Playing House
Dear Editor,
Kate Sosin's interview with state Rep. Greg Harris ended with a classic dodge.
When the reporter questioned Harris on powerful House Speaker Mike Madigan's failure to muscle the marriage bill to passage, he weakly responded that "everyone could have done more." Then, without even mentioning the mighty speaker's name, Harris turned on a dime and blamed the Republicans for the marriage debacle—in spite of the fact that the Democrats have a nearly two-to-one supermajority in the House!
And never mind that Madigan has ruled the Illinois House for decades and had just whipped his Democratic caucus into line by ramming through a controversial pension "reform" bill. Yes, Madigan is a guy who tries to put the screws to teachers and state workers yet refuses to raise a finger on behalf of a marriage bill that, according to recent polls, has majority support in Illinois.
What gives?
Clearly, after suffering an embarrassing defeat of his pension bill in the Senate, Madigan wished to expend zero political capital on anything else and likely ordered Harris to table the marriage bill. And Harris, being a caucus insider and party loyalist, complied. He didn't see his role as key spokesman for an embattled Illinois minority to be one of standing on principle and calling out the Speaker for his abject failure and betrayal. But LGBTQ people and our allies are under no such obligation to the Democratic House caucus.
Unlike the cowardly Harris, we don't need to bow and scrape and shuffle our feet while protecting Mike Madigan. Instead, we need to take our anger to the streets and demand legal equality.
Bob Schwartz
Chicago
House matters
Dear Editor,
Rep. Greg Harris clearly thought he had obtained enough commitments to pass gay marriage in the Illinois House in the legislative session that ended on May 31. He was wrong.
Now Harris and his allies want activists to believe Harris has obtained enough commitments to pass gay marriage in the veto session, which may require a three-fifths vote instead of a simple majority.
Based on the poor performance of the Illinois General Assembly on pensions and other matters, it's hard to be confident the legislature will do the right thing—or even to be confident the legislature will do anything ... except cash their per diem checks while not accomplishing much. We can be pretty sure of that.
If Harris wants to set me more at ease, he can commit to resigning from the Illinois House of Representatives and not running for election again if the House fails to pass gay marriage in the veto session.
Otherwise, I believe activists should treat every member of the House who isn't a public "yes" as being a hostile. These representatives should be challenged in the Democratic primary.
It's not like the Illinois House is doing such a great job on other matters that citizens should consider any of them irreplaceable.
Carl Nyberg
Chicago
