In the News

Belleville News-Democrat, May 12, 2008

That Emil Jones, what a kidder. The Illinois Senate president recently announced, "I need a pay raise," even though he now makes $91,869 a year. Then last week as he passed by a Senate colleague, he told reporters he had to "get me some food stamps."

With laughable leadership like that, no wonder the House and the Senate in particular have been so ineffective in conducting the vital business of the state.

Maybe Jones wants to create a sideshow so people won't think too much about whether lawmakers deserve a raise. Perhaps that was also the motivation for Sen. Rickey Hendron's bizarre, inappropriate comments last week.

Hendron accused fellow Democrat Sen. Susan Garrett of opposing the pay raises because she's "filthy rich." How sad that Hendron transformed a serious issue into petty personal attack. He also threatened to block pay raises for any lawmaker who vote against them. Yeah, that's the democratic way.

Whatever their motivation, Jones' and Hendron's outrageous behavior is more evidence, as if any were needed, that lawmakers have not earned a raise this year. A pay cut or firing would be more like it.