Editorial: Governor flips the chessboard

Gov. Rod Blagojevich sometimes seems like that kid who's losing badly in a junior high school game of chess. Instead of taking his lumps and learning some lessons to apply in another match on another day, he overturns the board and sends all the chess pieces flying. Nobody wins. It's petulant, not productive.

Indeed, Blagojevich took a page out of George W. Bush's playbook this week with his decision to reshape the budget the General Assembly passed a week ago, declaring executive privilege and essentially suggesting the legislative branch isn't relevant when you're king, forget that stupid Constitution. He was joined in his state government takeover attempt by Senate President Emil Jones (in the role of Dick Cheney), who said he wouldn't even give his chamber colleagues the chance to override gubernatorial vetoes of their spending priorities. "Case closed," he said.