White House: Madigan “800-lb gorilla” but no endorsement
Lisa Madigan
WASHINGTON — White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel danced (he was a ballet dancer, you know) around a reporter’s question at breakfast this morning of whether Barack Obama wants Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to run for the president’s Senate seat.
Emanuel nimbly dodged the questions. But clearly, the take-home message was yes.
“She’s the most popular political figure in Illinois,” he said, referring to Madigan as “the 800-pound gorilla in Illinois politics.”
We wrote here at STLtoday back on June 16 that Madigan, a Democrat, had been considering running for the Senate rather than making the race for governor as she has long planned.
The nomination could well be hers for the taking. Appointed Sen. Roland Burris, although cleared last week of perjury allegations, remains sullied by the circumstances of getting his job from disgraced ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias seems prepared to stay a candidate for Senate but Chris Kennedy, he of Chicago Merchandise Mart money, might be persuaded not to bother with a race.
Chicagoans like Madigan have often been drawn more by what lies within Illinois’ borders (and downtown Chicago’s) than by what D.C. has to offer. But from every indication, Obama badly wants Madigan, his old Illinois General Assembly seat-mate, so that Democrats have the best chance of holding his old Senate office.
That would also give Gov. Pat Quinn — a longtime ally of Obama adviser David Axelrod – a far more unencumbered path to keeping the job that landed in his lap with Blagojevich’s political crack-up.
Emanuel provided a few details of a White House meeting earlier this month with Madigan, although he couldn’t seem to recall how the session got set up.
“She was kind of weighing the benefits and the costs of running for office, i.e. the Senate,” he told reporters.
No, the White House isn’t saying she would be the best candidate, although an early endorsement may be what Madigan is demanding in return for switching her political gears.
“I think that like all the other candidates in the race, she would be a formidable candidate,” Emanuel said, reverting to cautious poli-speak.
Madigan may be what Obama wants but may not be what the people want. What will a Madigan do for all the people of Illinois and not just upstate Illinois? We as Blacks in Southern Illinois will not put our support behind a Madigan until we see how this candidacy will benefit us.
It won’t make a lobbyist’s dimes worth a difference to the well-being of the people of Illinois who is in office. Any office. Illinois is one of the most corrupt states in the nation. Illinois politicians are some of the most punishing in the country. Draconian laws are always being inflicted on the people of Illinois by their crooked-as-hell reps.
Consider that Chicago politician who wanted to give marijuana smokers 25 years in prison just for smoking Kush, a potent form of weed. I wish all of them would just go away.
I don’t think that they’re telling us the truth about Madigan’s popularity. She’s the daughter of thoroughly hated anti-reform Speaker Madigan, and she’s intentionally not prosecuted any instances of government corruption in Illinois while A.G. Yet everyone acknowledges that Illinois is the most corrupt state, and that significant reform needs to take place…? But how can anyone expect reform when our A.G. allows every elected official to steal public money and break the campaign finance laws without recourse…?
Will the rest of us have to bail out Illinois when they go bankrupt?