The View from Right Field

Break

I will be gone in July.  See you in August.  In the meantime, Go Cubs Go!

Hillary Clinton’s Biggest Problem May Be Her Husband

Lots of people have written about Bill Clinton’s chat at the Phoenix Airport with Attorney General Loretta Lynch at a time when the Department of Justice is investigating his wife with respect to her private email server and how she handled her emails while she was Secretary of State.  Obviously, this was just stupid.  What was he thinking?  Which is the problem.

According to James Carville, long-time Clinton ______ (fill in your own word here): “He [Bill Clinton], talks to anybody!  He’s not the kind of guy who’s going to see someone in politics he knows and not stop to talk to him.” 

Except, if his wife gets elected president, he’s going to have to learn he can’t just talk to everybody he knows.  If he’s “First Husband” (or whatever the term will be), his job will be to shut up and not say anything unless the President asks him to.  If Bill Clinton can’t learn to do that, then that’s yet another thing people are going to have to consider before they vote for his wife for president.

Illinois Has a Budget. Sort of. Maybe. Not Really.

Illinois has a budget.  Well, sort of.  Well, not really.  What Illinois has is a spending plan that gives enough money to schools so they can open in September (or August) and operate for the school year.  And a spending plan for the rest of the government (or at least most of it) for six months.  Of course, while they passed a spending plan, they didn’t pass anything about paying for it, other than borrowing money from special funds and other accounting tricks. 

It looks like Governor Rauner’s theory is to agree to this and then work to get some more Republicans elected to the state legislature in November.  That will increase his bargaining power vis-à-vis the Democrats in the legislature and hopefully get some of his turn-around ideas adopted.