so we get to be team i'm just kidding my good friend  i also live right above the meat market chris mcquery also from the chicago tribune eric i'm sure you're a nice guy and all but i had a fifteen minute chat with your wife earlier discussing sorts of great things so thank you for that feel like i'm about a half sentence away from being fired today we discuss louis farrakhan and the time my wife said and john edwards lapsed so it was actually a conversation we were discussing it if i could follow it no radio producer could have created this we went from joe berrios is to stormy daniels t great until he said who are you here with and she said oh my husband over there is a reporter that was like six months ago by the way so they where are they now a guy who could have been president of the united states of america is in rosemont it wasn't even the allstate arena it was like the other rosemont theatre so i loved eric's comment about the beauty of this is that you know we can talk in disagree without being disagreeable that britain's us to the conversation tonight and i think why don't we start with breaking news  let's kick it off with a little conversation about our friend rahm emanuel who has been rightly worked up about guns lately because that is the conversation of the hour in this afternoon or four pm newscast we talked about rahm emanuel and bruce around or appearing at a press conference today at eighty and see it was some jobs thing an expansion deal and rahm conveniently tells the reporters know so who wants to start with this whole idea that here we are what we could a half away from the primary runners back to do a position does he take a position on gun control how does that work for him and how is rahm trying to push him into a certain spot well first i want to say is the dot being disagreeable is really off for all three of us so we're going to do our  again into taking a position that's not fair enough to the right for his for his base voters for the base republican voters i think actually the gun legislation that moved in springfield this week by the way i think they're only in session this month for like four days a budget crisis or anything don't worry about it we got it i'm not joking they literally have been in springfield maybe four days you'll notice that they moved to this very controversial package of budget i'm sorry gun control bills at the same time that mike madigan is under a lot of pressure with sexual harassment so i do think there is a little bit of let's change the headlines here and then lastly i would say that i have no problem with him taking a little time to review these bills we're talking about almost creating a new oversight agency in state government an agency that already can't regulate what it's currently regulating to start regulating gun shops to buy stocks to create new age requirements there is a lot that they allowed to fly through and he should he should have time to review those as far as it goes in their little story with the you know with the letter i would much rather if i were rahm i'd much rather lead reporters into some sort of drama then as answer questions about how i'm going to answer questions when i'm in under position he's been subpoenaed he's going to talk about police is unpopular or popular depending on your perspective decision right before an election it's about controlling the debate and controlling the discussion that's what he's about he's really good he's been doing  breath which tells me you have an idea just for him to sign these bills right now under pressure don't cave these are really complex pieces of legislation i realize like i said they  drove these through a moment's notice because there's a lot of public pressure of course but absolutely not he should not he may end up signing most of the bill or maybe a mandatorily veto parts of the bill but under no circumstances should he sign something that is sent to him under these circumstances that this is what they're trying to do is put him in an uncomfortable position he's actually trying to govern and you have under the constitution sixty days to review a bill so i think led me to a thought i had today which was two things that i can't believe we're talking about in the news that occurred to me in a week which was mike and sexual harassment toiling to find a source coach in prison are you kidding i mean really ok i mean it's ratings that's what it is we're newspaper people we really don't care about  we talk about all of these other issues in washington beyond the big issues facing our country in illinois the big issues facing our state sexual harassment huge issue i'm not saying it's not but for the last several need for an independent investigation of the attorney general who happens to be his daughter but another independent i just think that these are important things in the way you chose to meet that well i was critical of the way he handled the initial investigation in the way that took three months to remember what happened and i think you know he does he and his team deserve criticism for that i guess the question becomes are people going to vote on that is that going to be something that one issue for our our health our viability and that's the budget pensions in there and our inability basically to have a functioning government seems to be everything else while important takes it you know takes for my section i don't think we've spent a lot of time digging into the sexual harassment claims we have taken matters into task because if you want to talk cover up that sort of what it looks like he really only talked about this and came clean when it was clear that the tribune was about to break a story about this campaign worker but in terms of budget and pensions i mean you don't want me to like go on for three hours right yes that was to my point earlier that the legislature is not even meeting  we passed a huge tax increase in july twenty seventh seen with absolutely no reforms so money is still just flowing out the door in state government we borrowed a big chunk of money to pay down our bills so we sort of look better on paper but we're not those are those to me are the most vexing problems facing government if you get a budget a fact the budget is not just a bunch of paper and numbers it is people's lives and we have continued to toy with that for a number of years just under reign when there was a standoff but for literally decades when we are a little better and we borrow money to pay our bills because we can get much better interest rates than we do and we have those overdue payments i mean the thing is that when you when you're late on payments to sta your point it's in saying that we are not paying up that we don't care bills on time that it is just the norm of illinois state government other states do not work this way indiana they pay their bills every thirty days we have since about two thousand and eight seven popularity numbers even further down than his own but mike madigan popularity numbers don't matter no they do matter because the entire campaign this year is going to be every candidate is going to be it's going to be hyphenated with my man it's going to if it's it lackey she was trying to ridicule the governor because that's his only response to everything that's gone wrong including things he actually did wrong himself is to blame mike madigan it's silly we wrote an editorial about it but in terms of using her own words in an ad i think it's fair game i've seen so many ads from both sides of the aisle that are just absolutely erroneous there are lawsuits filed back and forth every campaign season right madigan has accused democratic candidates running for office of being sex offenders in order to get his democrat elected so i mean in terms of offensiveness that one didn't register to me as highly as you know from what i've seen even though you were in the room in the spirit of what she was saying and i have heard time and time again every question for those of you who don't get the chance to ask me questions every question the answer is it's mike madigan's fault no she seen and and he's prepared or told the people of illinois i think the main truth here this guy controls the legislature controls the news flow your vote for mike madigan to be the boss it's really that simple there's no other way around it i mean maybe someone could convince week there's another way but that's how it works but i think coming in calling mike ma crook which is what and around her has done and not trying to work with him to advance part parts visit gend was not a recipe for success and runners three and a half year track record has shown so exactly what he's gotten basically what he's over forty points out with his turn around agenda and part of it is because he doesn't know how to negotiate he doesn't know how to bridge the gas now you look back at the last you know three or four decades in illinois politics and you realize that mike madigan has been there m i would add to that and i'd have to get in the weeds because that's what i do but yes the three percent compounded cola was a ridiculous and overly generous and on affordable but it took the democrats until twenty thirteen to float an idea up to the illinois supreme court to find out whether they could somehow undo that to find out whether it was constitutional two thousand and thirteen so over the course of those years they've unfunded liability from the time the democrats and the pension funds in the five retirement funds of the state overseas from two thousand and two two went around or took over at that unfunded pension liability went from about forty billion dollars to one hundred billion dollars they skipped pension payments during that time they passed on balanced budgets they were spending six hundred seventy thousand dollars on things like copper dollars for the state capital and fancy stone in your and also in the men's room and not those were very nice for the r moment here and binding state government and all the promises they were that they were making so absolutely this this was one when you had to go back when it was a democratic controlled state government and they doubled down and made it far worse during that time also you've read the same story that i have that on my policy institute i actually went back and looked at all the rules that the house has in place and the power that mike madigan has and it doesn't matter how many sponsors if he doesn't release the from rolls it doesn't happen he chooses the committees he chooses when the committees meet he chooses the committee chairman ships none of that happens in other states it's much more collaborative he has and forced a top down system there that actually does make him responsible for everything that does and doesn't happen read the house rules ok for the best evidence of that is there really have been no mutiny is right there been one or two person muni's you would think given the state of the state there once you guys just schedule a debate and say it's going to be from seven to eight o'clock on this day and if you're not there governor around we're going to give an hour because channel eleven is in effect doing that i don't how much time they're giving to that for but there but they have a governor's a base schedule they've told me governor around here isn't coming and it's going to be gee i was one on one with with one of their hosts i mean if there's a way to do it that's the way to do it as is give the opponent free air time until he comes across it's an interesting idea i would like everyone and i mean those are two old school references right there know another elected official who's had more bad press over the years than joe barrios so if any of you read me you know i a little more conservative leaning i'm not taking i'm not taking a democratic ballot i hope those of you who are have been paying enough attention jump in on that because i hate to say the voters let down the editorial boards and the investigative journalists in this city before and by that i don't mean journalists have an opinion but i mean journalists do expose right this is what we do is we see here here's how your assessments are working or not working or here's how dorothy brown's office is working or not working so here  it's up to us yes exactly why i have no faith in you if you reelect him because up to now everyone sort of understood or people who are paying attention understood that the cook county assessment system was rigged that if you had clout you could hire the right lawyers and you owned a big commercial building downtown you would get a reduction now we have the data to prove it because the tribune and then followed up with pro publica did a whole expos of matching all the numbers and independent investigation has determine the same thing you have low income and minority situation and voted accordingly and i agree was kristen totally about this and i would hope that voters and i think that they will it's katie already impaired is by the way a very good question really running on that on the whole me two girls platform in fact there are a lot of people early on there was a website and often followed but it was like why isn't there a woman running for governor there is she just happens to be on the conservative side and so she was sort of ignored for a while but i don't think she's really running on their platform she's running on what i think women voters actually are looking for economics policy she's not trying to get the suburban soccer mom vote that is always kind of bugged me that women sort of get compartmentalize like we're only going to vote for pro choice moderate women with the pink caps i mean we care about jobs and the economy and out migration in illinois and debt and all that stuff too so i don't think she's  to that base really at all i think she's going to appeal to be really motivated hard right primary voters who do turn out in the fact that runner did a lot of things that he said he was not going to do so i if she wins the primary i mean honestly i think that's a really tough climb for it's a tough climb for her to win the primary it would be an extremely steep hill for her to win the general it just is she's on the record as on some social issues that is the reason we didn't endorse or that are just too  think the general populous but i still think there is that fraction of the republican party and probably democrats too where they're not just voting for who could win they're voting their heart their their you know someone who they really believe is going to carry the mantle for them regardless of what happens in the general i see we're on or have a trouble winning the general without the conservative base and you never know what will happen in the past mike madigan has ruled his democratic legislature with an iron fist but do you think the combination of bruce rauner has continued attacks on them for the past four years along with the sexual harassment scandal is giving democrats cover the kind of turnout em john made the point that chris kennedy is calling them out i live in glenview and i had the two democratic female candidates for a state legislature to replace laura fein both come to my door and they both made the case that they were the anti madigan candidate so do you think democrats are finally ready to kind of stand up and say enough is enough this guy does not represent us and we need new leadership yes i mean independent i'm not going to beholden to anyone and then when they get to springfield yeah i'll change their behavior it's one of the things mike madigan is really good at and that is he has a lot he knows that he's really unpopular so he allows candidates to go use him as the punching bag knowing that as soon as they get to springfield you know what they need staff help office space a desk somewhere protection somebody to help them not have an opponent next time around but mostly it's like you want to introduce a bill you want to be able to go back to your constituents and say you got something done you can't do it unless you have help so i mean just real quick i mentioned earlier a candidate who madigan basically accused of being a sexual predator in an ad when he was running for office he's now it it made it took like i don't know one year and he's right in madigan's camp so to your question and i'm really sorry but no i'm going back to john's earlier statement if you want to remove him from power and you have to not give him as many seats regardless of what they say your door but then said isn't it time i would think that maybe he's what he seventy five now and then if you look at the polls he's polling you saw the poll came out was it earlier this week or last week were he's more unpopular than round are in trump in illinois and that he is going to be a drag on democratic candidates this election a huge drag because as i said has failed a lot of things that he has succeeded in drain madigan's image down his reputation down and i would think that this would be an excellent time for him to retire i don't understand exactly what he's hanging on for what you're forgetting the point though that he was willing to hang irish guys with a lot of money and some of us old people like this but it's not the same as being called mr speaker mr chairman it's something that they've done all their life to get i think is going to live for another successful at demonizing him whether that impacts and i said all that matters is one district is because once he wins that he's got such an iron fist on the i don't want to explain this whole if i go explain to you guys about this thing for go to you got a question just a quick one this is fascinating to hear for someone who is not from this country and it's been in chicago it's always kind of adventure same what goes on the political world here but how did it get to this point where this guy has such a lock down and you say you vote for a democrat you vote for mad again how did it get to this how do we get out of it be literally leadership term limits which i think would be an excellent idea and so when you're when you're good at what you do and you know you can talk about whether he's good for the state or not or there is good for the democratic party or not but he's certainly good at keeping his own caucus and wine and when you're when you're that good at that you can hang on to power from awfully long time and they end up really it's like survivor the t v show you know the words in the title out will outlast right the rules  a lot of big business i mean everything that would make a municipal entity function fabulously is absolutely not the case sorry but it's still going on  i mean so again mike madigan is very smart in that he's not allowed to dump people either he's electing men and women who campaign well who say the right things to say the progressive  for a minimum wage hike we need a progressive income tax their fifth their up otherwise fiscally conservative they go to the pancake breakfast he recruits people early on i'm serious that's how a lot of voters decide who i really like are so nice she premier answer i think the democrats got to draw the map of legislative districts in the last remap it is so difficult based on that map for opposition party to win a seat they pick the incumbents house and then they draw a block to block where they have democratic voters and that to me at least for the past decade is why he's been able to maintain a majority so what happens now after some day he will be here and that next year ten years from now whatever accuse me to be there will be definitely a power vacuum if he has been the person in charge for four years what will happen next the young guy who's forty years old runs for office who's going to take over all the rules are based on him and his power he's not there all the sudden poof he's not there than what the power vacuum starts i think you saw the rules are approved general assembly every two years they can change them i think if he were not there you would see a revolution you would see democrats who've been waiting for an opportunity without being punished to coordinate more with republicans republicans actually having their bills which some of them are really good move out of rules i think you would see legislative term limits the republicans for all of their problems and there are many they actually had a revolt and they kicked out their leader in what thousand to three lee daniels and they rewrote the rules and they put the legislative term on it's a kind of ignore them but there is more collaboration among the republican caucus and i think i do think you would see people being brave enough to enforce change if you work started it really i mean it was and before that he was not good he doesn't he doesn't do interviews he doesn't people don't like him because he's not he doesn't present a likeable face he does not you know his he plays in the inside political game very well  outside doesn't play he's he allows himself to be demonized never fights back never gives and never returns a phone call because the question is though given that is the does that mean that the next person takes over if he is able to successor does that person say well let's let's loosen up all these rules well i'm going to i'm going to be less powerful than mike madigan or is going to be someone is going to say hey this guy showed me the way to do it i'm going to continue things pretty much that way but i'll put a nicer face on it and i think those are that's a bubbling up because the daily caller jake tapper and john kass and others are talking about hey why why aren't democratic politicians being held accountable for their associations and allegiances with people who have said how these local characters how we treat them as opposed to how the national media sees them because if you listen the national media debate it's how you know these people aren't being held accountable for their associations are we as the local chicago media feeling or is this just you know we we cover a long time kind of figure out who's newsworthy who's not who is allowed in vocal base of support that we should pay attention to well i think if this we're talking about you're right i think in some ways we get to fair and we don't we don't cover and i think this latest thing had to do with with some of the leaders of the women's march were at at farrah kind speech and they treated our pictures of themselves with him and there was a great deal of on the rest and that he didn't so i think the news media chasing after people of one party to get somebody on the record about something somebody else said had nothing to do with them is just completely lazy  felt about trump when i was so clear he was never a trump or he was you know and the second he didn't want to answer some questions about what trump crazy tweet trump said that had nothing to do with state government i think was completely appropriate he doesn't have to so that's my point i think the questions are i think it's lazy journalism that you are out and that's your story for the day but if we're going to play the game that i do think the media has has fallen down on hold and democrats are the same standard that they hold what concerns me is not only that can say stuff and that the left some on the left that i mean by hard left as opposed to liberals kind of rationalize it or  there seems to be a big a great growing anger in like trump land and elsewhere in other parts we become more and more tribal and more and more strident and dangerously so in some respects i think it's a function of both parties aptly pointed out earlier the problems of the state are not policies that could deal with these types of doomsday approach where we're all falling apart i mean what is it didn't take to bring to solve these issues regardless of party but we all agree that we need to get to a firm financial footing we all agree that we need to prove the business climate and stay we want wages to go up we want you know we want all these wonderful things to happen but you need to have somebody who is willing to do this without   actually george ryan two were actually pretty good certainly up there for they had their flaws but they were they were not haters and i feel like there's just a lot of hatred going on there's a lot of contempt for the other side and when you have that and this is my goes my broader point about the way around or came into office just you know he's awful he's a crook and i'm going to just call him names until he finally just falls into a puddle and cries and best for my forgiveness and agrees to my forty four points that's not going to work i think that you need someone who can rise above that and the question of earlier like do we have anybody in this field i don't really see anybody in this field right now who impresses me as having those qualities  those television commercials ignore them ok it's going to take voters actually doing a little bit of a deeper dive on these candidates and on their policies because i'll just give you a quick example when runner was first elected he entered  approved it a locally approved zone attack like it if district where if a company wanted to come in they would not have to adhere to having absolute mandatory union membership why in this state in places like the south east side of chicago the south side of chicago i live in the west side of chicago would we not actually entertain the idea of that when the local alderman would be able to sign off on it if it actually came to fruition instead we get completely worked  that you know this is this is the union say this is bad so we say this is bad so this person is anti union you have to dig a little deeper into what the policy positions are i think in order to improve our state some of the ideas on runners turn around in general  not really crazy they could have been workable and they should be tested in places of the city that are struggling so that would be my example throw away the mailers don't listen to the ads do your own independent research and start electing hell because your kids are going to leave and not come back because your home is going to be you're going to lose your home the taxes are going to be so why it's going to i mean you don't we have no idea what's coming so you might as well fight for it doesn't mean you have to be disagreeable but be clear on what you think you want