the Democratic convention.
Remember, these are two men who have been trying to
destroy each other for years. Perhaps it would just take a while before their
top soldiers could be demobilized and reprogrammed.
Or not.
Blagojevich, Madigan and Senate President Emil Jones
had promised Sen. James Meeks (D-Chicago) that they would sit down and discuss
Meeks' idea to avoid a threatened student boycott of the Chicago Public
Schools. Meeks was proposing a $120 million plan to reform the state's worst
public schools. He few out to Denver to set up the confab, and he then waited
and waited for the governor to agree to a meeting time. Madigan had said he was
willing to meet whenever the governor was ready, so it all depended on
Blagojevich.
The call never came.
The governor, it turns out, had flown back to
Chicago to announce huge state budget cuts Thursday morning, including the
layoffs of hundreds of state workers and the closures of several state parks
and facilities. The cuts were announced at a time when they would be buried far
underneath the coverage of Sen. Obama's finely choreographed acceptance speech
and John McCain's dramatic vice presidential announcement.
All of a sudden it seemed to many like everything
had been some sort of cynical ploy.
There was no inkling that the same governor who
seemed so pleased with the new political thaw was secretly sharpening his meat
ax. He had no time to meet with Meeks for a few minutes, but had plenty of time
to fly back to Chicago to lay off Downstate workers.
If Illinoisans listened carefully, they could almost
hear the bile boiling over all the way from Denver.
By the end of the week the only truly happy people
were the House Republicans. They've been closely allied with Blagojevich on the
stalled infrastructure proposal, but have been simultaneously searching for
ways to tie Madigan and his Democratic House candidates to the horribly
unpopular governor, in order to gain some political advantage this November.
The "hug" photos were all they needed.
"Coming to a mailbox near you!" gloated
one House GOP operative last week.
Rich Miller also publishes Capitol Fax, a daily
political newsletter, and thecapitolfaxblog.com.