January 31, 2009

BY CAROL MARIN Sun-Times Columnist

The children of public people always pay a price. Amy Blagojevich is 12 now but was only 5 when her dad was elected governor in 2002.

Her little sister, Annie, is almost 6 and has never known a time when her father was not governor.

Until now.

A team of us from the Sun-Times will be in the gallery Thursday as Rod Blagojevich delivers his closing argument before the Illinois Senate which is poised to remove him from office.
Anything is possible.
Will the governor decide to resign and deny lawmakers the satisfaction of removing him?
Will the state plane that took Blago into Springfield be there for his return to Chicago if he is stripped of his office? Or will the state police security detail that guards him?
Removal from office may mean the removal of all the perks and privileges..immediately.
And will a legislature that blamed Blagojevich for all of its logjams and fissures suddenly find they can once again move bills and get real business done under a newly sworn in Pat Quinn?
We'll find out.
Soon.

January 28, 2009

BY CAROL MARIN Sun-Times Columnist

With all due respect to friends in the national media, you didn't lay a glove on our gov.

While state senators were building the gallows in Springfield, Blago was gallivanting through the green rooms of New York, getting his Elvis hair tousled on "The View," looking all gee-whiz and relaxed on the couch with Whoopi and the girls.

January 24, 2009

BY CAROL MARIN Sun-Times Columnist

"No man is an island . . ."
----John Donne, Meditation XVII

Rod Blagojevich might have made John Donne revise his thinking.

The walls are closing in on our isolated governor. A former Golden Gloves boxer, he's in the ring alone, swinging wildly, bouncing off the ropes, punching the air. The first round of his latest media blitz began Friday on WLS radio's "Don Wade & Roma" show.

January 20, 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Maybe Barack Obama on this inauguration morning will spot a cluster of orange knit caps and matching scarves in the crowd. The wearers are students from the Illinois School for the Deaf.

Eighteen of them trekked from Downstate Jacksonville to Washington because they've heard, in their heads and hearts, the Obama call to action.

January 17, 2009

BY CAROL MARIN Sun-Times Columnist

I've left Springfield and re-packed my bags for Washington, D.C.

State capital, nation's capital.

Two historic news zones on separate planets as we both impeach and inaugurate, ready to remove a governor and welcome a new president.

January 14, 2009

BY CAROL MARIN Sun-Times Columnist

Mike Quigley, reformer and Cook County commissioner, believes he's got the best chance to win a March 3 special primary for Congress because of the percentages of the vote he's garnered over the years. And because he's Todd Stroger's persistent nightmare.

January 10, 2009

BY CAROL MARIN Sun-Times Columnist

Mayor Daley is spitting mad. Furious over Chicago Sun-Times/NBC5 News reports on a clout-heavy deal to buy site of the venerable Chicago Christian Industrial League, relocate the charity's homeless shelter and replace it with pricey condos. As a tragic consequence, a century-old mission may now go bankrupt at a time when its services are needed most.

January 7, 2009

BY CAROL MARIN Sun-Times Columnist

It's the people stories that grab us. Oprah, Blago, Burris.

Eyes may glaze over at too many policy points and the mind may not easily wrap itself around numbers that end in too many zeros, but the human drama draws us in.
» Click to enlarge image
Sun-Times columnist Carol Marin

The story, reported by Tim Novak in the Sun-Times tomorrow and previewed by Carol Marin at NBC5 tonight at 10 will focus on developers Bill Cellini, now indicted in the pay to play scandal, and Michael Marchese, Mayor Daley's best friend. It will also include Patti Blagojevich who now works for the Christian Industrial League. Please join us.

anuary 3, 2009

BY CAROL MARIN Sun-Times Columnist

Barack Obama jogged only slightly ahead of Rod Blagojevich across the news landscape of the past month, the glistening horizon of a new Camelot ahead, perhaps, but the jagged outline of the clouted city not far behind.

Obama and Blago are more than the yin and yang of Illinois politics. They represent, a la Jerry Seinfeld, the ultimate Bizarro plotline.