Pressure will not translate to support

By www.dailyherald.com/opinion/index.asp

It’s not safe to say that events in Springfield have reached their nadir. Not when the governor and legislative leaders are “working” seven days a week, meaning that matters could deteriorate between the time these words are written and the time they’re published.

But Gov. Rod Blagojevich and lawmakers certainly burrowed toward new depths Saturday. One loose-cannon legislator spoke of impeaching the governor. Blagojevich, having resorted to name calling on Friday, further alienated lawmakers Saturday by making noises about legal action in a dispute over what time the House would convene.

The disagreement between Blagojevich and House Speaker Michael Madigan has become so bitterly personal that it now will be very difficult for these two and others to find common ground on the policy matters that must be resolved in order to write a state budget and clear out the Capitol for the summer.

Both sides will need to take a step back on a personal level. Both will need to engage in some degree of give-and-take on the budget. The larger move is up to the governor. Angry as Blagojevich is over Madigan’s opposition, he nonetheless needs to recognize and acknowledge at some point that he simply lacks the support among Illinoisans necessary to win legislative approval of the massive spending increases in education and health care that he favors or of the tax hikes needed to pay for it.

Legislators aren’t blocking the governor’s agenda out of spite; they’re opposing it because they know their constituents don’t favor it.

Yes, Blagojevich made improved health care coverage and education a centerpiece of his re-election campaign. But he avoided details like the plague and certainly never said that he had in mind a tax increase in excess of $5 billion. Instead, he waited until after the election to lay out the details and then embark on a preach-to-the-choir tour of the state. During this time, he rarely appeared in Springfield and demonized as immoral those who dared to disagree.

And now the governor is shocked and angry that he can’t get his programs through? His new strategy is to gloss over the deep opposition to his tax-and-spending proposals — indicated by nearly unanimous House votes — and force legislators to stay in session until, presumably, they’ll see things his way. How well is that working? One House member of his own party, Chicago’s Joe Lyons, urged reporters Saturday to tell their readers and listeners that the governor is “insane.”

Will Madigan and others critics of the governor’s program need to yield a bit, too? Sure. But the larger move belongs to Blagojevich, who perhaps next time ought to try actually campaigning on a hugely ambitious agenda before trying to push it through the Legislature.