Editorial: Let Edgar mediate a state budget agreement

We've got a job for former Gov. Jim Edgar. Get between Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Democratic leadership and mediate until Illinois has a budget.

Clearly it's time for third party intervention. There's been no full budget for 11 months and millions of Illinoisans are suffering. The parties are getting practically nowhere on their own and the situation has devolved into derisive name calling - the last resort of desperate people who feel they have nothing left to lose. That's a dangerous place to be.

Clearly, Edgar is thinking about this. He opposes the short-term budget that right now seems like the only solution possible. He has suggested publicly that both sides dial back the rhetoric and that the governor set aside his Turnaround Agenda until a budget compromise can be reached. He downplays his own importance - "Nothing is worse than an old governor telling a new governor what to do," he deadpanned this week.

Edgar, governor from 1991-1999, is a downstate Republican who talks to Democrats. He remains a well-respected and even popular figure in Illinois, on both sides of the aisle. He understands the process and knows the players.

Maybe his biggest qualification is he's not running for anything anymore.

As he approaches 70 next month Edgar's legacy of public service in Illinois is solid, if a bit on the wonky side. If he can get Rauner and Michael Madigan to compromise on a budget, that legacy would get a significant polish - not to mention the thanks of a grateful state.

Edgar is not asking for this, no sane person probably would.

Bringing in Edgar - or someone - may feel tantamount to both Rauner and Madigan admitting failure. So be it. That failure is evident to Illinoisans, and gets worse every week. And in agreeing to mediate, both the governor and Madigan would recognize the need to give something up.

That's the process needed now, led by a cool head who can doggedly shuffle between the parties and get a little something here and a something there until finally, grudgingly, a budget probably nobody likes entirely is somehow hammered out.

Edgar can be the cool head. He knows something about compromise - his Edgar Fellows initiative at the University of Illinois is all about teaching the art, and value, of compromise.

It's an art Illinois' current leaders appear unwilling or unable to master. Perhaps, the Edgar example could help them acquire and apply it.