Watch Full Screen slide show here.

-Drew

State Senator Kirk Dillard (R-Westmont), a veteran of fifteen years in the State Senate, debates and discusses the issues with show host and executive legal recruiter Jeff Berkowitz.

Senator Dillard previously held positions with the administrations of Gov. Thompson and Gov. Edgar– and as a judge on the Court of Claims. In addition to serving in the State Senate, he is a partner at the law firm of Locke, Lord Bissell & Liddell. Dillard lost, on Nov. 19, 2008, a close election for Senate Republican Leader to Senator Christine Radogno. For more about Senator Dillard, please go to: http://www.dillard.senategop.org/

Topics discussed on the show include the impact that social issue divisions, as they manifested themselves in the recent state senate leadership election, might have on future efforts to rebuild and unify the party, taxing and spending issues, including the size of the projected 2008-09 state budget deficit and how to fix it; education issues, including reform, spending, charters and vouchers; a capital budget and financing same; Should State GOP Chairman Andy McKenna, Jr. be removed; Will Gov. Blagojevich be indicted and/or impeached; Will Dillard run for a statewide position in 2010? and much, much more.

This Program was taped on November 23, 2008.

You can watch more episodes of Public Affairs at www.publicaffairstv.com

Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Monday rejected the strongest campaign fundraising restrictions state lawmakers have ever sent him, saying he is sending the bill back to the General Assembly with instructions to make it stronger.

Lawmakers immediately accused the governor of trying to stop their efforts to restrict his ability to raise money from people who get state contracts.

Blagojevich said he will use his amendatory veto power to re-write the legislation to include restrictions on legislative pay raises and lawmakers who have more than one job. At the same time, he signed an executive order that includes the fundraising restrictions in the bill lawmakers sent him. The order, which takes effect in January, also adds restrictions on lawmakers’ fundraising… (read full)

Joe Biden, Tim Kaine, or Evan Bayh?

Oh, you silly country rubes. There is not an audacious name in that bunch.

On Saturday, Barack Obama will return to the initial scene of his crimes against humanity with his vice presidential choice in tow.

That choice?

Does the phrase, “We’re putting the band back together,” mean anything to you, Chicago?

That’s right, Obama’s choice will be a friend to lobbyists big and small, the master of economic disaster, a man of few usually unintelligible words, and the man at whose ample teet Obama suckled for his seven vanilla years in the Illinois State Senate–I am of course talking about retiring State Senate President Emil Jones.

The campaign commercials write themselves: Let the Chicago Democrats do for America what they have done to Illinois.

While some may view this as the ultimate patronage hire, that take misses Emil Jones’ robust record as an agent of change.

Think of all of the change Illinois has realized during Jones’ tenure as Senate President and Governor Rod Blagojevich’s BFF.

For example, Illinois has shed 60,000 manufacturing jobs, currently enjoying an unemployment rate 28% higher than the national average.

Not convinced? What if I told you that Illinois is number one in the nation in its unfunded pension liability?

Still not sure Jones is the best choice?

Did I mention that Illinois is 44th in the nation in per capita income growth?

One has to appreciate how difficult it is to rack up numbers like that in a state with the logistical advantages, transportation infrastructure, corporate bases, and post-secondary educational institutions that exist in Illinois.

To achieve these changes, one must have the fortitude to stare down common sense policies and say, “Not on my watch.”

Jones has shown this willingness to discard conventional wisdom–and the laws of supply and demand. While other politicians offer up loose talk in support of higher taxes, onerous, job-killing regulations and politically expedient subsidies, Jones has always been a man of action.

So who better than Jones to ride point for Obama’s carbon tax and his capital gains tax increase and his income tax hike and… well, you get the idea.