Tuesday, July 7, 2009
News / Clout City Opinions about Lisa Madigan are like assholes . . .
Posted by Mick Dumke on 07.07.09 at 06:31 PM
Everybody these days has something to say about what the future holds for Lisa Madigan—except Lisa Madigan.
Madigan, the state attorney general, is widely considered the most popular politician in Illinois. And even if Rod Blagojevich, Roland Burris, Richard Daley, Todd Stroger, a few dozen legislators in Springfield, and a few dozen aldermen at City Hall have inadvertently helped her attain this lofty status, she’s going to be tough to beat in just about any race she gets into.
Of course, Madigan hasn’t revealed what her plans are—if she’s decided on them herself—and all sorts of other elected officials are waiting to see what offices she decides not to run for so they can instead.
In the meantime, the speculation, analysis, insight, and rumor mills are in high gear.
I recently got a call from a politico whom I've always found to be up on what’s going on. His tip that day was that two people with deep Democratic Party ties had separately told him that Madigan was about to announce her candidacy for the U.S. Senate.
The news didn’t come as a surprise—a couple weeks earlier the same source had told me that top Democrats in Washington were intensely trying to recruit Madigan for a Senate run, and another person closer to the AG confirmed it was true without providing details.
Within a week news broke that President Obama and Rahm Emanuel were among the attorney general’s suitors. State treasurer Alexi Giannoulias—who’s basically been campaigning for Senate at least since last year’s Democratic National Convention—took a few digs at Madigan, but then stopped talking about his plans.
So what I was hearing was big news. I called my second contact expecting confirmation that I’d heard it right. Instead she responded with the laughter of a deeply amused elder, as if to say, “That’s funny! And since you’re so adorable, maybe you can try again tomorrow.” When she stopped laughing, she told me that she hadn’t heard anything of the sort, so it probably wasn’t true.
I decided to run the information past a few others. I got one political insider on the phone as he was finishing a meeting on the state budget morass with a group of legislators. “We were just talking about Lisa,” he said. “We were all figuring that she has to be thinking about the Senate now. Who’d want to step into this mess?”
It was a valid question, but only a question. The bottom line was that they didn’t know Madigan’s plans either.
By the time I got off the phone my previous contact had called me back and left a message saying she had something else to pass on that I'd definitely want to hear.
I dialed her right up. She told me she’d just checked with some other well-informed people, which I found interesting since it suggested that she wasn’t quite as certain of her earlier response as she’d appeared. Who’s laughing now? I thought.
Not me. “I figured you’d want to know that your information is incorrect,” she said.
Really?
"Really."
Was I being spun? Suddenly I was certain of it. I hung up and then tracked down a city pol who can usually tell me what the old-school Regular Democratic Party types know and where they're leaning. He said I was right—there had been lots of discussions about Madigan lately. “I hear she’s leading in the polls,” he told me.
No kidding? For which office?
“All of them, I think,” he said.
When in doubt, call the official spokesperson. Mary Morrissey, Madigan’s political director, was friendly and straightforward and well-rehearsed at answering the question I had. “She has not made a decision yet," she said. "She will make a decision soon."
"Can you tell me how soon?" I asked.
"No," she said, "because then I'd have to kill you."
Comments (14)
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July 7, 2009 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- Mayor Daley's personnel chief has turned in his resignation. Homero Tristan is stepping down less than two weeks after Chicago's independent inspector general called for his removal. Tristan is accused of lying to investigators about how he handled a letter that an alderman wrote on behalf of a city worker who was seeking a transfer. Tristan told the Chicago Tribune that the allegations are, "grossly erroneous." But he said he could not fight the charges and continue to represent the Daley administration at the same time.
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Michael Madigan has ruled, with an iron fist. He along with Eddie Burke control the Judges. He also controls the State House of Representatives. It may take a blood bath to remove him. Now we have another legacy politican named Lisa Madigan. I believe her accomplishments during her tenure as State Rep and Attorney General have been inflated,to promote her candidacy for higher office. I remember an old lady asking for her assistance,involving a shady Contractor. Lisa Madigan refused to help the lady ,and told her to get an Attorney. Like Daley everyone seems to afraid of Mike Madigan.. Media,Banks and definitely other politicans.
Relax Frankie its not that serious,and enjoy the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4v5ihLlYKQ&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Echicagoclout%2Ecom%2F&feature=player_embedded
Send a message to our Rulers,and not support their games http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o570-57dVaU
Patrick McDonough , Why did you take the train in Rosemont, recently,to go to work? Your luckey I did not write about it. Fran Spielman would of made it front page news. Patrick you are a phony!
Whenever Madigan decides what she's going to run for, look for Chicago Inspector General David Hoffman to announce his bid for office. Probably for AG. And that will be just another stepping stone for him.
Plumber's Plum Job Springs a Leak Inspector caught breaking the law he's assigned to protect By MATT BARTOSIK Updated 10:37 AM CDT, Tue, Jul 7, 2009 Related Topics: James Kendrick A city plumbing inspector should know better! Well, he did. On the 3500 block of North Octavia, city plumbing inspector James Kendrick was installing a flood-control system when he accidentally broke a water pipe that led to the home. Kendrick called 311 to report the break and asked the investigators who arrived for city-owned parts in order to repair the broken pipe. But he left out the fact that he had neither a permit nor the required city licenses to perform the job in the first place. Worse yet? Kendrick is on a task force that punishes people who do work without permits. Unfortunately for Kendrick, one of the responding investigators was City Hall whistleblower Pat McDonough, who reported the Hired Truck scandal. "He told me he works for the city and knows people [in high places]," McDonough said, according to the Sun-Times. "He wanted me to give him all the plumbing parts." Suspicious, McDonough called Chicago Police. Kendrick refused to show the officers his city ID until they threatened him with arrest. Kendrick was cited for doing work without the proper authorization, and a stop-work order was issued. Kendrick could not be reached for comment, but Buildings Department spokesperson Bill McCaffrey told the Sun-Times that the department was "conducting an investigation into a report of an employee completing work without a permit." Considering it was Kendrick's job to catch lawbreakers, what could his excuse be? "It takes one to know one?"
Did you run out of medication,take your meds so you don't shoot up the Irving park YMCA.
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