Trib's editorial board has found its 'Mussolini'. But IL crisis is a bi-partisan affair.

HILLARY'S IN TOWN TODAY raising lots of campaign dough. I would have attended this morning's brunch at the Gold Coast home of Tanya and Michael Polsky, the CEO of Invenergy, But my invitation must have gotten lost in the mail.

I also missed the Rahm-hosted lunch event at noon. I couldn't come up with the $2,700-per-person tab (not including tip for the parking guy) let alone the $27,000, it would have taken to have my picture taken with Hil.

Interesting side-note here. Wing-nut Chicago billionaires Ken Griffin and Todd Ricketts are among the funders of the new super anti-Hillary PAC, Future45. Each gave $250,000 to help launch the super PAC.

Rahm and Griffin

Lynn Sweet writes that Griffin is the billionaire founder and CEO of the Chicago hedge fund Citadel and a jumbo donor to Republican candidates and causes. Ricketts, a Cubs board member who is the CEO of the conservative Ending Spending super PAC, was the co-national finance chair for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s short-lived presidential primary campaign.

Why these guys don't have Noble Charter Schools named after them is beyond me.

Rahm has worked with the Ricketts family to put more than $100M in tax incentives into the renovation of Wrigley Field.

Griffin was also a major donor to Rahm's election campaign.

In fact, Griffin was Rahm’s single biggest donor, having donated more than $1 million to political organizations that support the mayor. The bulk of that money — $950,000 — was donated in the last weeks of the election after Rahm failed to win majority in his primary run against Chuy Garcia.

Funny how that works.

A TRIBUNE EDITORIAL comes to the defense of Gov. Rauner and calls on him not to give in to the "Surrender Caucus." Meaning, they want the sociopath gov to continue his siege on state social services and public employee unions, in order to make "Illinois less hostile to employers."

I would expect nothing less of an editorial board that has expressed admiration for  Mussolini's dictatorial style of leadership.

But I have to hand it to them. In the midst of all their right-wing blather they do make one good point. It's not just Rauner. He just picked up the ball where Gov. Quinn and the Dems dropped it.

State Democrats and Republicans have both played major roles in creating the current crisis by not paying the state's share into the pension fund for decades. To top things off, Democrats led by Quinn, Madigan and Cullerton passed their unconstitutional pension "reform" bill, that if not for the supreme court, would have been murderous on elderly and infirm pensioners trying to live on fixed incomes.

In doing so, they alienated their labor base and set the stage for Quinn's re-election defeat and Rauner's victory.

It's important to remember that Democrats still have a veto-proof majority in both houses. So it's apparent that neither Madigan nor Rauner are in any hurry to end the current impasse since it puts both of them in the driver's seat atop their own coalitions while many others appear paralyzed or afraid to act.