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Pork Report is back. Sen Jones is leaving.
By AFP | August 21, 2008
After a week of sparse posting, the Pork Report should soon be back to full strength. What’s happened since we posted last? Well, Emil Jones announced his retirement. Jones, pork broker extraordinaire and subject of a pork spending lawsuit, has announced that his son, Emil Jones III, will take his place on the fall ballot (and in all likelihood fill his Senate seat next Spring).
While the anointing of the younger Jones signals again what is wrong with Illinois politics, the race for the Senate Presidency will lay bare our state’s culture of cronyism and corruption. Look no further than the press conference held by Chicago Senator Rickey Hendon, who covets the top seat in the Senate (and all things pork). Hendon’s comments at his own press conference on Monday, held to put his name into the mix, should give the chills to any supporter of good-government. As reported by the Capitol Fax Blog:
Hendon lavished praise on Senate President Jones and said he was qualified to succeed Jones because of his position as chairman of the Rules Committee, his being “faithful” to Jones for all these years and his work on behalf of the mass transit bailout, among other stuff.
Hendon said he could work with all of the “eight or nine” other candidates for the Senate presidency, including Sen. John Cullerton, whom Hendon denied was too close to House Speaker Michael Madigan.
Hendon said he would continue to “loyally” serve Jones until he’s gone and then see what might happen.
Creepy.
Hendon, as mentioned, is chairman of the Rules Committee, and is responsible for blocking House Bill 4765 - the most significant piece of transparency legislation since the Freedom of Information Act. It will be interesting to see, next year, whether the new leadership in the Senate will continue to oppose open government. If so, then Jones will surely have established a legacy…of broken, corrupt, opaque, inefficient, wasteful, did we say corrupt, government.
Topics: Uncategorized |
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:56 am
The Chairman of the Rules Committee blocks or approves no bill on his or her own. The Chair is only a tool of the Senate President. No independent initiative allowed. Period.
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October 14th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
Come back Pork Report!
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