wow. i HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you go down to the capitol tomorrow at three and watch it for yourself. you’d better get there early since burris will be there and i bet the place will be packed.
we got there today a little after three, and there was a good crowd watching. lots of press, at least about 30 people i’d guess. quite a few spectators, maybe 40 people, and most of them were guys in suits and ties. staff, said kevin. governor’s staff? if so, perhaps they should have been handing out their resumes. the youngish guy in front of me in a S&T was taking detailed notes and also looking at his blackberry a lot. a guy sitting in back of us smelled like he hadn’t washed in quite a while, and he was sketching the scene.
the hearing was riveting. when we first got there, rep. lang was reading from something and i wasn’t entirely focused on it and it seemed incredibly dry and boring and i thought, well, mom won’t tolerate this for very long.
but then he started reading from another document – this was a report to the IL inspector general, from the ethics review board. basically Lang read several findings about hiring practices at the Department of Employment Security. he stressed a few times that the governor’s office was in charge of all these hirings. they included: one person was hired to be a sign-language interpreter, even though during the job interview she said she didn’t know how to interpret. she not only got the job, but she got an extra $200/month because of her interpreting skills.
because the state has to give preference to hiring veterans, they hired people in a county where there weren’t any veterans and then moved them to cook county (where chicago is, in case you don’t live here in IL).
they hired someone as an intern because of that same veteran reason, and then the person was promoted eight months later to a position that would have had to give priority to veterans.
over and over again, it was all about rod giving jobs to people he wanted to give jobs to. people, i’m sure, who gave him plenty in return.
because the committee hadn’t heard yet about the possible release of some of blago’s actual tapes, that’s all they covered. but then the representatives asked questions, and this was equally as fascinating. i’d been thinking WHY DIDN’T ANYBODY KNOW ABOUT ALL THIS STUFF GOING ON? and that’s what Rep. Eddy asked. this report came out in 2004, and then the chicago tribune had some information about it in 2006, but the whole thing wasn’t given out to anybody because…it was confidential. it was only revealed now because “they” decided that the committee’s hearing trumped the confidentiality.
there was quite a bit of lively discussion about the ridiculousness of all this stuff being covered up for such a long time. at one point one of the representatives, a woman whose name i unfortunately can’t remember, rattled off a long list of the many things that we all know about rod’s scurrilous practices. and then she said “aren’t we beating a dead horse here?”
good point.
it was good stuff, and like i said, you should really go watch tomorrow if you can.
that’s all for now,
grace 2009