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Today, following-up on his somewhat awkward Tuesday press conference in which he kinda sorta said Governor Blagojevich should step aside, Lt. Governor Pat Quinn has finally gone all-in and called for impeachment proceedings to begin against Blagojevich. In a press conference this morning, Quinn said, "I don't think the Legislature next week should fail to address the issue of impeachment and should move forward immediately. If they don't, they won't be listening to the voters." Quinn's more aggressive assertion today seems to be based around his desire to move into the Governor's role so he can name a successor to President-Elect Obama in the U.S. Senate, citing that a special election would be time-consuming as well as costly.
So who is Pat Quinn, the Man Who Would Be Governor? The Sun-Times ran a profile of Quinn today that tossed around the following words and phrases to describe him:
- "demagoguery"
- "mellowed"
- "a whirlwind of energy"
- "organizational style is eccentric"
Hmmm. Lucky for us, it wasn't that long ago that our own Kevin Robinson had the chance to talk with Lt. Gov. Quinn. Among the nuggets we discovered was how he got his start in Illinois politics:
Passing petitions. I came back from college, and I believe in grassroots democracy, and there was a campaign for governor, and the first thing I did was I passed petitions to get the candidate on the ballothis support of allowing voters to put propositions on the ballot:
So yes, unequivocally I support initiative. I’m the biggest supporter of direct democracy in Illinois. I think the voters are for it, but a lot of elected officials in the legislature I think unfortunately haven’t embraced it.and taxes:
The biggest problem with Illinois right now is that it has a regressive tax code.One of the more interesting segments - his thoughts on becoming governor - is after the jump.
C: Have you ever considered running for Governor?
PQ: No. No I haven’t.
C: Why not?
PQ: Because I like this job. [Leans forward and picks up a book off the coffee table.] Paul Simon, right below you there, that’s the book. He was an excellent public servant in my opinion. His daughter gave me one of his bowties. [Holds up the bowtie] And Paul Simon was Lieutenant Governor of Illinois. That was his only executive office his whole life. He was State Rep, State Senator, US Congressman, US Senator, and also Lieutenant Governor. And he did that job well. I was in college when he got started, he got sworn in, and he said he wanted to be an ombudsman. I didn’t exactly know what that word meant, so I looked it up. It means the people’s person in Swedish. So that’s what I want to be, in his footsteps. I think this job, you can be the people’s person. This term I intend to really speak out on grievous problems in Illinois. Utility issue we talked about, the tax reform issue, I think ethics is another area that Illinois needs serious improvement in.
I ran against George Ryan for Secretary of State in 1994. I lost the election, but I didn’t lose my conscience. I said all the things that were going wrong there. And they came true, well, they all were proved true, let’s put it that way. They were already true, and people found out about them. So I think the election of 2002 was the voters sending a message to clean up the mess of state government, and I don’t think that’s complete. I believe we need campaign finance reform, and the practice of contractors being able to give campaign money to politicians who issue contracts to them. I think we need stronger whistleblower laws at the local level. The state law, we have one, I was involved in getting that passed, but we need one for every local unit of government, including the CTA and RTA, and all the other TA’s out there. And I also think we should have a law that prohibits utilities from making contributions. They’re supposed to be public utilities and they’re running around, acting in their own interest. Those are some of the ethics reforms I’ll be pushing this year.
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Quinn has always struck me as being a little goofy and awkward... Like a nerdy uncle who's super nice and super smart and taught you how to throw a wicked curveball... but always tells really dumb jokes.
But by all accounts, he's one of the good guys. He's passionate, seems to be about as sincere as they come, and appears to genuinely have the people's best interests at heart. Once the Hairdo In Chief is gone, I think we'll be in very good hands with PQ at the helm.
It is absolutely more important at this point to impeach Blago than it is to hold an illegal special election.
But Quinn should stay out of it. Let Springfield sort it out. REMAIN ABOVE THE FRAY
Eccentric is a kind word for how I would characterize him. I think an ideal situation right now would be for him to become governor, appoint himself Senator, give Lisa Madigan the governorship. I don't think Quinn could necessarily win re-election for Senate but he isn't tainted by the whole process and we wouldn't have to worry if he was one of the people mentioned in that indictment as politician number something.
A: Not Rod Blagojevich.
Laura, what's the difference between you and Blago? Probably not much in principal except that Blago at least gave poor kids healthcare. But do tell us more about your belief in "trading offices"
Sure P.Q, just give the Governorship to Lisa right?
Yea I'm sure eccentric is a "kind" word for the most honest man in government. I can deal with republicans because at least they are honest about their b.s. Its "liberals" like you that make me sick and are the reason why Quinn has to struggle to be heard.
you Hoe!
p.s
I mean that in the political sense ;-)
Quinn has been wanting to get rid of the real estate tax to fund schools for a couple of decades.
It's a nineteenth century tax that doesn't work fairly anymore.
And Quinn is apparently honest, that's sort of really rare in this state!
The article in the Sun-Times was the typical hack hatchet job that lazy and/or corrupt reporters do on Quinn. Lots of loaded words designed to cast doubt on his character. Quinn's work as head of the Coalition for Political Honesty was a spectacular victory for the people of our state (including reducing the size of the Illinois House by two-thirds and ending the outrageous practice of state legislators getting their entire year's salary in advance)---yet forever ran him afoul of the corrupt political Combine in our state.
Probably not much in principal except that Blago at least gave poor kids healthcare.
Spook: How can you still stick to this line?
First, check with doctors and clinics to see how well the state is paying them for health services? You will be disturbed.
Second, Blago allegedly was willing to pull funding from Chicago's main children's hospital unless he got 50K in campaign funds from the hospital's executive.
What Blago did was put out a number of press releases regarding his support of expanded health care. There has been no follow through at all. You should do some research into this matter.