What else could Abby Ottenhoff have expected, when she said "We hope members of the General Assembly will show up the next time the governor calls them into special session to spare transit riders from service cuts and fare hikes." King Rod Blagojevich has abused that power one too many times.

King Rod abused this Constitutional authority granted to the governor for special sessions - meant for handling emergencies such as insurrection, natural disasters, etc. to the point of ridiculousness last year, in his bid to show the General Assembly "who's the boss" in a Reichstagg-esque display of his abuse of the legislative branch.

And the penalty for not showing? Nothing. There's not a thing King Rod can do about it, if a quorum fails to show. Why any of them showed up, beyond the committee members charged with addressing the CTA's mismanagement, is beyond me. And the voters will not care if they showed up, or not - unless they live in one of the areas that the CTA and Metra serve.

If I was a member of the General Assembly, I'd have faxed my copy of the notice of the session to King Rod giving him the one-finger salute superimposed on it.

Special session no-show for many legislators (WHOI Peoria) - Posted: Thursday, January 03, 2008 at 3:20 p.m. PEORIA -- Governor Rod Blagojevich's camp says it's disappointed many legislators didn't show up at a special session Wednesday to pass funding for the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA). [King Rod - Yahoo]