'Lessons of history' -- add 1

From Cullen Murphy, Are We Rome? The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America.

The British historian A.J.P. Taylor used to say, "The only lesson of history is that there are no lessons of history" (13).

Boston: Houghton Mifflin-Mariner, 2008.

What we learn from history (quote of the day ... no ... quote of the year)

From a column by Bradley Burston in Ha'aretz, the Israeli daily newspaper, that somehow combined his musings on the 2008 election, New Orleans and the lessons of history into a coherent whole:

At the weekend, The Associated Press released the results of an investigation into the federal government's efforts to safeguard the Crescent City from a catastrophe such as that which followed Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

"In a yearlong review of levee work here, The Associated Press has tracked a pattern of public misperception, political jockeying and legal fighting, along with economic and engineering miscalculations since Katrina, that threaten to make New Orleans the scene of another devastating flood."

Concluded flood protection official Tim Moody, "What we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history."

Christmas cheer for Republicans

Members of the Republican National Committee received a satirical CD titled "We Hate the USA" from a candidate for the RNC chair. The joke, presumably, is that liberals, not Republicans, hate the country. Other jokes concern President-elect Barack Obama's race and his controversial former pastor.

According to The Hill, a newsletter that covers Congress and Capitol Hill, RNC candidate Chip Saltsman sent out the CD, featuring songs by "my friend Paul Shanklin of the Rush Limbaugh Show." The newsletter said:

The CD, called “We Hate the USA,” lampoons liberals with such songs as “John Edwards’ Poverty Tour,” “Wright place, wrong pastor,” “Love Client #9,” “Ivory and Ebony” and “The Star Spanglish banner.”

Several of the track titles, including “Barack the Magic Negro,” are written in bold font.

The song, which debuted on Limbaugh’s show in late March 2007, latches onto an opinion column in the Los Angeles Times of the same title. That column, penned by cultural critic David Ehrenstein, argued that Obama could serve as a balm to whites who felt guilty about past treatment of African Americans.

Limbaugh first highlighted the column the day it ran, according to a contemporary report by Media Matters, the liberal watchdog agency. Media Matters reported Limbaugh repeated the phrase more than two dozen times the day the column ran.

Shanklin told the newsletter he "meant nothing untoward" by sending out the "light-hearted political parodies" on the CD. Others, however, might consider some of the content racist. Added Reid Wilson of The Hill:

Republicans searching for ways to attack Obama have been hesitant to embrace any reference to his race. Limbaugh presciently predicted his allusion to the column nearly two years ago would win attention from left-leaning organizations that would suggest he was using Obama’s race against him.

Indeed they might.

Later: Fox News, which insists it is not an official mouthpiece for the Republican Party, has gone up now with an official statement from RNC Chair Mike Duncan blasting Saltsman's effort at humor. "The 2008 election was a wake-up call for Republicans to reach out and bring more people into our party," said Duncan. "I am shocked and appalled that anyone would think this is appropriate as it clearly does not move us in the right direction."

Saltsman, among others, is running against Duncan for the chair.

Impeachment proceedings in Illinois House / * BOOKMARK *

The Special Investigative Committee of the state House of Representatives to review grounds for impeachment of Gov. Rod Blagojevich has opened a webpage with a roster of members, notice of hearings and copies of documents entered into evidence.

In addition, the General Assembly has House and Senate audio and video feeds on line at:

• House http://www.ilga.gov/house/audvid.asp
  
  
• Senate http://www.ilga.gov/senate/audvid.asp

Available when the House and Senate are in session.

During the impeachment process, readers of Rich Miller and readers of Miller's Capitol Fax blog at http://thecapitolfaxblog.com/ have begun livebloging sessions. Public Radio WUIS-FM is interrupting its regular programming to broadcast the hearings.

Dog poop and education policy: First-day stories on ed secretary-designate Arne Duncan

Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan was named by President-elect Barack Obama as his Secretary of Education today, and the commercial media gave almost as much play to dog poop and basketball as to education policy. It was left to the trade press to mention any implications for higher education, which are sparse at any rate.

A squib in today's Inside Higher Ed notes, I think correctly, "Duncan has not been a player on higher education policy, although it has been widely assumed that the education secretary would be selected primarily for K-12 credentials."

The Sun-Times has a couple of stories and an editorial:

• The story of the announcement at a Chicago school was by political reporter Abdon Pallasch. He noted that Duncan and Obama play basketball together and quoted Obama's advice to elementary school children during a classroom photo op: "I want to make sure that my daughters ... take care of their dog. ... You've got to feed your dog. You've got to walk your dog. And then if they do their business, if they got some poop, you've got to make sure that you're not just leaving it there."
  
  
• Another story, by city hall reporter Fran Spielman, said Duncan leaves "big shoes" to fill in the city schools. Said Mayor Richard Daley, "You always want to keep somebody. But, this is a special opportunity for what he's accomplished and what the people of Chicago have accomplished in education. ... No other city has done what we're doing Arne Duncan for eight years has been at the helm of this. He's not a superintendent who stays inside the box. He's always thinking outside the box. That's his greatest asset. He'll bring the same commitment to the Department of Education that needs it." A little bit more substance there.
  
  
• And the editorial gets into several matters of substance: "We respect Duncan for sticking to his guns: he is passionate about fixing chronically failing schools, and he wouldn't retreat. But he also listened and made adjustments. Time will tell whether [his school reform plan called] Renaissance 2010 is a success, though early results look promising.
  
  
• "Those qualities -- vision and compromise -- will serve Duncan well as education secretary.
  
  He is not an ideologue fueled by a belief that there is one single answer to fixing urban schools. Under Renaissance 2010, he has approved a broad range of schools, including an all-boys school, a school based on a Roman Catholic model and a virtual school."

Perhaps most important for those of us who work with the accountability piece in higher ed, the Sun-Times' editorial said this: "Duncan always took a pass on the education fad of the day, choosing instead to invest in long-term approaches supported by solid research."

#$%! -- deadlines

Cartoonist David Horsey of The Seattle Post-Inquirer explains how events caught up with him on deadline ... and caught up with him again ... and again. And what he tried to do about it as he updated a cartoon about the Senate Republican caucus' shifting position on this month's auto industry bailout legislation.

A good snapshot of a journalist's mind at work when the news is happening ... and happening fast ... and keeps happening while you scramble to keep up with it.

State Journal-Register background story on Pat Quinn

I saw it Friday night at Barnes & Noble, and just came across it today when I was Googling something else. It's a balanced, somewhat edgey assessment by longtime Statehouse reporter Doug Finke. He leads with a great quote from former Gov. Jim Edgar:

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn could be days or weeks away from dropping the “lieutenant” in his title and assuming the top spot in Illinois government.

When and if that happens, Quinn will have culminated a lifetime in Illinois politics, one that started with the term “gadfly” usually being attached to his name. Now, however, Quinn is viewed as a comparative statesman.

“He’s mellowed,” said former Gov. Jim Edgar. “I never thought I’d say I’d sleep better if Pat Quinn were governor. (But) he’s sincere. He’s a hard worker. He’d be a far better work ethic than we currently have.”

Some nice bits from Quinn's press conference Thursday in Springfield:

“I am a team player,” Quinn said Thursday during a Statehouse news conference. “I don’t have a huge ego. I want to be a humble person. That’s what we need.”

Humble isn’t necessarily a term everyone would use to describe Quinn.

“There’s always been a tendency by him to grandstand,” said University of Illinois at Springfield political scientist Kent Redfield. “The perception is he makes his reputation by demonizing the whole political (spectrum). He’s never been the most popular person.”

Quinn also has a penchant for publicity.

“He is king of the Sunday afternoon press conference,” said Redfield about Quinn’s penchant for holding news conferences on traditionally slow news days.

Cute

From Neil Steinberg's column in Saturday's Sun-Times:

This one is from [Chicago comedian] Jerry Wolski:
A $1.8 billion tollway improvement deal announced by Gov. Blagojevich in October has been called into question after it was revealed the recently jailed Illinois governor made his bail with $4,500 in quarters and dimes.

Maybe the rats wanted the sign down ...

Cute story today in The Chicago Sun-Times, which has been more than holding its own against the Trib as the story of corruption charges against Gov. Rod Blagojevich unfolds. It concerns a sign in the alley behind Blagojevich's home warning that rat poison ...

Oh, a picture is worth a thousand words.

So follow this link to see the sign. Then come back here to read how The Sun-Times handled the story.

Under the headline "Sign warning of rats in Blagojevich's alley taken down," city hall reporter Fran Spielman wrote:

City Hall smells a rat behind the Northwest Side home of Gov. Blagojevich -- and it has nothing to do with the explosive corruption charges leveled against the governor.

Earlier this week, John White, the Chicago Sun-Times Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer, shot a picture of the governor ducking out of his Ravenswood Manor home and into a black SUV driven by his bodyguards to avoid passing through a news media gauntlet.

The photo showed Blagojevich next to a city sign that said, "Warning" and "Target Rats" with a picture of a rat inside a red bulls-eye.

The delicious irony of an alleged political rat being photographed next to the warning sign about actual rats was apparently not lost on the governor, his family or staff.

On Friday morning, Blagojevich left his house by the same back door, but there was something missing. The rat sign had been taken down. That's even though it was posted by the city's Department of Streets and Sanitation on a wooden pole in the city-owned alley behind the governor's house.

But the nicest touch -- I almost said "most delicious," but thought better of it -- came at the end of Spielman's story:

Streets and Sanitation spokesman Matt Smith refused to take the bait by accusing Blagojevich of the surreptitious sign removal.

"We have no idea who would have taken down that sign. Obviously people shouldn't take down city signs. For those who haven't seen it, it alerts residents on that block that we last baited that alley in October of 2008.

We're pretty certain everyone knows that by now," Smith said.

"We didn't remove it. People can speculate about other reasons someone might have taken it down. We plan to repost that sign some time in the near future when it isn't likely to be the center of attention. In the meantime, residents of that block can be assured that alley was baited in October."

I await the sequel with bated breath.

Transcript of Obama press conference in Chicago

The New York Times had the transcript of Barack Obama’s press conference about his health care team and the scandal over charges against Gov. Rod Blagojevich (as transcribed by CQ Transcriptions). Obama had some important things to say, I think, that aren't getting much play when there are so many juicier angles of the story.

In prepared remarks announcing appointment of former U.S. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., as secretaty of health and human services, Obama said:

I have never spoken to the governor on this subject. I'm confident that no representatives of mine would have any part of any deals related to this seat. I think the materials released by the U.S. attorney reflect that fact.

I've asked my team to gather the facts of any contacts with the governor's office about this vacancy so that we can share them with you over the next few days.

Finally, on this matter, let me say that this Senate seat does not belong to any politician to trade. It belongs to the people of Illinois, and they deserve the best possible representation.

They also deserve to know that any vacancy will be filled in an appropriate way so that whoever is sent to Washington is going to be fighting for the people of Illinois. I hope and expect that the leaders of the legislature will take these steps to ensure that this is so.

Later, in response to a question from longtime Chicago reporter Mike Flannery of WBBM-TV Channel 2:

QUESTION: Mr. President-elect, can you shed any light on how it was that the governor got the impression that neither you nor Ms. Jarrett nor any of the people from your office were willing to play ball and why he said those unrepeatable things about you and your -- and your staff?

And a two-partner. We have the former -- the immediate former governor still moldering in the federal prison here in Terra Haute. What's wrong with politics in Illinois?

MR. OBAMA: Well, first of all, I can't presume to know what was in the mind of the governor during this process, so I won't even speculate on that. All I can do is read what was in the transcripts, like the rest of you have read it, and shake my head.

Now, with respect to Illinois, look, as I said, I think in Illinois, as is true in American politics generally, there are two views of politics. There's a view of politics that says you go in this for sacrifice and public service, and then there's a view of politics that says that this is a business, and you're wheeling and dealing, and what's in it for me?

And there are -- one thing I want to make sure everybody is mindful of -- there are extraordinary traditions of public service coming out of Illinois, even after Abraham Lincoln.

You know, you've got people like Paul Simon, and Paul Douglas, our current senator, Dick Durbin, our senior senator, and many others on both sides of the aisle who have upheld the highest standards of ethics and have made enormous sacrifices to make sure that they're getting something done for the people of Illinois.

But what you also have, I think, are habits and a culture that thinks of politics as a -- as a means of self-aggrandizement. That's exactly what has to change.

MR. OBAMA: I mean, this is -- if, in fact, the various allegations end up proving to be true -- and I don't want to, obviously, prejudge all these issues -- this is sort of the far end of the spectrum of that business mentality of politics. But there are more subtle examples of it, right, that are within the lines of legality but still don't fulfill the spirit of service.

You know, we know in Washington that lobbyists that disproportionate influence. We know that in state houses and city councils all across America there are times where people are not thinking about what's best for the public good but rather making narrow political calculations. And our whole campaign was about changing that view of politics and restoring a sense that when people of good will come together and are serious about confronting the challenges that we face, that not only can that be good policy but, you know what, it can be good politics as well.

It turns out that the American people are hungry for that. And you can get elected by playing it straight. You can get elected by doing the right thing. That's what I hope we have modeled in this campaign. And that's what I intend to model in my administration.

McCain's joke about 'bleeping campaign'

U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was back on the David Letterman show Thursday night. So Letterman asked him how he was managing the transition back to private life after his unsuccessful presidential bid. McCain's response:

"I don't want to talk about the bleeping campaign," McCain said with a smile. "Understand? If you think I'm going to go back to that bleeping situation, then bleep you."

'Nuff said.

Quinn availability in Springfield office

Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn wants the state Legislature to start impeachment proceedings immediately when the House and Senate convene next week, according to Chicago Sun-Times' Statehouse bureau chief John McKinney. He reported today:

SPRINGFIELD — Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn said today if he becomes governor, his “first assignment” would be appointing a successor to Barack Obama, and he urged state legislators to launch impeachment proceedings against Gov. Blagojevich next week if he doesn't resign before then.

Quinn stopped short of saying he would veto legislation to establish a special election next spring to fill the state's vacant U.S. Senate seat, but he cited the multimillion-dollar expense of holding a vote and the fact it conceivably might not be resolved until June as reasons he might move on his own to anoint an Obama successor if Blagojevich departs.

"I think it's important to get this matter resolved as quickly as possible," Quinn said.

Apparently Quinn is stepping up to the plate.

When he held his first press conference Tuesday noon in Chicago while Governor Blagojevich was still in custody, I thought Quinn sounded nervous. Who wouldn't? But now, according to today's story in the Sun-Times, "Quinn said he has been contacted since the federal complaint against Blagojevich by former Gov. James Thompson, who offered his 'advice and counsel' to Quinn." And he attended David Axelrod's Christmas party last night.

Less to that than meets the eye, though.

"Axelrod has been a friend of mine for 30 years," Quinn said in the Springfield availability. "He had his Christmas party last night, and I said hello to him."

Blago gallows humor pretty [bleeping] funny

If nothing else, the language of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald's 70-plus-page affivavit -- let alone the language used in wiretaps in the affidavit -- lends itself to parody, and to a little gallows humor at a time when maybe a little humor helps break some of the mounting stress.

This from one of my journalism students, whom I will refer to as Journalism Student A in order to shield her identity:

Here is a little something to brighten your morning: An article from the Huffington Post

"In what is being called one of the most daring escape attempts in the history of law enforcement, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich today offered the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama to the FBI agent who took him into Federal custody this morning.

According to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, the astonishing escape attempt occurred moments after Mr. Blagojevich was handcuffed by the agent, who was wearing a wire and captured the entire expletive-laden offer on tape."'You can be the [bleeping] junior Senator from [bleeping] Illinois ifyou let me out of these [bleeping] handcuffs,'" Mr. Fitzgerald read from a transcript. "'And if that mother-[bleeper] Barack Obama tries to [bleep] with me, I'll [bleep] him up.'"According to Mr. Fitzgerald, "When I say 'bleep,' he didn't really say'bleep' on the tape," adding, "I'm going to keep making that joke until one of you [bleepers] laughs at it."

* * *

Andy Borowitz [who wrote the parody] is a comedian and writer whose work appears in The NewYorker and The New York Times, and at his award-winning humor site, BorowitzReport.com.

And in The Weekly Standard, Bill Kristol's neo-conservative opinion magazine, an imaginative -- and imaginary -- account of Thanksgiving dinner around the Blagojevich family table :

111 a. On or about November 27, 2008, ROD BLAGOJEVICH, his wife and daughters, and BLAGOJEVICH's chief of staff JOHN HARRIS ate Thanksgiving dinner together. BLAGOJEVICH's wife asked BLAGOJEVICH to "please pass the potatoes." BLAGOJEVICH asked what his wife was willing to give him for "the f---ing potatoes" because "these f---ing things aren't f---ing cheap." HARRIS said that BLAGOJEVICH's wife might donate $250,000 to Friends of Blagojevich in exchange for the potatoes. BLAGOJEVICH's wife said she thought that was a high price for a spoonful of mashed potatoes and asked BLAGOJEVICH to carve the turkey instead. BLAGOJEVICH said "What am I, your f---ing butler?" and reminded her that "I don't f---ing work for free." HARRIS asked BLAGOJEVICH to consider carving the turkey in exchange for a helping of BLAGOJEVICH's wife's cranberry sauce. BLAGOJEVICH said he "hated f---ing cranberry sauce, you stupid f--k," and reminded his wife that the "only reason we have this f---ing turkey in the first place" was because Senate Candidate 5 had personally delivered it to the BLAGOJEVICH residence that morning. BLAGOJEVICH's wife said BLAGOJEVICH could take Senate Candidate 5's turkey and "shove it up your a--." BLAGOJEVICH said she could have the turkey "but if you feel like you can do this and not f---ing give me anything, then I'll f---ing go." HARRIS volunteered to carve the turkey if BLAGOJEVICH did not want to and the group returned to eating in silence.

Trib, Sun-Times backgrounders on Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn capture the essence of the guy I once worked for

A sidebar by Michael Hawthorne in today's Trib profiles how "as the federal investigation of [Gov. Rod] Blagojevich's administration drew closer to the governor during the last year, Lt. Gov. Patrick Quinn has "steadily pivoted back to his long-standing role as a maverick."

Which is more like the Pat Quinn I worked for in 1991 and 1992. In fact, Hawthorne's profile harkens back to the guy I knew, who once urged taxpayers to mail teabags to the governor's office to protest a long-forgotten legislative initiative. For what it's worth, I think he captures the essence of the guy.

Says Hawthorne:

During the spring, Quinn pushed, unsuccessfully, for legislation that would give Illinois voters the power to boot state officials from office in between elections.

The Chicago Democrat noted that he has backed recall measures for more than three decades, but made it clear he had Blagojevich in mind this time around.

Quinn went further Tuesday after Blagojevich was arrested by federal investigators. He called on the governor to step aside because Blagojevich is "seriously impeded from carrying out his oath of office."

The recall effort was among a constant stream of pugnacious, media-savvy campaigns that Quinn has waged over the years, most of which have upset powerful Democrats and Republicans even as he acquired more power of his own.

There's more, a lot more. Hawthorne recalls the days Quinn drove around the state "in a decidedly nondescript Chevrolet Chevette," touting populist causes to anyone who would listen and slowly building up a statewide mailing list. He even mentions the teabags:

His news conferences typically are spiced with political theater. Quinn once forced lawmakers to roll back post-election pay raises by encouraging Illinoisans to send 40,000 tea bags to former Gov. Jim Thompson's office.

The teabags, as I recall, were a not-so-oblique reference to the Boston Tea Party and the cause of "no taxation without representation." I remember once writing him up as "Citizen Quinn" in a column for The State Journal-Register and helping him carry a foamboard chart out to where he'd parked the Chevette a block or two from the Statehouse (probably a violation of journalistic ethics, but I liked the guy and at the time I thought his political career was going nowhere). But a few years later, he ran for state treasurer and edged past the slated candidate in the Democratic primary by a shrewd application of direct mail to his populist base.

Back to the present. In Hawthorne's article, Charlie Wheeler, who covered the Statehouse for the Sun-Times and now directs the public affairs reporting program at the University of Illinois in Springfield, is quoted as saying:

"Pat's evolved from a gadfly to a fairly competent public official," said Charles Wheeler, a former Statehouse reporter who directs the public affairs reporting program at the University of Illinois at Springfield. "But he's still very much a populist."

Hawthorne noted that along with his successful -- highly successful, uniquely successful -- efforts to get ink for a variety of causes, Quinn "often quietly attends funerals for Illinois soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Hawthorne gives some of the backstory:

Quinn, 59, was born on the South Side and grew up in Hillside. One of his earliest jobs in politics was as an organizer and aide to former Gov. Dan Walker, a Democrat who ran against Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley's political machine.

Quinn ended up as Blagojevich's running mate due to a quirk in the Illinois Constitution that requires candidates for governor and lieutenant governor to run separately during the primary election. The two Democrats are not close and often have been at odds over policy issues. But Quinn was largely silent about Blagojevich's legal woes until after they were re-elected in 2006.

And this accolade, if accolade is the right word:

But as Blagojevich's feud with Madigan and other lawmakers intensified, some observers say Quinn can be seen in a different light.

"He's not the same bomb thrower and rabble rouser he once was," said Doug Whitley, president of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce. "The governor has done so many irrational things that Pat Quinn looks like a moderate by comparison."

Later. I didn't find it till Friday when I picked up a print copy of Wednesday's Chicago Sun-Times from the dirty tray stand during lunch at Fulgenzi's on Sangamon Avenue, but Sun-Times political reporter Abdon Pallasch has a similar profile headed "Quinn 'has mellowed,' ready to be gov: ex-critics." It's worth quoting at some length, because it's also on target:

Blagojevich was an old-school insider and Quinn came up the ranks as a "populist" outsider, throwing rocks at the castle walls and sometimes scoring direct hits against Illinois' political establishment.

But over the years, as Blagojevich has alienated more officials in Springfield, even some former Quinn critics have become willing to embrace him as an alternative to Blagojevich, willing to forgive him for what they once decried as his demagoguery.

"You know, he has mellowed out over the years, and the work he has done on the behalf of veterans has really won him admiration," said former Senate President Phil Rock.

Rock's the guy who preceded Emil Jones as Senate president. Some of the oldtimers Pallasch talked to predicted Quinn will "have some of the same downsides as Blagojevich -- a preference to talk to news cameras instead of doing the hard work of negotiating with fellow legislators." But that's common among politicians. But other pols said he'd work with the legislature.

"I think he'll be a whirlwind of energy," said Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool, a former Quinn aide. "He will take up some of the issues that have been ignored for the past decade. He will work effectively with members of the General Assembly to build consensus."

That squares with my recollection when Quinn was state treasurer, Claypool was his chief of staff and I was way down on the totem poll churning out press releases about farm loans and other non-controversial issues. Quinn hadn't been forgiven for pushing a "cutback amendment" that reduced the size of the Legislature by one-third in each house, but he worked hard and, more importantly in our political culture, quietly, at building roll calls for his issues. So it checks out.

Another recollection Pallasch picked up from somebody also checks out:

Quinn is legendary among staffers for his work ethic, his disorganization, and his ability to stay on-task.

"His organizational style is eccentric; however, it works for him," said one former staffer. "Anyone who has worked for Quinn will tell you about the little pieces of white paper, Whenever he has an idea, which is about every 30 seconds, he scribbles it on a piece of white paper ... and you better make it happen because he does not forget."

I remember those white slips of paper, too. In fact, any of my students or other associates who have noticed I always seem to have my shirt pocket full of little papers ... in this picture for example ... now know why.

Whoops! Quote of the day ... 'all about Springfield!'

"We have a good city here. This is all about Springfield. This is not about Chicago." -- Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, to City Hall Reporter Fran Spielman, Chicago Sun Times, Dec. 10, 2008.

During an interview with the Sun-Times in which he called on Gov. Rod Blagojevich to "do the right thing," presumably resign, Chicago Mayor Rich Daley told City Hall Reporter Fran Spielman he sees no reason why corruption charges against the governor would hurt Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympics. Spielman added:

If that were true, Daley said, “Just think, how could Germany ever have it? You could go around the country and the world and say, ‘How could those countries have it?’ Beijing just had their Olympics.”

He added, “We don't have the [bad] reputation. We have a good city here. This is all about Springfield. This is not about Chicago.”

And here in Springfield, we thought the problem was with Chicago.

How -- and where -- to follow Illinois legislative action

It looks like Illinois has been thrown into a full-blown constitutional crisis with the charges against Gov. Rod Blagojevich, and events are moving swiftly. Swiftly for government, that is. Since the real action is almost never out in the open where the mainstream media can see it, the most accurate and up-to-date government news site in Illinois on issues like these is the Capitol Fax state politics blog maintained by Rich Miller.

Miller has been covering the Illinois General Assembly for nearly 20 years. Instead of working for the Trib or the Sun-Times, though, he puts out a daily newsletter called Capitol Fax. The name dates back to the early 90s when facsimile transmission was cutting-edge technology, and Miller's clients received the newsletter by fax. Subscription is several hundred dollars a year, and the clients tend to be public officials, lobbyists and others who need to keep up with legislative developments. It serves a market niche that is totally overlooked by the commercial (or "mainstream") media. Now I believe it's mostly online, and Miller posts the blog to the World Wide Web as sort of a sampler of what's available for subscribers. (He also has a weekly print column in Illinois Times and other print outlets statewide.) He's very well sourced -- knows all the players and has known them a long time -- and I've found him absolutely reliable.

Early this morning, he posted an item headed "Our day together." It was an open comment thread. Said Miller:

We’re going to take this Blagojevich arrest topic in steps. Each area will have its own post. Use this comment section to ask specific questions and I’ll try to answer them in subsequent posts. Thanks.

And try to avoid snark. Kinda busy today and really not in the mood. Keep your questions legit.

Also, sorry about the site performance yesterday. We were absolutely slammed with visitors and struggled all day to keep the blog accessible - to varying degrees of success.

One more thing. Y’all had ample opportunity to get your drive-by “I hate Rod” comments out of your system yesterday. Let’s try to keep a bit of decorum today as we discuss this very grave matter. If I have time, I’ll be deleting those comments. Don’t waste your time or mine.

Some of the comments follow:

• - observation - Wednesday, Dec 10, 08 @ 9:22 am:
  Rich - Congratulations on the great job you did yesterday with the coverage. Yes, sometimes the the traffic caused the site to be a bit slow, but that was to be expected with news of this magnitude. Nonetheless, CF hung in there while other sites crashed. Kudos, and thanks!!!
  
  
• - MSM'er - Wednesday, Dec 10, 08 @ 9:28 am:
  Rich, I’d like to add my voice to the chorus singing praise about the fantastic job you did yesterday. I’ve worked on a lot of big breaking stories over the years. I was blown away by the depth on the blog — links, aggregation, commentary, background, analysis, feedback … Well done, my friend. Well done.
  
  
• - downstate hack - Wednesday, Dec 10, 08 @ 9:24 am:
  Rich, Thanks for your hard work on this eventful yet tragic happening. No joy in what happened but probably overdue looking at the Gov’s past. Truly a delusional character that needs to be removed from office ASAP by whatever means possible.
  
  
• - Ahem - Wednesday, Dec 10, 08 @ 9:43 am:
  I’m wondering when Pat Quinn can take over since it’s obvious that he needs to.
  
  
• - Niles Township - Wednesday, Dec 10, 08 @ 9:43 am:
  So with David Axelrod’s long time warm relations with Pat Quinn, do you think the Obama people will be pushing for a quick impeachment so that they remove the distraction and get a “better” senate pick with Quinn in charge? If so, do you see them actively working the halls, or staying as far away as they can? If Quinn makes the pick, here are my guesses in this order: Jesse Jr., Forrest Claypool, Danny Davis, Jan Schakowsky.
  
  
• - Macbeth - Wednesday, Dec 10, 08 @ 9:43 am:
  A question: Blago won’t resign, true — but how does he expect to run the day-to-day business? If I were working for him right now, I’d be *very* wary. I’m not sure I could (or would) take any advice or guidance from him at this point. How does he expect to work with his staff?
  
  
• - ZC - Wednesday, Dec 10, 08 @ 9:44 am:
  In terms of Lisa Madigan, not “appears likely” the feds told her to stay out - that’s a documented fact. Fitzgerald publicly released a letter in June of 2006 where he stated that the Blago administration had become the focus of ongoing federal investigations, and the letter asked Lisa Madigan to halt her own investigations into Blago’s administration, because they might get in the way of the federal probe. Lisa Madigan agreed to the request.
  
  You can see page one of this letter (courtesy of Cap Fax - great public archives, Rich!) at http://thecapitolfaxblog.com/usattylettr1.jpg.
  
  Can we bury this “where was Lisa?” meme, please?
  
  
• - Bill - Wednesday, Dec 10, 08 @ 9:46 am:
  I agree with Macbeth for the first time ever. Miller is obviously the dean of Springfield journalists.The way things are going he may soon be the only Springfield journalist. Where would we all be without CapFax?

Links for Chicago, Illinois legislative updates

As the Blagojevich story unfolded today, the best sources for updates were Rich Miller's Capitol Fax blog and the streaming audio on Chicago's WGN talk radio. They were ahead of the story on, respectively, the legislative front and in Chicago.

Footnote. I must have posted the item below, quoting Howard Kurtz' mention of wiretaps on Blagojevich, just before the story of his arrest made the Google news page.

Kurtz on Trib's Chapter 11, Blagojevich

Howard Kurtz has this report on the Chicago Tribune's bankruptcy in this morning's Washington Post. The Trib filed Monday for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Says Kurtz:

The Tribune bankruptcy is a stunner. So it took Sam Zell exactly one year after buying the place to go the Chapter 11 route. That's what happens when you take on a $13-billion debt load (and, in fairness, the economy tanks).

I don't see the L.A. Times or the Chicago Tribune or the Baltimore Sun or the company's TV stations going away, but they could get badly hurt in a bankruptcy reorganization. It's a harbinger of how bad things are in the business, with McClatchy putting the Miami Herald up for sale. Writing about newspapers is starting to feel like writing about the Detroit automakers.

"Tribune's problems were made significantly worse by the unusual $8.2 billion deal put together last year by Mr. Zell, which took the company private and nearly tripled its debt load, driving the company deeper into debt than any other major newspaper publisher," says the New York Times.

"The company has cut its staff and products, deeply and repeatedly, in an attempt to stay ahead of debt payments. In May, it also sold one of its most profitable newspapers, Newsday, to Cablevision for $650 million."

And this telling sentence: "Mr. Zell took control of the company on Dec. 20, 2007, and installed top managers who, like him, had no background in newspapers."

The L.A. Times points out "parallel troubles afflicting many other newspaper and broadcasting companies nationwide: In recent weeks, the McClatchy newspaper chain put its Miami Herald up for sale, the Christian Science Monitor said it would abandon daily print publication in favor of Web operation, the Philadelphia Inquirer and Minneapolis Star-Tribune have flirted with or entered default, and the New York Times said it would mortgage its headquarters skyscraper in midtown Manhattan to help cover operating costs."

Immediately following is this squib:

Back to politics: Illinois politics is starting to reek, as we see in this Tribune report:

"A three-year federal corruption investigation of pay-to-play politics in Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration has expanded to include his impending selection of a new U.S. senator to succeed President-elect Barack Obama, the Tribune has learned."

Blagojevich's reaction: "I should say if anybody wants to tape my conversations, go right ahead, feel free to do it. I appreciate anybody who wants to tape me openly and notoriously, and those who feel like they want to sneakily, and wear taping devices, I would remind them that it kind of smells like Nixon and Watergate."

Uh, Nixon taped himself, Governor.

Yep, that's what Blagojevich said. But I'd question Kurtz' assertion that "Illinois politics is starting to reek."

Student Newspaper Survival Blog

http://collegenewspaper.blogspot.com/

The Student Newspaper Survival Blog is a collection of news reports, commentaries and tips on the craft of college newspapering. It's designed to inspire student editors, reporters, page designers, photographers, cartoonists, columnists and critics-- as well as the advisers and business managers who help them.

* * *

This blog is a companion to The Student Newspaper Survival Guide [by Rachele Kanigel is an assistant professor of journalism at San Francisco State University], a handbook about putting out a college newspaper. The book, published by Blackwell Publishing, is now used in college newspaper offices around the country. For more information about the book, or to order a copy, go to Collegenewspaper.org.

Resource: http://www.knightdigitalmediacenter.org/home/

http://www.knightdigitalmediacenter.org/home/

The Knight Digital Media Center at USC Annenberg provides competitive fellowships for New Media journalists seeking to improve their critical thinking and beat reporting skills as well as help for the newsroom leader managing change in a dynamic era.

Ho ho ho -- Father Christmas' brand in England

From today's Guardian (U.K.) ... a happy little Christmas story that delves into branding issues. It's about a Father Christmas (Santa Claus) in Lapland theme park in the Midlands district in the north of England that "promis[es] 'a magical encounter' with the bearded man himself, amid a winter wonderland of elves, reindeer, huskies, real snow and a dancing spectacular on ice" without going all the way to Lapland, the part of Europe closest to the North Pole.

That's what the kiddies are promised. What they get, according to The Guardian, is "several marquees in a muddy field normally used for car boot sales, which overlooks the M54 [superhighway]."

A translation: In England, car boot sales are like what we call flea markets in the U.S.

Ho ho ho.

Read The Guardian's account. If it doesn't put you in the Christmas spirit, nothing will. Well, maybe this will ... it's Kirsty MacColl and the Pogues, the English/Irish punk band, singing "Fairytale of New York>"

Ho ho ho again.

Not laughing was the proprietor of another Lapland theme park in Kent, closer to London than the two in the Midlands:

Mike Battle, who runs Lapland UK, a theme park in Kent that is separate from both the New Forest and West Midlands versions, claimed that his idea had been copied. Lapland UK, a £3m development near Tunbridge Wells, was launched last year, claiming it offered the magic of Father Christmas's Arctic home without the environmental (or financial) cost of a four-hour flight to Finland. For £55 a ticket, Lapland UK includes home-cooked food, ice skating and an assurance Father Christmas's promises won't be broken - Santa is informed about stocking requests via an online questionnaire for parents.

"I was keen to create a brand that was seen as a safe pair of hands for children's dreams," he said. "Some of these other people have thought: 'That's a very good idea'. And they've copied me."

What a community organizer does

The best line to come out of all the post-election analysis may be this from a think piece by Todd Gitlin on the Atlantic.com website. Well, it's not quite his line. It's a quote-within-a-quote:

On November 5, the best post mortem line to appear on the Web was this, on a tennis blog: “Do you think Sarah Palin understands what a community organizer does now?“

Gitlin's reference, of course was to Palin's Sept. 4 acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. That's when she said, "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities," to what USA Today called an "an eruption of cheers."

Gitlin's point: Community organizers, among other things, win elections.

For Obama there seems never to have been anything wispy or romantic about community organizing. “Issues, action, power, self-interest,” he wrote of his introduction to the endeavor. “I liked these concepts. They bespoke a certain hardheadedness, a worldly lack of sentiment; politics, not religion.” Obama’s account of his organizing years, taking up fully one-third the pages of Dreams from My Father, is extraordinarily vivid and devoid of self-puffery. He learns the limits of community organizing, but also learns that he’s got the knack. He learns how to size up campaigners and opponents, figure out who they are and what they might become. He dissects the rewards and travails. He works out how to splice together coalitions; psyches out what constituents need and will tolerate; convinces them to leverage their strengths, to work in unison and not at cross purposes; and not least, learns from mistakes. He knows that an organizer is not necessarily a barnburner—not necessarily eloquent or quotable, but first of all a listener. He proves himself modest and trustworthy. He educates. He encourages frequently quarrelsome individuals to align their interests in a common direction. He works with the people he has, not the people he wishes he had. He makes deals. He knows he must deliver results— job training, college prep tutoring, a tenants' rights group—to bind people for the next efforts. If you don’t like his direction, you call him calculating and opportunistic. If you approve, you call him strategic and sage. Either way, Obama the organizer never sold out when he went into politics; he was into politics all along.

O'Bama go bragh!

Irish singer Shay Black sings "There's No one as Irish as Barack Obama" at Berkeley's Starry Plough Irish Session
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EADUQWKoVek

Irish television report on Obama's ancestery in Moneygall, County Offlay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcQiiLpNf2Q

German television service ZDF (Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen) has a nice report, with lots of good visi=uals at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yixqi1nRm14. Unfortunately (for most of us), it's in German. But the pictures are nice.

And a story in The Irish Times at http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/1105/breaking1.htm

Ronan McGreevy in Moneygall, where It was already Wednesday, Nov. 5, when the returns from California put Obama over the top. He set the scene:

The cup nestled under an American flag and the walls of the pub, one of only two in the village, were plastered with Obama posters.

For many the celebrations were simply a continuation from the all night Sunday and all day Monday routine which follows a historic county final win.

The Hardy Drew and the Nancy Boys made an appearance singing that song There's no one as Irish as Barack O'Bama. If you haven't heard it yet, you may hear nothing else for the next four years.

Cup? What's this about a cup. McGreevy explained the local folks had two victories to celebrate, Obama's and a junior hurling (Irish football) team that won a championship match in neighboring Co. Tipperary:

Ever since diligent research by local Church of Ireland priest Stephen Neill revealed the improbable link between Mr Obama and his great-great-great grandfather Fulmouth Kearney who left Moneygall in 1850, they were preparing for an epic night, and it isn't the first one they've had this week.

Moneygall might geographically be in Offaly, but spiritually and sportingly it is in Tipperary and the junior hurlers were still celebrating the club's first ever county title which they won at the death by a point on Sunday.