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April 11, 2008
Dems should follow 4-H CodePols would do well to follow 4-H pledge
April 11, 2008 "I pledge my head to clearer thinking, my heart to greater loyalty, my hands to larger service and my health to better living for my club, my community, my country and my world." The 4-H pledge is burned into my brain. I recited it countless times at club meetings throughout my childhood while my family lived on a farm in rural Iroquois County. Like most pledges, the words became rote and were spoken without much thought. It's been a long time since I pondered what those words really meant. The pledge came back to me this week when we learned Gov. Blagojevich was withholding $18 million from the agency that oversees 4-H programs in Illinois. The governor claims that the General Assembly didn't appropriate enough money for this year's budget, so big cuts are in order. Critics claim the governor is using the threat of doomsday cuts to force his archnemesis, House Speaker Michael Madigan, to agree to a highly controversial bill that allows the governor to skim special state funds without much legislative input and expand health care programs that will cost hundreds of millions of dollars in the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1. Back to that 4-H pledge. The three most powerful Democrats in Springfield, Gov. Blagojevich, Speaker Madigan and Senate President Emil Jones, are from Chicago and they don't have a 4-H background. The program does serve city kids, but not those three city natives. If they had taken that pledge, and thought about what it meant, perhaps we wouldn't be in this mess today. Clearer thinking? That behavior does not spring immediately to mind when Springfield is mentioned these days. Just the opposite. Umpteen special sessions which resolved nothing, crisis after crisis, intraparty bickering, all while the state slips into recession. Greater loyalty? The only thing those three guys are loyal to is their long-standing grudges against one another. Blagojevich has plotted against Madigan since his days in the Illinois House. Jones has grumbled for years that Madigan refuses to give him the respect he deserves. Madigan believes that Jones and Blagojevich are out to destroy him. They have their reasons, some of them pretty solid, but if they were loyal to the state they'd all find a way to get past their disdain for one another and get something done. Larger service? The three men generally serve only their own interests. They're either trying to protect or expand their respective power bases, often at the expense of the other guy. Also, the Tony Rezko corruption trial has shown that the governor has had his "hands" out to campaign contributors — palms up — in return for alleged "pledges" of state business. Not exactly the same thing. Better living? The endless legislative sessions have just about killed the mental health of rank-and-file legislators who are caught in the middle of this war, Statehouse reporters and newspaper editorial writers who have to write about this insanity and, as polling has clearly shown, the vast majority of voters. The only people making out like bandits are the big-money insiders and me. I've sold a lot of newsletter subscriptions and blog ads since Rod Blagojevich was first elected. My wife thinks he's the greatest thing ever. Then again, Gov. Blagojevich is so fond of bald-faced spin I can already guess which loophole he'd find to get out of that 4-H pledge. "It says ‘my club, community, country and world,' " he'd claim. "There's nothing in there about my state." Jones would agree with Blagojevich, because that's what he always does. Madigan, who rarely talks to the press, would simply refuse to answer the question. Rich Miller also publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and thecapitolfaxblog.com. |