House Speaker Michael Madigan has always strongly guarded the powers of the General Assembly as a coequal branch of government, so it was a little surprising when he appeared to support Governor Pat Quinn's line-item veto of legislative salaries in mid-July.

The governor vetoed the salaries in retaliation for the General Assembly's failure to pass a pension-reform bill. In a press release the day of the veto, Madigan said he understood the governor's frustration with the lack of progress, adding, "I am hopeful his strategy works."

Behind the scenes, though, Madigan is said to be furious with the governor's veto. Madigan's legal staff has been meeting with other lawyers to set strategy to either get around the veto or oppose it. So far, they are not finding much in the way of non-court options.

Years ago, Governor Pat Quinn told a friend of mine that Illinois voters were pretty easy to understand. Illinoisans love populism, Quinn explained, so doing populist stuff was the way to win their hearts.

And if a recent Capitol Fax/We Ask America poll is correct, then Quinn has done just that with last week's line-item veto of legislative salaries and benefits. At least, for now.

I think a lot of people believed that if Bill Daley ran for governor, his campaign would be as bland and vanilla as his public persona has been over the decades.

Instead, he's turned into the most fiery candidate in the race so far. Daley is even "out-angering" wealthy Republican financier Bruce Rauner, who has tried to position himself as the "We're not gonna take it any more!" choice for 2014.

Daley has attacked Governor Pat Quinn's pathetic leadership, slammed the General Assembly for its ridiculous inaction, and made it clear that he's not afraid to go on the attack against the Madigan family by releasing unflattering poll results earlier this week that showed the House speaker could harm his daughter's potential gubernatorial bid.

Daley has been selectively releasing responses to a poll taken in April for his campaign - back when few thought he would actually run. All of the responses released so far have dealt with Attorney General Lisa Madigan and her father, House Speaker Michael Madigan. None of the numbers released so far has showed any actual Daley strength.

There's more than enough blame to go around regarding the failure of the gay-marriage bill during the final days of the General Assembly's spring session, which ended May 31.

Governor Pat Quinn knew that African-American House members were reluctant to support the bill, mainly because of pressure from their churches. So, why did he pick a nasty fight with the Black Caucus over Medicaid? Quinn was offering projects to Republican legislators to entice them to flip, but he couldn't find a few million Medicaid dollars to help poor people get wheelchairs and preventive dental care? That late-session fight over Medicaid spending was counterproductive. Instead of using the disagreement to his advantage, Quinn dug in his heels and so did the Black Caucus, which also initially refused to support a gay-rights measure several years ago after being cut out of a gaming-expansion bill.

Senate President John Cullerton said he didn't regret passing the gay-marriage bill out of his chamber in mid-February, before the House votes were lined up. Back then, the House roll call was reportedly in the 40s. (Sixty votes are needed to pass.) Usually, proponents try to wire these things so they pass both chambers quickly. Cullerton said he feared opponents would begin gearing up and believed the bill needed to be passed as quickly as possible. But passing that bill without first making sure the House was ready to deal with it energized opponents and gave them time to organize.