If Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan ever becomes a national political figure, which I think is definitely a possibility, Tina Fey is going to love it! She may look more like Tina Fey than Tina Fey looks like Sarah Palin.

Kristi and I went into Metropolis early this morning to catch Madigan's open meeting and campaign event. We had met Madigan the last time she came to Metropolis in the same room. Madigan comes from a powerful political family in Illinois - her dad Mike Madigan is long time speaker of the Illinois General Assembly and considered one of the most powerful men in Illinois.

I'm not sure how old Madigan is, but she is younger than us. She is very energetic, and does a really nice talk about some of the things she is working on, and encouraging people to vote. That's one of the reasons we went - which actually was Kristi's idea but I was into it immediately - because we both have a really good memory of her first appearance several years ago. She's charismatic, energetic, intelligent, and up-to-the-minute. She didn't really disappoint this morning.

Her talks as attorney general are constrained by definition to those things that an attorney general does, although she did, wisely, introduce herself by talking about how the economic status is hurting things. She also talked about how the Blagojevich prosecution and conviction had the potential to hurt democrats.

She spent a lot of time talking about the meth. Interestingly, Kentucky republican senate candidate Rand Paul recently got into trouble in eastern Kentucky because he downplayed the meth problem, and his opponent, democrat attorney General Jack Conway, jumped on it and said it was a big problem. I think it is a problem.

Apparently at one point it was relatively easy and cheap to find the ingredients to make meth. I do have an idea about the effect that amphetamines in general have on a body, although it's been a long time and apparently meth is a very concentrated form which I've never experienced and never will voluntarily. It must be quite a rush to do meth, and apparently nearly instantaneously addicting, because there have been a lot of people that have gotten strung out on it. Combine cheap, strong, and maximum addictive, and it has been a recipe for the continued downfall of lower income folks.

Fighting meth is fine. But I would have been satisfied with her saying that she was fighting meth, and moving on to other things. She did give a lot of information about email scams, which was helpful. But, I would really like to see her speak in the context of a governor's or senator's race. That way she could talk about other issues outside the responsibilities of an attorney general. I want to hear what she has to say.

Lisa Madigan is just at the beginning of her political career. She has made at least 2 trips across the state, and is developing relationships and networks that are real. Her name has come up as a gubenatorial candidate repeatedly, but she didn't run against Quinn this time. Maybe she should have. If Quinn squeaks this out, that could put Madigan in a worse position. Quinn then could run for a 2nd term (I think) as an elected incumbent, and if he won that, then Madigan may have to share the Illinois female political stage with Sheila Simon.

But, she doesn't seem to be that kind of calculating strategist. That's why we like her. She just seems like a regular person. And that regular person has charisma, intelligence, and a good work ethic. So I'm going to say that I think there is a strong possibility that Tina Fey may very well get her chance to play Lisa Madigan, and that could be great!