When House Minority Leader Lee Daniels walked into the governor`s office for yet another summit meeting late Tuesday, one of Gov. James Thompson`s security guards coyly opened his sports coat and gestured to a loaded service revolver.
Weary legislators, along with their attendant staffs and those of other state officials, almost unanimously wagged fingers angrily at Daniels, the Elmhurst Republican with an eye on statewide office, as the person responsible for keeping them in Springfield, yawning and yelling through middle-of-the night sessions, struggling to adjourn for the summer.
”The gentleman has set himself up as the pseudo-governor,” said Senate President Philip Rock (D., Oak Park) as the legislature dragged through its third day beyond the Sunday adjournment deadline.
”It`s almost a role reversal. One might have thought there was a Democrat sitting on the second floor,” Rock said, referring to the governor`s office.
Indeed, even Thompson did nothing Wednesday to quell the widespread criticism of his House Republican leader who had, acting for his GOP minority, stalled passage of the state`s $19.5 billion budget and forced hours of renewed negotiations on the governor`s ”Build Illinois” program.
”There will be no budget passed with Republican votes until Build Illinois is passed,” Daniels said Tuesday night as he took a hard-line stance that postponed adjournment for lawmakers eager to end the 1985 spring session. Throughout Wednesday, Daniels remained the focus of the hold-up on the budget. House Democrats were unwilling to provide the votes for an apparent compromise on the revised Build Illinois plan, but the pressure returned to Daniels after he was unwilling to provide votes to pass the public aid budget. So while Daniels` posturing continued in the Statehouse, public aid checks were delayed for thousands of Illinois welfare recipients, again demonstrating the old line comparing the legislature to a high school student council that can hurt people.
”When I use the legislative tools available to me, I use them to the greatest extent,” Daniels said. ”This is tough politics we`re engaged in.
”I think we have done what we think is right. We have tried to protect the whole state.”
Aides to Daniels, a 43-year-old attorney who has served in the House for a decade, acknowledged that he was trying belatedly to ”win one issue” in a session in which he and the House Republican minority have had little say.
Throughout the session, Daniels` House rival, Speaker Michael Madigan
(D., Chicago), attracted attention and an image of influence by holding numerous bills hostage, forcing prolonged negotiations and appearing able to kill single-handedly such major matters as Chicago`s World`s Fair.
By postponing adjournment, Daniels was able to turn his 51-member GOP delegation into a more forceful bloc in the Democrat-controlled legislature of 118 members. After the constitutionally set deadline of June 30, a three-fifths majority, rather than a simple one, is required for passage of legislation.
Daniels, who was being alternately called ”Little Lord Fauntleroy” and
”a pretend king” by his detractors from the Democratic side of the aisle, appeared to be doing little more than playing a petty game of one-upmanship on the speaker.
And while Daniels has been considering a run for the Republican nomination for attorney general next year, that possibility appeared to diminish with each new demand he has made on leaders, such as Thompson, whose support he would need.
Daniels, serving his third year as the House Republican leader, has never been a go-along player with the governor or members of his party.
