Personal Asides: Vetoing a 3% Pay Hike for the Social Service Workers Who Perform the Most Disgusting Yet Essential Work, as “Pork,” the Governor at the Same Time Signs Hefty Pay Raises for Himself and the Legislature…Thomas Magnor Graduates...

Personal Asides: Vetoing a 3% Pay Hike for the Social Service Workers Who Perform the Most Disgusting Yet Essential Work, as “Pork,” the Governor at the Same Time Signs Hefty Pay Raises for Himself and the Legislature…Thomas Magnor Graduates with Honors from U of Wis.…Fred Thompson Really Gets One Pumped Up (Sarcasm).

“Pork.”

“Then let them eat cake,” pooh-poohed Marie Antoinette as she turned from the Versailles window after watching the impoverished hungry demand bread.

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Vowing to veto “pork,” the governor has excised what is known as the “cost of doing business” or menial 3% pay raises for those across the state who do the most unutterably of unattractive work in our mental institutions and addiction treatment centers…people the poor depend on…paid by essential state help to continue serving the poorest of the poor. Total bill: $3 million out of a total near $60 billion in spending.

At the same time he has given himself…although he has not accepted it…and the legislature itself hefty pay raises. Our praise of Tom Cross the Republican House leader who has fought for the cause of these essential people who clean toilets, minister to those who are burdened with illness and carry on in their activities loyally…while being bruited around as recipients of “pork.”

Vetoes that deprive essential but menial workers of the social justice of a living wage which they are due…to use their condition as hostage for an utterly out-of-sight major expense for a universal health care program deemed to suffuse the governor’s personal political agenda….provide a case study in the height of cynicism to which this state is witness.

In total he has slashed $463 million from the budget the legislature sent him on August 13 with well over $100 million coming from health and human services…including the 3% to the essential institutional workers. Instinctively, Rod Blagojevich is a plunger, a gambler who is throwing a Hail Mary pass, hoping for a big score. He is willing to use any means at all—bribery with public funds included—to intimidate or seduce the legislature to come up with support for his Orwellian health care scheme which the state cannot support.

Thomas Magnor.

Thomas William Magnor of Brookfield, Wisconsin has graduated with high honors from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. His major was accounting and he will continue for a fifth year when he will get his masters in accounting and prepare for the CPA. Why do I mention this? Because he is smart. Because his mother is youthfully exuberant and because his father is a terrific role model. And because Thomas Magnor is my eldest grandson. In that order. But his accounting skill and masterly attention to detail comes from his paternal grandfather…W. Thomas Magnor…an early University of Chicago MBA and top accountant and not from me (I have delegated totaling our checkbook to Lillian).

Fred Thompson.

Boy, the message on the stump from not-yet-announced-presidential-candidate-maybe Fred Thompson really gets one pumped up. Take a listen to his message in Indianapolis Saturday, delivered to the Midwest Republican Leadership conference numbering about 500 party activists from 12 states. Here are his bitingly enthusiastic statements from the speech which really pumps one up:

According to the Associated Press, “he spoke mostly in general terms on serious matters, saying that one of the most pressing challenges facing America was national security and the terrorist threat from Islamic radicals. Not enough people take the threat seriously” he said. Wow!

He said: “Our country is in danger and it’s going to be in danger for a long time to come. We’ve got to be more united and more committed than ever before.” Be still my heart.

Government spending is out of control and people have little faith in government solving problems in areas such as energy, education and health care. Huzza! Huzza!

“We probably have more cynicism toward our leadership than in a long time. How do people follow when people don’t have any confidence in what is said and who is saying what?”

Really stimulating stuff. The cadence, the enthusiasm, the optimism—just like Reagan!

Also at the Illinois State Fair, State Sen. Bill Brady, a supporter, who may or may not head up the Thompson campaign in Illinois (odds are, rumors say, he will not)…warmed up the crowd by discussing the Thompson big money contract with NBC.

Just what Republicans need to be revved up.

Yesterday on Fox, films of the candidate moving through a Fair crowd. You can really appreciate what professional makeup and studio lighting can do by seeing the contrast…a big man, baggy pants, cavernous eyes, speaking in a monotone. No, I don’t have a dog in this fight but let me tell you, this buildup is leading up to the biggest letdown since 1898 when the Hero of Manila Bay, Admiral George Dewey told the media he had surveyed the presidency and felt qualified to run because the only duty specified by the Constitution was to enforce the laws…and since Dewey had been obeying orders all his military life, he wouldn’t have any problem doing that.

Let me tell you that was a big disappointment, particularly to me, as I was a GOP party intern that year.