Illinois Politicians refuse to police themselves... what a surprise... not.

below is part of an article by Carol Marin, who is an ace, seasoned, and respected reporter for Chicago's Democratic leaning paper, the Sun Times. Over the course of the last few months, the political cabal here in Illinois has been pretending to put together a reform bill... what they ended up with was a lot of talk about how they were going to end to corruption, and . . . nothing. A bill that has been gutted of any use to voters. I hate to think of all the tax dollars wasted paying them for debating an issue. That is all they did. We paid for them to spew hot air about how rightous they were, when they knew from the start it was all a cynical ploy.

The only solution to this mess is a state wide, grass roots campaign, built around petitions to put this issue on the ballot. We need to stop believing the delusion that politicians will put their self-interests beneath those of their constituents. As voters, we need to use our powers. One of the most powerful ways to avoid having to bow down to the polticians fucked up games, is to petition.

From The June 3rd Suntimes, Carol Marin....

What passed the Senate --campaign finance reform -- was watered-down, loophole-ridden legislation. It gives House Speaker Michael Madigan -- the real governor of Illinois -- and Senate President John Cullerton even more power over passing out money to their favored candidates.

As this debate played out, plenty of you have tried your best to weigh in. You've called, written, faxed, and e-mailed (except to Madigan, who doesn't bother with e-mail).

So far, it hasn't made a difference, something Collins understands but doesn't happily accept. "We came from the view that after all the eloquence, all the scandal, that the sky was the limit," he said by phone Friday.

"The state" said Collins, "did not get what it deserved."

No, it didn't.

In just the last eight days, consider the news stories that have come our way while the Legislature has been in session:

• • A fund-raiser for Quinn offered "face-time" with the governor to donors who were encouraged to give a suggested $15,000. Quinn later called it unauthorized and a mistake.

• • Sen. Roland Burris offered yet another crazy, contradictory explanation of how newly released federal wiretaps on which he was recorded discussing campaign contributions weren't really "pay-to-play" conversations with Rod Blagojevich's fund-raiser brother even though they sounded exactly like "pay-to-play."

• • Ald. Isaac Carothers of the 29th Ward was indicted, like his alderman-father before him, for allegedly taking $40,000 worth of kickbacks from a clouted developer who allegedly funneled third- party political donations to Carothers' aunt, a Cook County judge.

All three stories, in one way or another, involve campaign cash.

Illinois is at or near the bottom of the national reform barrel when it comes to regulating political donations. But hey, it's right at the top of the list when it comes to legislative creativity. It pretends to regulate what political action committees or party leaders can give to candidates even though it puts absolutely no limits on "in-kind" contributions such as staff, television ads and direct mail.

While there are federal limits of $4,800 per election cycle, our "un-reform" limits are a laughable $20,000 for a state senator. Quinn is apparently so desperate to declare a reform victory that he's willing to say with a straight face that this is the best we can do.

It's not.

And a courageous member of the Democratic majority, Rep. Julie Hamos, made that clear in an impassioned speech Friday on the House floor, demanding to know why party loyalty should dictate that rank and file act "like lemmings" for their leadership.

If the House votes to support this un-reform bill on Saturday, she's clear: "It won't fool the public."

Below is a comment I left on her site.

What a surprise... Machiavelli lives on. Everyone should read that slim book, THE PRINCE, and see just how the politicians and others stay in power. The recipe is there, written hundreds of years ago. I always used to say that some neo-con gave Reagen A Machiavelli coloring book to explain his 'role' as president.

A Poltical Reform bill needs to be drafted by people outside of politcal offices, and put on a state ballot, where the voters can decide for themselves if they want reform.

Relying on these boofs to police themselves makes No Sense.

Mark Twain once said, "I don't vote. It only encourages them." Right now, we have a decent president because people decided to once again think that there might be some 'hope' in the voting booth. The politico's in Springfield are displaying the kind of behavior that destroys a democracy by making cynics of the sane.

Madigan and other entrenched forces of Machiavellian politics have given whoever runs against them a good speach or two, and with the two major newspapers in Chicago working hard to make the change toward open government and attacking corruption, progress might finally be made.

Obviously, if on such a simple issue, that everyone wants, the polticians still ignore the people, we have no real opposition party in Springfield to protect the interests of he voters. No, right now we have a crew of polticos from both parties who agree on one thing -- they will not pass any legislation that could harm their re-elections.

You have to wonder if only a new party, like the Greens, will be independent enough to do what the voters want, instead of whatever serves to get them re-elected?