May 2009 Archives

May 30, 2009

BY CAROL MARIN Sun-Times Columnist

On Friday morning, Cindi Canary's voice said it all, sounding notes of defeat, disgust, and fury.

"I feel scammed," said the executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.

May 27, 2009

BY CAROL MARIN Sun-Times Columnist

Gov. Quinn is too low-key for me. I think he's an able and decent man. But for all those decades he has been on the political fringe, a gadfly on the outside looking in, perhaps he has spent too much time being reactive rather than pro-active.

Quinn now navigates a make-or-break week in Springfield, facing down plagues of near-biblical proportions: the budget emergency, the pension crisis and the screaming need for comprehensive ethics reform.

May 23, 2009

BY CAROL MARIN Sun-Times Columnist

Prime time producers at NBC are missing the boat. They should be camped out in Springfield next week, home of the Illinois Legislature, plotting their next pilot.

Forget "I'm A Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here" with the stoic, long-suffering Patti Blagojevich and her feckless sidekick, Goofy Governor Rod. That's so yesterday.

Governor Pat Quinn's doomsday warning and reaction for a former governor and a former gubernatorial candidate...Watch it all on NBC5 at 6PM...I'll have a report on that and then at 7P on Channel 11/WTTW's Chicago Tonight, the prospects of Todd Stroger's veto being upheld on the repeal of the county's sales tax hike.
Join me for both!

May 16, 2009

CAROL MARIN cmarin@suntimes.com

"There are no other cases, this is the case."

Paul Newman as attorney Frank Galvin in "The Verdict"

You readers get it, even if lawmakers in Springfield wish you didn't.

May 13, 2009

BY CAROL MARIN Sun-Times Columnist

Sheila Simon needed a hot shower when we talked on Tuesday.

It was a reminder that sometimes the small stuff becomes the big stuff.

I was calling about reforming Illinois, the only subject I will write about until the Legislature in Springfield adjourns at the end of the month. And I was calling Simon because -- besides being a law professor, a former elected officeholder and the daughter of the late Sen. Paul Simon -- she is a member of the Illinois Reform Commission.

May 9, 2009

BY CAROL MARIN Sun-Times Columnist

The most respected and/or feared politician in the state, House Speaker Michael Madigan, had it exactly right 11 years ago.

Let's jump into the Reform Time Machine.

That's one of the many questions we'll explore tonight at 7PM on WTTW's "Chicago Tonight".
Joining us will be Cook County Commissioners Gorman, Suffredin, Schneider and Gainer.

May 6, 2009

BY CAROL MARIN Sun-Times Columnist

If we cared about ethics reform in Illinois the way we do about outrageous privatized parking meters in Chicago, we'd be in full boycott mode right now.

We are not.

Tonight, on WTTW's Chicago Tonight @ 7PM!
Join Carol Marin and a panel of experts.

May 2, 2009

BY CAROL MARIN Sun-Times Columnist

There's a lot of chatter about who will run for Illinois governor in 2010.

The removal of Gov. Rod Blagojevich and installation of Pat Quinn has momentarily frozen potential opponents in place, but some are ramped up and ready.