Forgive me a brief indulgence in some Illinois politics: there was a special election today in Rahm Emanuel's old district. Twelve Democrats were running. Special elections are almost always hard to predict, and turnout will be low. Tonight, Cook County Board Member Mike Quigley won, and as Lynn Swe...

Dick Locher...

Some federal legislation is confusing and hard to evaluate. Sometimes it’s due to complexity - other times it’s because opponents create complexity to mislead the public. Congressman Peter Roskam recently decided to confuse what the recently passed stimulus package does - and then critic...

The Chicago Tribune’s editorial page has become such a montage of vaguely leftoid pastels that I hardly ever glance at it any more. Today, however, the ghost of Colonel McCormick seems to have possessed the editorial board, as it shouts forthrightly, “Roland Burris, Resign�: The benefit of the...

Actually, I do. I would gladly pay higher taxes if that meant that I and the rest of my community got better services. Especially at the city and state level. So I had to snort a little bit at Marcus Gilmer's Chicagoist post where he states that Illinois is a state "where we tax the shit out of ever...

Not only did Burris fail to mention that he was approached for a bribe by someone in the Blago camp.... but it now looks like he failed to mention an even more explosive fact - That he actually tried to pay the bribe. Lord Please Have Mercy!!!! This is why I was so skeptical and cautious about Burri...

[Cross-posted at Midwest High Speed Rail, Improving Amtrak Incrementally] Chicago Union Station, Great Hall Thursday, January 29th, 12:30 pm Contacts: Representative Elaine Nekritz, Chair of the Illinois House Rail Committee Paris Ervin, Illinois Department of Transportation Rick Harnish, Midwest Hi...

Thanks to Icebergslim for the updates on the Illinois Senate Seat Saga. From TPM: Durbin: We Still Won't Seat BurrisBy Eric Kleefeld - January 9, 2009, 5:25PMDick Durbin just made a very bold announcement, in the wake of the Illinois Supreme Court decision that Roland Burris does not need the Secret...

Uh huh. How it gets more interesting by the minute. According to the Chicago Sun-Times: Reid pressured Blagojevich not to appoint Jackson Jr. to Obama’s U.S. Senate seatJanuary 2, 2009 BY NATASHA KORECKI, CHRIS FUSCO AND LYNN SWEET Days before Gov. Blagojevich was charged with trying to sell Presi...

Notwithstanding the ingenious suggestions of various Volokh Conspiracy commenters, there are only two ways that the Senate can avoid seating Roland Burris. One is to persuade the Supreme Court to overrule Powell v. McCormack . That could happen, but liberals won’t be happy if it does. The rational...