Hey, what a shocker! Da Mare is on board with Blago’s ridiculous cash handout!

You know, it’s a sad day when I have to side with Judy Baar Topinka, but … for pete’s sake, people. The state is flat broke. Where is this money coming from? Is there a magical transit leprechaun pot of gold that you just found in the governor’s mansion? And, yeah, let’s just throw cash at the CTA and ignore Pace and Metra, because that’s a really good way to make the collar counties feel warm and cosy about how well they’re being taken care of by these funding packages. Not to mention, this only postpones the problem for another month! I’m sorry, but eliminating busses in November sucks just as much as eliminating them in September, it only buys you guys a few days off the hot seat. And, did I ask this already — where is this money coming from?? Seriously, you just spent months in a budget stalemate because there was no money. So either you were holding out on us all summer long about the secret pile of cash under G-Rod’s mattress, or you’re waving your big gubernatorial Discover Card at the problem, and guys, I gotta tell you, you seriously cannot put your regional mass transit on a charge card. And it’s not a frigging solution to the problem!!!

Although, I will say this about the whole situation: I’m really enjoying having chats about this issue with the firm’s in-house lawyer, at work. He’s, predictably, conservative, but as it happens, I really enjoy talking about political issues with people who disagree with me, so long as we’re both more invested in a quality debate than in dogma (that caveat being why I avoid discussing politics with, say, family members), so we’ve actually had several really fun conversations. Anyways, today I ran into him in the hall, and I was like, “Hey, I bet I know something we are in total agreement about right now!” And I wasn’t wrong!