CBS TV Chicago reports:
Dictator. Madman. Unruly child. Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has been called all those and more and that's just by his fellow Democrats.No word yet from Dan Stefanski or John DiFronzo on the harsh attacks on the Governor.
A series of policy defeats and bitter confrontations has driven Blagojevich's relationship with Illinois legislators to a new low.
He's suing the speaker of the Illinois House over the timing of legislative sessions. He's being sued himself for launching health care programs without legislative approval. He broke his promise never to raise general taxes, which had been the bedrock of his political career.
Coupled with federal investigators sniffing around his administration, the situation leaves the second-term governor with few allies and little political strength.
Furious lawmakers accuse him of ignoring the legislative branch to score political points, most recently by blindsiding them with a proposal to give senior citizens free rides on mass transit. Many saw that as an attempt to distract the public from his reversal on taxes.
''We criticize guys like Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, who run their countries like dictators. Well, this isn't any different,'' Sen. Martin Sandoval, D-Chicago, said in debate Thursday. ''Today, we might as well just lock the doors up, forget about the legislative process and let Gov. Blagojevich write all our bills the way he wants them.''
Some legislators are calling for constitutional amendments to limit his veto authority and give voters the power to recall him.
Blagojevich, however, attributes any problems to ''natural tension between the legislative branch and the exeure got just enough legislative support to pass. Then he stunned everyone by using his amendatory veto powers to rewrite the legislation so that senior citizens could ride for free.
That meant the measure had to go back to the Legislature once again, where the whole deal might fall apart just to approve an idea that Blagojevich could have brought up months earlier.
Rep. Jack Franks, D-Woodstock, compared Blagojevich to an unsupervised 3-year-old touching everything with messy, chocolate-smeared fingers ''just gleefully running around making the biggest mess he possibly could and then leaving it for us to clean up.''
Beneath all the insults and accusations lies the fact that Blagojevich and legislators will, in all likelihood, have to work together for three more years. Unless they get along better, those years will produce little for Illinois.
''The morale is as low as the distrust is high, and that makes it tough for us to operate,'' said Rep. John Fritchey, D-Chicago.
But Blagojevich doesn't show any sign of changing his approach.
''I'd be a governor that I wouldn't like,'' he said, ''if I simply sat there afraid of the criticism.''
