You really have to hand it to Governor Rod Blagojevich. By simply proposing to transfer the powers of the Illinois State Board of Education to his own office, Blagojevich did several huge favors for the teachers unions, forestalled any budget-busting funding increases for education this year, and all but killed the income-for-property-tax-swap idea for the rest of his first term - while politically positioning himself as a feisty fiscal conservative, a gutsy hands-on reformer, and a concerned pro-education leader.

John Lewis Community Services (JLCS) paints a picture of Taylor Heights neighbors as bad-faith mediators. (See "Cobblestone Terrace Negotiations Die," River Cities' Reader Issue 460, January 21-27, 2004.) Nothing could be farther from the truth.

It could be worse. Remember, Willy Horton was originally Al Gore's inventive way of beating up on co-Democrat Mike Dukakis in the 1988 primary - but even so, the perennial spectacle of Democrats rooting in each others' dirty-linen baskets and waving their soiled finds in public looks like unnecessary party-political harakiri to outsiders.

Illinois Senator John Sullivan (D-Rushville) was the biggest surprise winner of the 2002 election. Political observers are still scratching their heads at how the Democrat defeated popular Republican Senator Laura Kent Donahue in a Republican-leaning district.