I had righteous indignation for breakfast

I got all worked up about the fact that only half of our state legislature bothered to show up yesterday when they were called back into session. According to this morning's Red Eye, which I read on the train, only 70 of 118 members of the House and 14 of 59 members of the Senate showed up yesterday (page 10). Transit in the Chicago area is in serious trouble, and if something isn't figured out at the state government level, MAJOR CTA cuts are due January 20th:

The CTA will eliminate 81 of its 154 bus routes; lay off more than 2,400 employees; and raise fares to record levels. In addition, with more than 700 fewer buses operating due to the bus route eliminations, the CTA will close three of its eight garages. Service on the remaining routes will be provided by other locations.

(For those of you not in Chicago, it's a lot of things, including a method of determining allocations of transit funding that hasn't been updated since the 1980s. You can read about it from transit advocates over at SaveChicagolandTransit.)

So, here's where the misguided righteous indignation came in... Today's the primary caucus in Iowa, and I got SUPER PISSED at Barack Obama for no-showing to this session Blago called yesterday--he was obviously in Iowa.

And then I remembered he's my US Senator. *headdesk* Did I mention I'm sleep-deprived?

I got to thinking, though... What has he done for me lately? He's a baby senator who's spending his time running for president. Shouldn't he be proving himself as a national political leader by rocking his first term in the Senate? Instead of his political work, we're hearing about his political campaign. I want to hear about what he's done, not just what he thinks he could do as president.

So, despite the fact my sleeplessness had me bitter and confused this morning, I still think I can't vote for him [in the IL primary], not until he has more time under his belt. 'Course, if he ends up being the Democratic candidate, I reserve the right to revise this paragraph.