Mayor’s Row……….by Ned Mitchell
About the time a political observer and wag like myself thinks he has an election figured out along comes a story that just turns that thinking upside down. Governor Rod Blagojevich has 59 per cent of the population in Illinois that do not think he is doing a good job. Many of his friends are now under criminal indictment and I am sure there are quite a few more in the future. There is a scandal a week in that office. Attorney General Lisa Madigan almost always disagrees with the Governor and Comptroller Dan Hynes is always giving a different set of facts concerning the State’s inability to pay their bills in a timely manner. The future is bleak for Illinois and despite all of the reformer/unreformer’s many legal problems it looks as if he could be re-elected due mainly to the Republicans having the weakest candidate in decades. The Republicans cannot pull the trigger on this one unless more legal problems arrive on the Governor’s doorstep in the new few weeks.
I know you thought I was going to re-hash the race at the top and I am sorry to disappoint you but this next little tid bit is so good I just could not pass it up! I’m talking about the race for State Treasurer between Democrat Alexi Giannoulias and Republican State Senator Christine Radogno. As most of us know Giannoulias won a primary election bid against Illinois Democratic Party Chairman Mike Madigan’s handpicked guy. I’ll be the first to admit this is a rare event in Illinois politics. Here comes a young whipper snapper and dares to challenge Mike Madigan’s guy. Not only does he challenge him, he handily beats him. I find it extremely amusing that Madigan has endorsed the whole Democrat ticket with the exception of Giannoulias. In a very rare press conference Madigan was asked about this elephant sitting in the middle of the living room. Madigan gleefully told the press that he could not endorse Giannoulias because the bank owned by his family had made a loan to some sort of criminal. Since the primary Giannoulias has made several attempts to sit down and talk with Madigan to no avail.
An interesting question came from the press to Madigan and that was for him to explain how he could endorse a Governor for re-election while many of his cronies are either indicted or under investigation. Madigan refused to answer the question and promptly halted the press conference saying “no more questions.” This is where the rub comes in for most Democrats. If Mike Madigan cannot endorse the whole ticket how can he in good faith remain as chairman of the Democratic Party in Illinois?
Several months before the primary I had occasion to research this young Greek banker by the name of Giannoulias who had the audacity to challenge Mike Madigan. I liked what I saw and became the first elected official in Illinois to officially endorse his candidacy in public. Giannoulias called me one evening to thank me for the endorsement and went on to ask why I had readily agreed to do that. I replied that while I did not know much about him I was sick and tired of Mike Madigan calling the shots in Illinois and demanding all democrats march in lock step with him. I’ve had my run ins with Madigan in some of my own races and came up on the short end of the stick in those. Hey, what can I say, I owed Madigan a hit or two and being a big believer in the old adage that whatever comes around goes around, I thought he had it coming. The bottom line here is that if Mike Madigan cannot support the nominee of the Democrat Party he needs to get out of the way and let someone in who can do the job. It is the ultimate hypocrisy to endorse a Governor like Blagojevich with all of his legal problems and to turn your nose up at Giannoulias who is not under any investigations by anyone.
Giannoulias’ opponent keeps blabbing about loans made by his family bank and that is her whole campaign. I had the privilege to serve in the Illinois State Senate for a year and a half and served with Radogna. Let me tell you she had less than a stellar record and absolutely marched to the tune of the Republican big wigs who were calling the shots. This is a woman of considerable means financially who had no problem in denying funds for a hot breakfast for low income school students and a few days later joined the rest of her Republican cohorts in giving over $500 million dollars in tax breaks to a wealthy pal in the horse race business. It always disturbs me to hear Republicans talk about help for poor people, calling that welfare, but then turn around and give $500 million dollars away to a very wealthy businessman and not recognize that as corporate welfare. I know that is simplification on my part but that is the way I see it!
Here we have Democrat Party Chairman Mike Madigan asking the same questions of his own party’s candidate for Treasurer as does the Republican candidate. It does not get any more bizarre than that my friends!
We may not have a lot of things going for us here in Sesser but we do eat well! You can tell that by looking at some of us, me included! Over the weekend we had visitors in Sesser from as far away as Chicago and as close as Marion and Coello. I met up with several different folks at the newly opened Opera House Café at their Sunday dinner buffet. The fried chicken and side dishes are all outstanding. The dumplings are home made as are the pies, by Sesser resident Neva Sulser. Folks are driving to get to Sesser and while they are here they enjoy our food. We have Bruno’s Steakhouse for steaks and pasta, the Iron Horse Tavern has a complete menu, Anjo’s serves really great pizza and sandwiches, Taco Sombrero has great Mexican food, Subway has fantastic sandwiches, Casey’s has lots of food to go and in the summer the famous Custard Stand is serving their famous treats. You won’t find any better place around to have a great meal served by really great people than in Sesser. Join us in the near future at the restaurant of your choice.
Living in a small town certainly has it’s advantages and one of those is knowing friends and neighbors and having the time to visit with them from time to time. One such visit happened last week with me at the Dollar Store in Sesser. I came across Claude Hampleman and Leida Downen talking in the aisle. They were visiting and Claude filled me in on a story of how he knew Leida as well as he did. It seems that out in the country north of Sesser where Claude grew up one time his mother became ill. This was serious as mom did all of the cooking as Claude explained it to me. He said on the farm folks got up early and went outside to work an hour or two and then came in for a hearty breakfast. When Claude’s mother was sick in bed there was nobody around to make biscuits, the good home made kind. Leida, who was 12 at the time, was helping take care of Claude’s mother. Claude asked Leida if she knew how to make biscuits to which she replied yes, but you’ll have to pull a chair up to the cabinet so I can reach it to make them. Leida went on to explain that making biscuits was something every girl learned at an early age on the farm and it came in handy for the Hampleman family. Claude told me I did not have to repeat that story in the paper, but I thought it was a good story and we all had a laugh before parting company and going our separate ways. You don’t find that kind of friendship in a large city. I am thankful for the closeness we have in Sesser!
If you need us give us a call at 625-3611 or 625-5322 or write to nedmitchell@verizon.net or www.sesser.org or P O Box 277 Sesser, Illinois 62884.
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