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?