Carol Marin on Obama and the Convention Vote
Rich Miller has a great post highlighting Carol Marin’s article on the Illinois Constitutional Convention.
But this debate over convening a constitutional convention, something voters will get to say yea or nay to on the November ballot, is simmering. And maybe it will boil, depending on the raging discontent of the citizens of this state.
Today’s special session of the Legislature in Springfield will only add to the outrage as Gov. Blagojevich and House Speaker Michael Madigan slug it out once again in a budget battle that has no end and a desperately needed capital plan that has no beginning.
Pierce, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn, and state legislators such as Rep. Jack Franks (D-Marengo) argue a Con Con is the only way to put important matters in the hands of citizens like the ability to recall public officials, a progressive income tax, merit selection of judges and term limits for the warring leadership in Springfield.
There is plenty of opposition. And not just from big unions and big business who don’t want their boats rocked.
Good government types such as former state Comptroller Dawn Clark Netsch and Ralph Martire of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability don’t believe a constitutional convention will solve the problems that now plague us.
“Most of the problems in Springfield,” said Netsch by phone Tuesday, “are not constitutional. It’s political. It’s ego. It’s power. It’s how much they all hate the governor and one another. They’re all a bunch of spoiled brats.”
What Martire and Netsch fail to point out is that the “brats” got that way because the Illinois Constitution has made it virtually impossible for good people to compete against an entrenched and “bratty” political class. Here is the incontrovertible truth. The leadership in Illinois will NEVER change until we have a convention. The low quality of leadership is a FUNCTION of our Constitution. It is NOT independent of our Constitution.
