The time has come, the candidate said

Judy Barr Topinka has come up with a useful idea: Make the state budget blueprint public.

I don't know where the idea came from. Certainly no blogger would have called for any form of government/fiscal transparency, she said in all innocence, and her mother snorted, "Ha!".

The proposal is that IL's state budget blueprint -- the list of every little thing which will get funded by taxes -- be published for everybody to review, a minimum of a week in advance of its being voted upon. And it looks as though she means everyone. If Topinka has her way, it's gonna be posted on the internet, in all its glory, so we can contact our reps and slap them silly if they vote for another million or four to go to some private corporate fish farm which is already doing fine without state aid...

While Topinka is asking to arrange for advance transparency on all budgetary legislation, Blago is asking, "why now?" I have to say, Topinka's response is spot-on: timing is everything. If she -- or anyone -- had tried intorducing this back before the internet came to the forefront and bloggers started a national campaign, it would have been laughed away. But we can thank the dismal failure of BCRA to provide us with honest, above-board campaigns, thank a bunch of jackasses (not all of them Democrats) in D.C. and their massive earmarking, thank Porkbusters for their bringing all that to light, and thank Blago, too, for his repeated, interesting sleight-of-hand tricks with our state's funds. She -- and we -- had to wait for the point where more than a handful were crying, "Enough!"

It took long enough, but signs are everywhere that taxpayers are getting fed up with seeing their hard-earned money get handed off to dance clubs, questionable research projects, and other such bridges to nowhere, and they're threatening a complete overhaul come November. No incumbent is truly safe, at this stage. Certainly the Blowdried One hasn't paid attention to the rising tide of anger down Forgottonia-way. Topinka is hoping to surf in on the wave of dissatisfaction, and she just may have picked the best boogie board issue to get her there.