Hug nothing more than playacting

Remember the hug? That astonishing moment a few weeks back in Denver when Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. managed to get House Speaker Michael J. Madigan to embrace his nemesis Gov. Rod Blagojevich?

Well, it certainly seems clear now it was no more than political theater. All the hope and promise of that union among top key Democrats really was just acting.

Blagojevich arrived late to the Democratic convention so that he could rewrite an ethics proposal and unveil it to a bunch of reporters who don't usually cover politics. They all were in Denver.

Then he left Denver early -- before Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's big acceptance speech -- to fly home to lay off 325 state workers and close 11 state parks and 13 historic sites.

This week, Madigan returned the favor. He convened House members to have them undo Blagojevich's ethics rewrite, reverse his budget cuts with no real means to fund them, and approve a plan to lease the state lottery to generate funds for a construction plan.

Madigan's counter move is baldfaced electioneering. Now, Madigan's Democrats can campaign saying they voted to repair the state's crumbling bridges. They can tell their union supporters they tried to create construction jobs. They voted to restore funding for addiction treatment facilities and deteriorating state landmarks.

And, of course, they stuck it to the governor Madigan has come to love to hate. None of the moves will matter -- and none of the problems will be solved -- because the Illinois Senate has not acted on the House votes and Senate President Emil Jones, a Blagojevich ally, has no intention of calling his members to session to consider the House votes.

So, we still have no solution nor funding for our crumbling infrastructure. We are left with laid-off workers and closed state historic sites. And we still have no attempt at improving the corrupt political system in this state. The original ethics proposal would have prohibited firms with state contracts from donating to those politicians who award the contracts. The governor rewrote it so that most state officeholders also could not double dip and hold other government jobs. Illinois would have benefited from both, but now likely will get neither any time soon.

And, as if all that isn't rich enough, Blagojevich's spokesman Lucio Guerrero called the House moves "self-serving,"

The House votes were indeed self-serving, but that's a priceless comment coming on behalf of a governor whose own administration is under federal investigation over suspicion its members have rewarded campaign contributors with contracts and jobs. It was Blagojevich who was so self-serving that he rewrote the bill and fired state workers while all the attention was on his own state's national presidential nominee, Obama.

That hug was something. And now we all know. We were always the ones being squeezed.