I’m back….
April 17th, 2008, 10:27 am · Post a Comment · posted by Kent Kilpatrick
Sorry I haven’t written in a while. I was out of town, got the flu and with life around the newspaper being pretty hectic, I haven’t had the chance. That’s no excuse I know so I hope you will forgive and understand!
I don’t know how much you all have been following the goings on in Springfield lately, but the state capital has been more of the same that happened last year; childish games played by politicians that we elected to get things done that aren’t accomplishing a thing. We have a governor that thinks he can save the world (at least Illinois) by spending gobs of money that we don’t have and two leaders in the House and Senate that continue to fight to see who has more influence in what really happens. You know the funny thing is, they are all democrats and they can’t even agree on how to fleece the public out of more of our hard earned money! It is both sad and comical at the same time.
One thing that really irks me is that they currently have a constitutional amendment bill before the Senate that would allow the voters of the state to choose whether or not we want the ability to recall elected officials. If my info is correct, 18 other states in the Union have this right, but not Illinois. Frankly I think it is a great idea. Why should the public not have the right to throw the bums out of office mid-stream if they aren’t doing a good job? Take California for example. A few years ago, the populace decided that Gray Davis, then governor of the state, did a terrible job, especially with the electricity debacle that plagued the state at the time, so they organized a recall, got enough votes to have a special election and voted in Arnold (The Terminator) and booted Gray. This is an example of democracy working in my opinion. Let the people decide….and they did!
Now we have a bill before the Senate (that was overwhelmingly approved by the House last week I believe) that would give the citizens of our state the same opportunity. But who is holding it hostage, Senate President Emil Jones and his partners in the Senate. Why are they doing this? Because Jones is big buddies with the Governor and they know if something like this was to pass, they might be in a heap of trouble and lose their jobs. The public is pretty much fed up with the childish antics going on under the capital dome and want something done about it. Governor Blagojevich’s approval ratings are around 13%. Yes, you hear me right, 13%! No wonder they are scared and don’t want something like this to pass.
From what I understand, it wouldn’t be easy to recall an elected official under the plan. It would take hundreds of thousands of signatures to even establish a recall election of a statewide office holder. This isn’t something easily done. But with an approval rating of only 13%, I bet it wouldn’t be too hard if someone or some group wanted to take it on. That is what they are afraid of and why they don’t want to move this legislation.
I say move it. This is a democracy and let the people decide if they want it in the constitution or not. My guess is they won’t move it because they don’t want the public to have any more say in how they run our business than we have to. The problem is they control what decisions we, the public, will be allowed to make on our behalf! Screwy, you bet!
Look at the US Constitution. There is a provision that allows for impeachment. It has been used before, but the steps to get there are very steep and hard to navigate. That is by design. You don’t want it to be an easy thing, but it needs to exist none the less. The citizens of our state need to have the same right. Why should we have to wait for years of bad management and leadership before we can fire someone? We shouldn’t and the state legislature needs to move this legislation out and let the people decide.
If it does and I was the governor, I would be shaking in my boots!
