A possible answer

Back in June, Gov. Patrick held a big rally in the hall right outside the House speaker's office, exhorting the Legislature to pass all of his so-called Municipal Partnership Act. Lawmakers and local officials crowded the stage behind him, and about 250 activists filled the hall in front of him.

But afterwards, as Patrick made his way through the crowd, one supporter grabbed a Patrick aide behind the governor. "How come he didn't mention Sal DiMasi in his speech?" he demanded. The aide just kept following the governor.

"I just don't understand why the governor doesn't just take him on directly," the supporter told me. "[DiMasi's] making him look kind of silly by stonewalling this."

The supporter might find an answer in this.

The second item in Governing magazine's Observer column had a bit on Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich:

It's hard to think of a contemporary state official who has misplayed a winning hand as badly as Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. Sweptinto office in 2002, Blagojevich brought with him Democratic majorities in both chambers of the legislature for the first time inthree decades. The result has been heated acrimony and severe governmental dysfunction.

Blagojevich ran by railing against a "culture of corruption" and chose not to let up after taking office. During his first year, he characterized legislators as "drunken sailors" unable to curb their free-spending habits. He seemed surprised that they took offense but kept up the heat. For more than four years, he has acted in the belief that he can generate momentum toward change through public relations campaigns, rather than by cultivating legislative leaders, or evenfully briefing them about his plans...

Despite the fact that Democrats are in full control of the machinery of government, Springfield has devolved into an unproductive war of words worse than anyone can remember even in a famously fractious capital. The question now is whether Blagojevich and the legislature can learn to get along well enough to make something--anything--out of his remaining time in office.