Obama Uses Influence to Get Ethics Bill Passed in Illinois State Senate on September 22; McCain Does Nothing But Lie

The BuzzFlash Editor's Blog

By Mark Karlin, Editor and Publisher

September 23rd

Chicago, Illinois

Due to a personal phone call from Barack Obama, the Illinois Senate joined the Illinois House in overriding the current governor's veto of an ethics bill that goes a long way toward ending "pay to play" politics in the Land of Lincoln.

Without Obama's directive to outgoing Senate State President Emil Jones, the bill was likely to die.  But as a result of Obama's intervention, on Monday, September 22, it was overriden by 55-0.

So, Obama is accomplishing, in deed, a lot more than the addle-brained McCain who is running on a platform of hypocrisy, with his key response to any criticism appearing to be that he was a prisoner of war nearly 50 years ago. 

Since BuzzFlash is located in Illinois and has met most of the key players in the Democratic circles here, we have a pretty good perspective on things.  

BuzzFlash even produced a video on why Obama wanted to leave Springfield: a combination of ambition, ability, and a desire to get away from a lot of the corruption that characterizes most state legislatures.

Contrary to yesterday's latest sleazy ad by the McCain campaign -- this one on Obama's alleged connections to the "corrupt" Chicago "machine" -- Obama is a Boy Scout compared to John "Keating Five and K Street Lobbyist Run" McCain. 

You have to know the nuances of Illinois politics to understand that Obama has had very little to do with Governor Blagojevich, who McCain's sleaze ball campaign tries to link him to.  In fact, the best way to characterize Blagojevich is that no one likes him very much, including the vast majority of Democrats in the legislature.  Indeed, last week Blagojevich publicly criticized Obama for stepping in to get the state ethics bill passed, something Obama didn't need to do as a national candidate.

Moreover, Blagojevich -- who can best be described as engaging in bizarre and inscrutable politics --even dissed Obama's candidacy: With his comments, Blagojevich once again moved to buck Obama's favorite-son presidential campaign. This month, Blagojevich told WGN-AM radio that Democrats should not criticize the experience of McCain's running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, because "governors make decisions" while legislators like Obama "debate and they pass their bills back and forth."

Meanwhile, Bill Daley, the Mayor's brother and former co-chair of Al Gore's 2000 campaign, is livid that the McCain campaign implied that he is corrupt. He is quoted in the Chicago Sun-Times as indignantly noting:  "A year and a half ago, he [McCain] called me the greatest U.S. commerce secretary ever, at a conference being held at Deer Valley," Daley said. "I certainly thought he was being extreme, but he even voted for my confirmation as U.S. commerce secretary when he was chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee."

Of course, there's Tony Rezko, but we've been down that path before and there's no there, there.  He raised money for Obama, but there is no hint of any illegalities and no remote prospect of any investigation by the U.S. Attorney's office regarding Rezko and Obama.

As for Emil Jones, who is retiring this session, it is really the Assistant Democratic Majority Leader in the Senate and Senior Illinois Senator Dick Durbin who has mentored and promoted Obama as he decided to run for the presidency.  As a state senator, Obama represented the independent Hyde Park area and voted accordingly.  It's somewhat similar to representing Madison, Wisconsin, if you know about progressive politics.  A "machine" candidate (and there's not much left of the machine in Chicago in terms of elections) couldn't win in Hyde Park!

Is Illinois Democratic politics currently divided into fiefdoms in Illinois?  The answer to that is yes.  But that makes for dysfunction for which Obama bears no responsibility. 

We happen to have a Dem governor who acts like a second grader and is several levels above his Peter Principle; a majority leader of the state house who won't talk with the governor; a retiring state senate president who generally sided with the infantile Gov; and Mayor Daley who runs his own show in Chicago (and despite a rash of corruption in some of his departments a couple of years ago has turned Chicago into a world class city and has high ratings both in Chicago and the suburbs).

Obama has always set himself apart from the regular Democratic Party, but worked with them -- as he did with Republicans -- when necessary.

When he needed to, he leaned on leaders to do the right thing.  That's why Illinois now has an ethics bill.

Some people talk trash like John McCain; and some people get things done like Barack Obama.

If you want a garbage man who throws trash against the wall to see if it will stick, elect McCain; if you want change that gets accomplished, Obama is your candidate.

THE BUZZFLASH EDITOR'S BLOG

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