Facebook LikeMadigan avoiding Mayor Daley’s fate
RICH MILLER capitolfax@aol.com
' + first_letter + ' Mar 12, 2011 12:25AMShare
‘Some people just don’t know when their time is up,” I muttered to myself yesterday while watching Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak address his nation.
The media had reported beforehand that Mubarak would abandon his power. His speech said otherwise.
Heck, I thought to myself, even Mayor Daley knew when to quit.
It wasn’t all that long ago when lots of people “in the know” thought Daley would be mayor until he was hauled out of his 5th Floor office feet first. But his magic was no longer working. His parking meter deal destroyed his credibility as a manager. His Olympics bid failure wiped out his reputation as a superior player. He was done, and he knew it. Time to vamoose while the vamoosing was good.
Mubarak’s regime has always justified the civil liberties crackdowns and ever-escalating power grabs by telling the citizenry that they had two choices: Mubarak or those crazy fanatics in the Muslim Brotherhood.
Daley’s apologists played pretty much the same game: It’s either Daley or the city ends up like Detroit. It worked for both men for a very long time.
I don’t want to equate these two people. As much power as he’s had, Daley could never rival Mubarak for complete control. But while the boundaries are far different, the game is basically the same: Position yourself as the “Indispensable Man.”
It’s my guy or chaos.
Almost all truly successful politicians create this aura. Franklin Roosevelt did it so well he was elected to four terms.
Some, maybe even most, were actually indispensable at least part of their time in power. Even Mubarak served his purpose. But if you stick around long enough, the mistakes tend to catch up with you.
And that brings me to Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. He’s been one of the most powerful Illinois politicians for decades.
His members re-elect him time and time again because they believe he is their best and only hope for keeping the Republicans at bay. He also had a reputation in many circles for fiscal stewardship.
Madigan’s still quite adept at beating Republicans. He held onto the House during last year’s massive GOP tidal wave despite repeated attacks on him by the media and his Republican nemeses.
But after years of letting too many problems slide, combined with an international economic collapse, Madigan found himself forced to deal with a state budget mess of epic proportions.
While Daley surrendered in similar circumstances, Madigan has seemed to regain his footing. He muscled through an income tax hike which included some very real state spending caps and will force significant budget reforms.
Madigan is talking seriously about reducing pension benefits for current state employees. He’s pushing for some much-needed workers’ compensation changes. He backed some major education reforms. And he scolded his members this week for sponsoring bills which spend money the state simply doesn’t have.
Not to mention that the South Side Irish Catholic helped pass a civil unions bill and another measure to abolish the death penalty.
A whole lot of people disagree with much of what he’s accomplished. But my mantra for the last six years has been: “Always bet on nothing getting done at the Statehouse.”
I based that on Madigan’s refusal to really do much of anything. That’s obviously no longer true.
For now, at least, it looks like he’ll probably avoid Daley’s fate and go out on his own terms, whenever that may be.
Rich Miller also publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and capitolfax.com.
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Saturday, March 12, 2011
Madigan avoiding Mayor Daley’s fate - Chicago Sun-Times
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