(Graphic: It’s been a quiet few weeks…not.)

As I dig myself out from my blogging hibernation of the past few weeks here on Chicago Carless, things have been a bit more steady over on my ChicagoNow blogosphere-watcher byline, Chicagosphere. If you know one thing about me from reading Carless, I’m not half shy about sharing my opinion.

Keeping that in mind, today on Chicagosphere I asked whether the Chicago Sun-Times union truly understands the endgame faced by their paper and journalism in general, calling out the Chicago Reader’s Michael Miner along the way for suggesting that columnists be forced to ditch commentary in favor of strict news analysis. (There’s nothing I find more tiresome than yet another reporter throwing the rest of the world under the bus for the failings of their own field.)

Of course you know, that’s not the only viewpoint I’ve shared recently. If you’re son inclined, I invite you to browse through my recent Chicagosphere columns (as usual, you probably should buckle-up, first):

Why the Sun-Times Deserves to Die
Last week, Chicago Newspaper Guild members working at the Sun-Times rejected the conditions of a last-ditch rescue effort for the tabloid. Does Chicago’s #2 paper have to go out of business for journalists to finally understand their profession has no bargaining power left? And just how many boring, finger-pointing columns does the news-reading public have to sift through before reporters finally take responsibility for their own livelihoods?

Columnists on Chris Kelly
Many local columnists covered the unexpected death of former Blagojevich croney Chris Kelly. Most rehashed their own words or the words of others. But a few really nailed the sad, simple nature of the situation.

Now on Sale: Social Media Management?
Frequently, nonprofits try to save money by eschewing PR strategy and handing over their all-important social media outreach efforts to neophyte college interns. You know what? You get what you pay for.

Chicago Online News: The Best of What’s Left
In the wake of the shutdown of the Chitown Daily News, I look at the the Windy City’s remaining sources of online news–and continue to caution local bloggers against relying on foundation money for long-term sustainability.

Analyzing Helen Shiller’s Response to the Uptown Riot Controversy
In late August, 46th Ward alderman Helen Shiller released an amazingly tardy, poorly worded response on the controversy generated by last month’s video of a riot in the Uptown community. I put on my PR strategist had and picked apart Shiller’s statement paragraph by paragraph looking–in vain–for evidence of responsible governance.

Why the Everyblock Sale Matters: Chicago Foundations Pass the Buck on Sustainability
Everyblock was lucky to be bought out my MSNBC.com. But the result might have been different if a savior hadn’t shown up after the Knight Foundation walked away at the end of its grant agreement.

(Photo: Don’t worry folks, he still hasn’t let you down.  Really. Really! Hey, aren’t you listening…anymore?)

UPDATE 2/2/09: Welcome to my readers today from Windy Citizen!

Speaking as an Illinois citizen, ever since former-Governor Rod Blagojevich’s arrest in December on corruption charges, I’ve been sure of one thing and one thing only about the man.  That surety grew almost daily as I watched every maddeningly misstepped move Herr Hair made right up until his impeachment and (I hear a chorus of angels just from writing this) his lifetime banishment from public office last week.

My confident opinion has nothing to do with Blago always wanting to have the last word, come out on top, or find some angle for personal profit. On the contrary, you could use the same words to describe a lot of politicians, especially in this Land of Lincoln we’ve got going here.

No, what I’m pretty sure of is something simpler and far more obvious: Rod Blagojevich is batshit bonkers. Now, no one could know that for certain except a trained psychiatric expert in bonkersosity, and I doubt Blago’s hubris would ever let him get near one of those. But his actions definitely offer a good working definition of someone who should henceforth probably avoid any and all butterfly nets and rooms with soft walls and heavy locks.

No matter what we said to or about him–and that’s getting to be a collective, humanity-wide we at this point–as Illinois voters, elected officials, and media observers, he always acted as if none of our input ever occurred. He did his own thing.  He jogged to the rhythm of a different drummer. He did everything wrong, but for all the right reasons. At least in his head, if not in actual, three-dimensional reality.

Maybe he’s faking it. I don’t know. But if any other politicians out there want to go similarly bonkers to further yet another inscrutable personal aim, I’ve been giving the subject a lot of thought. In my humble opinion, here are the rules to follow for any politico to bring out their inner, batshit Blago:

1. Completely disengage yourself from reality. Wearing helmet hair in public for six years would be fabulous evidence of this.
2. Refuse to believe anything you hear is true unless you agree with it. If you don’t agree with something you’re told, it can’t be true. No matter who says it to you. No matter how many times they say it. Sticking your fingers in your ears and going, “La, La, La, La,” may be a helpful aid in this regard.
3. Use your own opinion and only your own opinion to judge your personal conduct.Reject all outside opinions that differ from your own. Remember, anything you don’t agree with isn’t true (see rule #2)–even if it’s the considered opinion of the people who elected you, the people who may throw you out of office, or the people who are trying to keep you out of jail.
4. When you’re arrested on federal corruption charges, make sure you’re led away in a jogging suit. No one will recognize you handcuffed in the back of an F.B.I. vehicle in a jogging suit.  Except newspaper photographers, but the hair’s already coiffed as per rule #1, so why worry?
5. Refuse to resign.
6. Refuse to resign.
7. Refuse to resign.
8. Ignore the suggestions of an entire State legislature and the President of the United States and appoint an abject buffoon to the Senate. As per rule #3, you’re not open to suggestion anyway. Well, except for those pesky voices in your head that have been  screaming, “It shoulda’ been me!  It shoulda’ been me!” since Obama won the White House.
9. Label your political detractors a shady cabal whose nefarious end is to steal your power and ram through a mythical tax increase. Which is fine, as long as they don’t touch the hairbrush. Or mention all those unfunded mandates.
10. Hire high-powered attorney.
11. Ignore advice of high-powered attorney.
12. Lose high-powered attorney.
13. Replace attorney with public relations firm representing America’s professional widower.
14. Believe from the bottom of your heart that appearing on a week’s worth of talk shows in another state is a better defense than actually showing up at your own impeachment trial.
15. Again as per rule #2, reject the idea that when national opinion leaders like Barbara Walters and the other gals from The View treat you on live television like you’re a lying sack of dog poo with no sense or morals to speak of, millions of Americans will probably follow their lead. You know, since they’re national opinion leaders?
16. Beg the media for help, making sure you’ve already threatened, screwed, and/or pissed off the media first. Don’t worry about any negative editorials that might ensue. You don’t agree with them anyway so they can’t be true (yet again, see rule #2) and, hey, maybe they’ll use a good accompanying shot of your hair.
17. Refuse to acknowledge that the outcomes of rules #14, #15, and #16 might be due to your poor personal judgment pursuant to rules #10, #11, #12, and #13.
18. Don’t bother to write your final-defense speech when you finally realize how badly your national P.R. tour backfired and, instead, ramble for 47 minutes before the appropriate tribunal of judgment that is about to levy the political death penalty on your public career.
19. When it’s all said and done, continue to make public appearances telling your former constituents that you haven’t let them down. Hugging a boy with a dog as you do so would make for some nice B-roll, too.
20. Above all, don’t even notice at this point that no one’s listening anymore.

To make rule #20 easier to pull off, best make sure you’re still keeping up with rule #1–your complete disengagement from reality. If you are, you probably won’t even notice all those crickets chirping.

I’m sure Blago doesn’t hear them.  But if I were him, I wouldn’t be too quick to ignore their plaintive song.  No sir. I’d sit down with them and campaign, maybe propose an unfunded mandate to offer their larvae a free health plan.  I mean, you’ve got to start over somewhere.  Small steps.  Small steps.

After all, it’s not like we’re ever going to believe, respect, or elect your lying sack of shit, fully disingenuous, totally self-serving, morally bankrupt, enormously power-crazed, and in all likelihood borderline sociopathic heinous ass in this State again.  Oops, was that my outside voice?

Yes.

(Photo: Can I get this in a wallet size? Credit: jburwen.)

If you want to succeed in American politics these days, there are three rules you should probably never break: don’t disappoint Oprah; don’t pick a podunk running mate; and don’t screw the news media.

When our official state idiot, Rod Blagojevich, asked Illinois newspapers on Friday to help defend him from what he (amazingly enough) still believes to be an unfair impeachment process, his cheek must have been bleeding from how far his tongue was stuck in it. After all, trying to axe the Chicago Tribune editorial board was one of the things that helped the governor end up at the end of his political career in the first place.

I doubt he expected print media would run to his aid.  Why else would he be embarking on a full-court television press binge? According to a weekend of promos, today, he’ll give his exclusive first TV interview to ABC’s Good Morning America.  Except that–Oops!–yesterday he sat down with NBC for interviews on Sunday Today and NBC Nightly News, effectively screwing ABC.

And, of course, he’s thumbing his nose at the State Legislature by choosing to appear in person today on ABC’s The View and CNN’s Larry King Live rather than show up for the start of his own impeachment trial. If he expects any less blood to be drawn by Barbara Walters and company, he deserves whatever publicly televised throttling he gets.

I used to wonder what possessed Blagojevich to consistently slap in the face those from whom he sought favors.  Now, however, I watch with glee as he gives the world example after glaring, enormous example of how not to be your own best publicist. For one thing, his victim metaphors are ridiculous.  Comparing himself to Nelson Mandela is laughable, and likening his federal arrest on corruption charges to the attack on Pearl Harbor managed to piss off downstate veterans groups.

For another, his “cowboy” behavior (another Blagojevich self-reference) is losing him his legal team. When top attorney Edward Genson quit the governor’s federal case on Friday, he told the media, “I never require a client to do what I say. But I do require them to at least listen.”

Now the news is Blago’s hired a top public relations firm. They’re the same team that’s been representing official state widower Drew Peterson, so they obviously have a sense of humor. They’ll need it.  No amount of PR can make up for a client who thinks he knows better than the professionals he surrounds himself with (but, oh so obviously doesn’t).

Perhaps he thinks hiring a powerhouse PR firm removes him somehow from taking responsibility for his own actions? Makes everything all better like the waving of some magic political wand? I bet he thought the same thing when he hired that powerhouse lawyer. I wonder whether the PR firm lasts half as long. At least Peterson listens to his handlers.

As for those newspaper editorial boards? The following editorial responses published since Friday show just how much they’re willing to ride in and save our cowboy governor. Or more to the point, string him up. You can’t say he didn’t have it coming. Like my mom always said, folks, don’t shit where you eat…

_____

Gov’s plea: Save me, We say: Save yourself  (Chicago Sun-Times)
“Blagojevich should be afforded every reasonable opportunity to make his case, but if he declines to participate and the verdict goes against him, he has no one to blame but himself.”

Thanks, Governor (Chicago Tribune)
“We’re relieved that the governor of Illinois took time Friday to express renewed faith in the Tribune editorial board. One of the last times he voiced his thoughts about us—according to an FBI recording of Nov. 4—we sensed that he was distancing himself…You were correct Friday in observing that the Chicago Tribune has a history of siding with victims of unfairness. In this case, those victims are the citizens of Illinois—not the governor who repeatedly abused them.”

‘Poor me’ (Chicago Tribune)
“And when this diversionary attempt falls flat, then what? What stunt comes next? What will a fading figure who is determined to be the center of attention do to avoid honestly confronting how egregiously he has betrayed the citizens of this state?”

As impeachment trial nears, ‘bizarre’ is word of day (Bloomington Pantagraph)
“The real ’sham’ is Blagojevich supposedly telling his attorneys he would step aside if he was causing harm to Illinois, yet steadfastly clinging to his seat despite the obvious harm—from the increased cost of borrowing money to the diversion of attention from other serious problems facing Illinois.”

Governor, do you know the meaning of “unfair”? (Eastern Illinois University Daily Eastern)
“It’s a good thing George W. Bush was in office at the same time. Otherwise Blago might look foolish…After six years of the same tired nonsense, the Illinois legislature is finally doing what is fair: Your removal from office couldn’t possibly come sooner.”

Sorry, governor, we’re not writing what you want (Galesburg Register-Mail)
“You have not acted in good faith. Your appearance on television Friday was, as usual, a sham filled with distortions and outright lies, designed to dupe a national audience not familiar with the details of the careful process crafted here in Springfield.”

Another helping of transparent buffoonery from Blagojevich (Peoria Journal-Star)
“We hope that no one in Illinois is falling for any of this. Rod Blagojevich has become a pathetic, self-pitying buffoon, a caricature of himself, utterly incapable of governing the state. The sooner he is gone, the better off Illinois will be.”

Seriously, Governor? (Quad-City Times)
“On Friday, he asked editorial writers to back his contention that he was being railroaded by his own party’s majority in the legislature. Good luck with that, governor. We’ll get back to you.”

Cowboy governor continues to fight with guns a’blazin (Rockford Register Star)
“Gov. Rod Blagojevich asked us to write an editorial, really he did, but we doubt he wanted this editorial…We’d like to see the governor ride off into the sunset, but that won’t happen until the Senate completes the impeachment process.”

Governor has a lot of gall to suggest lack of fairness (Sauk Valley News Service)
“Faced with his unfair pattern of governing, this impeached governor has a lot of gall to complain about purported unfair treatment toward himself…The truth of the old saying was never more evident: Turnabout is fair play.”

Our opinion: Proceed with impeachment without delay (Springfield State Journal-Register)
“In the case of Rod Blagojevich, the people of Illinois see clear evidence of gross misconduct and are happy to have him taken away. Governor, you have played these types of games with the legislature for six years. We hope you won’t be able to play them anymore in a few weeks.”

(Photo: A lack of compassion is never all it’s cracked up to be.)

Clout Gate.  I’m coining the term here and now.  I can’t think of any better reason than clout to explain why an Illinois governor elected on an anti-corruption platform and ending up under long-term federal investigation would think he could get away with disgraceful deeds the likes of which got Rod Blagojevich arrested in his jogging suit by the F.B.I. on Tuesday morning.

Anyone reading this outside of Illinois might take clout as a noun.  They would be mistaken.  In the Central Time Zone, clout is very definitely a verb.  Mike Royko, Chicago’s patron saint of news columnists, said it best back in 1973:

“What clout is in Chicago is political influence, as exercised through patronage, fixing, money, favors, and other traditional…methods.”

Clout is not the payoff.  Clout is putting out your hand to receive the envelope that you have no doubt will shortly be sitting in your palm.

There is no more clouted person in Illinois than its Governor.  For better or worse, even Mayor Daley knows that.  The State Constitution’s lack of a recall mechanism virtually guarantees that whatever antics are undertaken by the occupant of Springfield’s executive office will not generate real political consequences.

Not unless outrage brings clout out into the open.  That rarely happens.  In the history of Illinois, it’s never happened to this extent.

Clout is demanding the head of a children’s hospital make a donation to your re-election fund to free up millions of dollars in state aid.

Clout is shaking down a billionaire to pack the editorial board of a major American newspaper.

Clout is trying to sell the vacated Senate seat of America’s first black President-elect.  (And it’s also not a little bit stupid, considering it was the President-elect, himself, clouting for his preferred candidate.)

And while it may be a great friend to those who have it, it is an enemy of those who don’t.  For clout is a zero-sum game.  For those who swear by it to prosper, the sly-wink, under-the-table, knowing-nod means by which this happens means someone else is going to get screwed. Maybe a lot of people.  Unfairly. Illegally.

Because if clout could work the miracles that it does without causing harm and injustice, it would be out in the open.  There wouldn’t be a shadow market for political favors, much less a carpet-bagging federal prosecutor in long-term Windy City residence.

Clout has been considered natural law in these parts since long before anyone reading these words was born.  It is a myth that clout makes the world go ’round, yet lack of clout can stop your personal world in its tracks.

On its own, it does not make the sun set or the moon rise.  It is not responsible for the tides.  It makes no eternal breezes blow, though it can be responsible for the winds emerging from the mouthpieces of certain politicians.

Clout will not regrow your hair, remove your wrinkles, or reduce your turkey neck.  Nor, contrary to popular belief, will it rescind your erectile dysfunction.

Left unchecked, however, clout will seek to fulfill itself by taking advantage of everything in its path.  Good judgment.  Good government.  Social justice.  Citizenship.

Rolling full speed ahead, clout will trample compassion for your fellow man into the dust, barely breaking a sweat and feeling no remorse in the process.

When completely run amok, clout becomes an enemy to all. This week in Illinois, apparently even to those who have it.

It doesn’t have to be this way.  For clout is one thing more: it is a choice. Clout is neither handed down from God nor taught in school. Instead, it is a deliberate strategy of individuals too fearful of mind to believe in their own ability to succeed, and too cynical of heart to understand that violating another is never done without God–and occasionally Patrick Fitzgerald–watching.

In this, it is a problem of an entire society.  Is it really any wonder that elected leaders, appointed officials, and duly sworn functionaries would come to believe that growing their personal wealth is a function of raping the public weal in a world where most of us cannot say words like love, honesty, and compassion with a straight face?

Clout will remain the scourge of civil society in the Great State of Illinois and elsewhere until we–as an electorate and as a people–realize the miracles we are capable of making happen every day from now until forever by merely standing together instead of tearing each other apart.

And as long as clout remains unchallenged, it will also remain the reason for the sudden waning of Chicago’s equally sudden waxing of credibility on the national stage. Because the coattails of Obama’s hometown media spotlight will stick around long after he’s gone away to Washington.

And maybe long after Blagojevich goes away to prison, too.

(Photo: The Chicago Tribune has had enough of allegedly virile Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.)

I swear I almost did a spit-take with my coffee when I read it: an editorial in Sunday’s Chicago Tribune suggesting that the Illinois constitution be rewritten to allow for the recall of Governor Rod Blagojevich. The paper didn’t mince words:

“The Blagojevich experience suggests that the answer is yes, Illinois should write a recall mechanism into its constitution. Having endured the Blagojevich era, we believe voters never should have to endure another one like it. They instead should have the power to recall an inept governor…Blagojevich is an intentionally divisive governor and a profoundly unhelpful influence…He is the governor who cannot govern.”

Did you get all that? And here I thought it was just me.

When your most respected–not to mention most conservative–citywide daily labels the governor as “inept” and calls for the state’s founding document to be rewritten to allow for his ouster, you know the status quo is straining to its limit.

Earlier this month, I opined that the potential death of Chicagoland mass transit might be Blago’s proud legacy–and not his much self-touted virility. My cheek was easily topped by the laundry list of gubernatorial embarrassments the Trib laid out yesterday, which also included the governor’s “self-diagnosed testicular virility”, along with:

–Unending federal and state investigations into cronyism and corruption;

–A total inability to move any legislation when his own Democratic party controls both houses of the state legislature;

–No solutions except for repeated lip service for public-school accountability and current and future state pension debt;

–Using taxpayers’ monies to bankroll plans and projects that have no legislative support (those additional casino licenses, anyone?); and

–Of course, the straw that likely broke the editors’ backs: the impending “implosion” of Chicago mass transit, due to the failure of government to act.

Boot Blago? I couldn’t agree more. I come from a State, New York, where the legislature tends not to be the same party as the governor, and in my 33 years as a resident there, the word “Doomsday” was never used in the same sentence as “public transit”.

Not long ago, the Chicago Reader wondered whether the Sun-Times would be able to follow-through on its newfound desire to be the progressive voice of Chicago. (Columns like yesterday’s ignorantly homophobic rant by Sun-Times editorial board writer Deborah Douglas leave me thinking no).

But on Sunday, at least, the progressive word was owned in this city by the Chicago Tribune. It was a brave and unexpected editorial. And it was about time someone said it.

So the Chicago Transit Authority has announced Doomsday once again, and not just one Doomsday, but two of them. What luck for Chicagoland transit riders who might miss the elimination of three dozen CTA bus routes in November! Now they’ll be able to enjoy the evaporation of the rest of the system on January 6.

Unless Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and the State Legislature get their act together in the next few weeks and finally fund the region’s wheezing transit system, up here in Chicagoland, also known as the economic big shoulders of Illinois and, to not a few downstate denizens yearning for a break from the soy fields, civilization, it’s going to get a lot harder for those shoulders to bear the weight of this pork-barrel state.

But let’s face it, dear fellow transit riders, this transit funding crisis is our own fault and it’s time we admitted it (do you hear that, well-meaning CTA Tattler?). No matter how good the transit funding plan that State Transportation Committee Chair Julie Hamos has put together and hustled up and down the statehouse in the past few months, Governor Blagojevich is determined to go down a different road. And isn’t that his prerogative as the governor?

Shame on Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and Illinois State Senate President Emil Jones for getting in his way, suggesting anything different, or holding the Hamos funding plan hostage because the governor doesn’t want to be a team player. I, for one, am mortified at the virtual pissing contest that continues to ensue among these, our top three statewide politicos.

Blago must know best, he is our primary state leader, after all. So in any statewide pissing contest, shouldn’t his penis take precedence? And with Mike and Emil not giving Blago’s prop the proper respect it deserves, doesn’t it then fall to us humble transit riders to offer Rod’s rod props if we ever have any hope of achieving satisfaction?

Yesterday at the Governor’s Mansion in Springfield, I sat down for a chat with the First Phallus to try and get at the root of the matter. I waited for what seemed like ages for the little dickens to finally come. But how, exactly, do you address a politically powerful disembodied body part? I began humbly.

Good afternoon Mr…?

“Subjects of the realm address me as Little Caesar the Great, lord of all I behold.”

Pardon me your Greatness. I thought Governor Blagojevich didn’t spend much time here in the Springfield mansion?

“The puppet lives in the northern land of Daley to keep an eye on things there. He is of little use to me here.”

But surely, oh Great One, a phallus without a brain cannot be as successful in politics as one actually attached to a body?

“That’s the trouble with you whole-body people, always thinking so linearly. Of what good would the rest of the governor be to me? As you know, all politicians are numb from the neck up.”

Of course, your Erectness. I have certainly lived long enough in Chicago to concede that point. So please tell me, oh Great and Powerful Little Caesar, what may we humble Chicagoland transit riders do to win your favor and beg you to save our dying transit system?

“Bring me the head of Michael Madigan.”

Surely, Sire, you don’t mean…?

“Yes, and the head of Emil Jones as well! Bring them to me with a ruler. Yes, a golden ruler! Bring them all to me so that I may prove once and for all that I am the greatest, largest, longest, most bulbous phallus in all the realm!”

Careful, oh Great One, with all that agitation, you’re falling off your telephone book! (I quickly smashed the glass out of a nearby emergency panel). Here, your Greatness, let me help you back to your seat with the Royal Emergency Tweezers–

“Silence! The Great and Powerful Little Caesar needs the help of no one! You and your transit-loving Chicagolanders will suffer for your impertinence!”

But, Great One, I was only trying to help.

“Insolence!”

Did anyone ever tell you you look taller on TV?

“Guards! Guards! Seize him!”

Having gotten little relief from the First Phallus and already running late, I beat a hasty retreat from the mansion and made my way over to the statehouse for a rendez-vous with the phalluses of Michael Madigan and Emil Jones. I was heartbroken to learn I had already missed them. Unfortunately, although assurances were made to me in writing that both phalluses would sit for an interview, as it turned out both members’ members came and exited prematurely.

But that didn’t surprise me one bit. As a Chicagoland transit rider, lately I’ve gotten used to an impotent local government that is embarrassingly unable to offer any lasting satisfaction beyond a well-documented string of broken promises.

(Photo: Frankly my dear transit rider, I don’t give a damn.)

When I moved to Chicago in 2003 and my white-collar job prospect petered out, I did time working in commission sales. It’s a pyrrhic profession for the uninitiated–unless you’re convincing (or conniving), it’s a race against time to avoid having to pay back the alleged salary you’re advanced in order to keep you living long enough to make more sales. For those with no other immediate choice, like I was, you’re grateful to have the job.

I suppose it’s a similar gratitude Governor Blagojevich expected from the RTA on Wednesday when he announced his support for a State Senate construction plan that would tie $200 million in transit funding to a new Chicago casino. But while some might find the most surprising part of the plan to be the idea of the fabled tenth casino license (not to mention unheard of licenses eleven and twelve) actually seeing the light of day, the real shocker for the RTA was the provision that if the region’s parent transit agency found a better source of funds, it would have to pay that $200 million back.

Responding to the proposal yesterday, according to the Sun-Times, the agency wasn’t amused. Well who would be? My mother used to call help like that doing a favor with a gun in your hand. Ordinarily, the RTA would have little choice but to accept every dollar it could to help forestall Chicagoland transit “doomsday“. That included the Governor’s recent, ad-hoc funding advance to keep the CTA running in one piece through early November. But should it include a proposal to actually reimburse emergency operating funds if and when other funds become available? And from where, exactly, does Blago expect those other funds to come?

Apparently from the same legislature floating the construction plan. According to the Sun-Times, Blago intends to front the $200 million to the RTA now to keep the CTA, Metra, and Pace running until the end of the year. After January 1, a new Democratic majority in the statehouse would finally be able to pass a transit-funding bill on its own–assumedly (for Blago) a bill that would include that pesky additional $200 million to help the RTA give said $200 million right back to the state.

Now I’ve heard a lot of creative funding schemes before, but I’ve sure never heard of a state lending money to its cities’ transit systems to keep them running, much less yanking the same money back later. I do, however, find politicians who will do whatever they can to preserve their political capital–also known as saving face–in the midst of a losing battle to be far less of a surprise.

Except the only real losers here are Chicagoland’s two-million transit riders, who continue to suffer through legislative gridlock and consistently uninspiring gubernatorial alleged attempts at aid, while their ability to simply get to work in six weeks still hangs in the balance.

It’s a real lesson in priorities, folks, and it’s transit riders who are getting it. If Blago backs down from his opposition to a sales-tax increase to support transit–even though his support would likely help get it passed and instantly fix Chicagoland’s transit-funding dilemma–he loses personal political traction. So better to let northern Illinois transit riders suffer for a few more months so that the legislature can finally do what he won’t.

In the end, Chicago gets its sales-tax increase anyway and Blago doesn’t have to take the blame for it. Transit riders are happy, and in the jubilation nobody remembers who it was who put them through unnecessary additional months of hell.

I’m impressed. Until now, I suspected there wasn’t much going on beneath Blago’s boyish coiff besides an impish grin and a propensity to hold a grudge. Throwing “heartless Machiavellian schemer” into the mix certainly makes me feel a lot better about the guy.