The Capitol Fax Blog » Question of the day

Monday, Apr 28, 2008

* Remember this line from Gov. Blagojevich last week?

“When you’re elected governor, it’s not like you get the chance to go to governor’s school,” he said, adding, “They don’t have a school for new governors, you just sort of have to figure out how to do the job.”

* Well, actually, that’s not true. Shortly after Blagojevich was first elected in 2002, the National Governors Association held a training session for newly elected governors…

For Immediate Release
Friday, November 15, 2002

Governor-Elect Jim Doyle and his wife Jessica Doyle will attend a New Governors Training Session hosted by the National Governors’ Association (NGA) this weekend in Austin, Texas.

The training is a chance for the 20 new governors and their spouses to meet with the sitting governors and hear first hand about being a governor. Among the sessions offered for the new governors will be seminars on staffing, budgeting, working with the legislature, and the popular session, “What I wish I would have known when I started” where sitting governors talk about lessons they have learned in office.

The NGA encourages governors to leave their campaigns at the door, and participate in bi-partisan discussions with their colleagues who are there to help offer advice and answer questions.

* Question: What courses would you design for Gov. Blagojevich’s “school”?

- posted by Rich Miller

37 Comments

- One of the 35 - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 10:59 am:
Public Service 101, with emphasis on “it is to unselfishly serve, not profit from, your your time in office

- Balance - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 11:01 am:
How to Deal with Snarky Media - Blogger Types

- Mr. Cub - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 11:01 am:
How to be an Authentic Leader

- Dan S, a Voter & Cubs Fan - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 11:02 am:
I would say start with K - 8 and go from there.

- Learning the Ropes - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 11:03 am:
Civil Service 563 (Graduate Level)
Advanced License Plate Stamping Techniques

Civil Service 565
Cigarette Bartering and Beyond

- Oxford 101 - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 11:19 am:
Top or Bottom? How to pick a bunk.

- Speaking At Will - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 11:20 am:
Remedial Shuck and Jive.

- Levois - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 11:21 am:
Perhaps teach him some governmental financial management. And then teach him some interpersonal skills. After that some character training. Perhaps a little anger management might help as well.

- Enemy of the State - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 11:23 am:
Pol. Sci. 201 Fund Raising. Students will learn how to acquire large amounts of cash while avoiding contacts with the FBI or IRS.

P. E. 202 How to Play Well with Others. Students will learn how to make deals with legislative leaders in order to advace their own programs. No prerequisites but Psych 396 highly recomended.

Life Skills 243 Time Management. Students must provide their own day planner, calendar, and time piece along with note pads.

Foreign Language 556 How to Speak “Downstate” Spell check and grammar not required. When making references to hunting, fishing and pickup trucks, avoid mentioning brand names.

Pol Sci 308 Leadership. The art of getting other people to think that you are just implementing their ideas while actually promoting your own. Special lectures by M. Madigan, E. Jones and others depending upon the actions of the parole board.

Journalism 451 Dealing with the press. What to do after running out of witty remarks, free food and Bears tickets.

No residence requirements for any of these classes. They can be either done online or while flying in a private jet during commuting time.

- gray wolf - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 11:25 am:
pilot licence to cut costs of commute

- South Side Mike - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 11:38 am:
Budgeting 101: Remedial Math and Econ Review. If Jane’s apple tree produces 5 apples, and you want to give away and use 10 apples, chopping down the tree won’t produce more fruit.

- Little Egypt - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 11:38 am:
This state needs to go back tot he basics. First of all, there should be an entrance exam to even run for governor in Illinois. We aren’t exactly batting 1,000 as of the last 30 or so years. What are we trying to do in Illinois - have a wing of Club Fed named for us?

- Belle - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 11:45 am:
What every elected official should NOT be….

- Wumpus - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 11:45 am:
South SIde Mike is winning so far.

Music, so he can learn the Barney theme song and be froends with Mike.

- Learning the Ropes - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 11:53 am:
Agreed SS Mike made me want to retract my original. Well played sir.

- Captain America - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 11:53 am:
Required Reading:Taegan Goddard’s Book: You Won, Now What?

- wordslinger - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 11:55 am:
Constitution 101, Separation of Powers

- Pekin Tom - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 12:11 pm:
Mktg 410 - The students will learn the importance of branding and how to get your name on every single piece of state-owned building, vehicle, stationary, and website.

- VanillaMan - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 12:35 pm:
1.) Gov 100 - Why we have a governor
2.) Psych 201 - Developing Humility
3.) Bus 201 - How to listen
4.) Fin 100 - Accounting and finance
5.) Bus 400 - How to select executive staffers
6.) Bus 300 - How to build trust
7.) Bus 330 - How to show respect
8.) Pol 400 - How to fight fair
9.) Bus 100 - How to turn talk into action

- Ghost - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 12:41 pm:
Constitutional law for Dummies

a lecture series about how the Feds caught Ryan

How to win friends and influence people

7 habits for effecive bartering in prison

- dc - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 12:54 pm:
Patronage: Out with the jobs, in with the consulting fees.

Hiring Family Members of Legislators: The dos and don’ts of transfering to different job sites.

Press Secretaries: The importance of being cryptic, repetitive, redundant and repetitive.

Administrative Rules: The statutory and constitutional requirements to adhere to the process.

Legislative relations: How anonymous fliers with grainy pictures can impact a legislative agenda.

- A class that Rod did take. - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 12:54 pm:
“Greed, for lack of a better word, is good”
- Gordon Gekko

- Courser - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 1:02 pm:
Adding to the list:

10) Tox 101 - Hairspray: silent killer of the brain.

- Huh? - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 1:07 pm:
Dan S, a Voter & Cubs Fan said “I would say start with K - 8 and go from there.”

Promoting blago from kindergarten to first grade implies that he can learn enough to be socially promoted.

Leave him in kindergarten until be learns how to share and get along with others.

- Dan S, a Voter & Cubs Fan - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 1:13 pm:
Huh? - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 1:07 pm:, Very valid point sir.

- Little Egypt - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 1:34 pm:
Adding to the list:

11. Etiquette 101. When to arrive on time: a) Governor’s Prayer Breakfast; b) funerals of state senators/reps; c) your own inauguration; and last but most important d) depositions and court dates with Patrick Fitzgerald.

- Moderate Repub - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 1:47 pm:
while it is to late now, the tile would be “your word is your bond”

- fedup dem - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 1:56 pm:
Groveling techniques for use while being sentenced.

- dc - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 3:19 pm:
“The Bus — how to throw people under and how to avoid getting hit”

- Amuzing Myself - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 3:36 pm:
“Everything you need to know about being governor you can learn from George Ryan.”

All you have to do to be a hero is not be as bad as that guy. Shouldn’t be that hard, right?

- Josiah Bartlett et al - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 4:46 pm:
How about American History focusing on the Declaration of Independence? Have Rod explain the meaning of these passages:

“He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.”

Should be an interesting paper.

- Lionel Hutz - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 4:48 pm:
Watch the movie “Billy Madison,” take notes.

- Fox Mulder - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 6:09 pm:
How about the Ten Commandments, since POA has recently turned to prayer as a last resort?

- The Federalist - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 6:20 pm:
A shop class in making license plates and sewing prison uniforms.

- southern illinoisan - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 7:16 pm:
Paul Vallas running in the Dem primary. This will get interesting. Dan Hynes is already laying the groundwork. Then there is Lisa Madigan, Jesse Jackson Jr., Barack Obama(after he loses the Presidential election), Alexis Gioulannis, etc…

Who will the Republican’s offer up? Bill Brady, Tom Cross, Frank Watson, Mike Bost or Cristy Radogno?

- Anonymous - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 7:48 pm:
SS Mike’s got it except participants should be taught using two bushels. That is, they need to learn that apples from bushel 1 need to be moved to bushel 2 as programs are funded because there’s a bit of a delay from the time the apples are allocated to the time they actually leave the bushel. (It seems that Government must check the bushel every few seconds, verify that the original five apples are still there, and therefore feel they can “re-use” the apples over and over again to fund additional programs.)

During the second administration, an “advanced” course will need to be taught that recognizes their “creativity” to fixing “the apple problem”, BUT advising them that apples in bushel 2 can ONLY be moved BACK to bushel 1 if a program is cut BEFORE any work is done.

During the third administration, we can cover ethics training which will teach them NOT to give friends and relatives the heads-up on when the second bushel is full so that they can get their apples BEFORE anyone else, especially if the work they’re doing hasn’t even begun (assuming that they were planning on doing any work in the first place in return for the apples).

- Anonymous - Monday, Apr 28, 08 @ 7:55 pm:
Each course should also include some radical method like eletric shock treatments throughout the day to turn the participants themselves off of apples so that they themselves don’t deplete the bushels.

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