New York Times – While Rahm Emanuel was undergoing a political near-death experience Thursday, Gov. Pat Quinnconfronted death itself. Or that’s what he’d have us believe.

Mr. Emanuel, of course, was awaiting his late-afternoon victory in the Illinois Supreme Court on his eligibility to run for mayor. The public was awaiting the equivocating Hamlet of Springfield as he mined his conscience and decided whether to sign historic legislation to abolish the death penalty.