Blago borrows from Thompson's playbook on Madigan (updated)

A spokesman for Gov. Rod Blagojevich recently said that a memo containing a swear word from House Speaker Michael Madigan to labor leaders shows that Madigan is angry and isolated.
“… it just shows how he's just isolated and a coalition of one," Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero told Daily Herald reporter Nick Shields.

Here’s a link to the full story from last week:
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=225204

Blagojevich is upset because Madigan seems to be standing in the way of the governor’s plans to expand gambling and lease out the lottery to finance billions in state-sponsored construction.
OK, time to hop in the way-back machine, back to the summer of 1988.
Gov. Jim Thompson wants an income tax increase. The media is behind it (see below), as are most interest groups. Everyone thinks higher taxes are a great idea.
Everyone, that is, except Madigan, who refuses to go along and is eviscerated as an obstructionist in daily news stories.
In a June 1988 story, Thompson told the Chicago Tribune that Madigan’s opposition reflects “a narrow little world” in which Madigan lives.
Madigan’s response to the paper was that Thompson “does not live in a neighborhood as I live in a neighborhood,” but spends most of his time in a state-financed mansion in Springfield far away from the mood of the people.

Comment of the day:
DH.com poster “stevcrawf” put some perspective on Madigan’s use of a profanity in his memo to the Teamsters:

The politicos would have us believe that the Teamsters … might be upset by Madigan's use of the word "bull*%@#".
As a disabled long haul trucker and former Teamster member, I've said worse to my mother!

UPDATED: Way-back headlines.
Today's headlines are all about Madigan blocking a construction spending program and Blagojevich offering up what he calls a "compromise" plan that is actually like the plan he orginally pitched that went nowhere, and everyone decries the gridlock that's hurting Illinois.

So, for historical perspective, here's a glance at the headlines from late June, early July 1988. The topic would be the aforementioned tax increase backed by Gov. Thompson (and seemingly everyone else) and Madigan's opposition to it.

Chicago Tribune: Madigan standing in way of tax hike
Includes this passage: "Madigan, a Chicago democrat first elected speaker in 1983, has become the lone holdout among the General Assembly's leaders by declining to lend support to a general state tax increase that Gov. James Thompson has said is vital to paying for the basic needs of state government."

Chicago Tribune: Madigan holds out against tax increase
Includes this passage: "A smoldering Gov. James Thompson emerged from a meeting with the legislative leaders Friday afternoon saying it appeared that the Democratic-controlled legislature was bent on sending him a "bloated" and "phony budget" that the state could not afford."

Bloomington Pantagraph: Politics get blame for tax hike stall
Includes this passage: "A state income tax hike has not passed because of political issues, not because there was not a need or legislators did not see it, several Pantagraph-area school officials said yesterday."

Gannett News Service: Thompson on tax hike: 'I never give up'
Includes this passage: "Gov. James R. Thompson said Monday he hasn't given up on his attempt to raise Illinois' income taxes, but admitted House Speaker Michael J. Madigan may have blocked his efforts for this legislative session. "I haven't given up. I never give up," Thompson said in an impromptu news conference outside the Capitol. "I'll be here next year. I've got news for the speaker: I'm a patient man.""