In the Peoria Journal-Star statehouse reporter Doug Finke gives his take on why Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich canceled his signing of the "Safe Games Illinois Act," originally scheduled to occur last Tuesdaay in Aurora.

Finke links the cancellation to Blagojevich's desire for maximum media coverage since the legislation was a key initiative for the Guv, who is said to have presidential aspirations in 2008. But, as Finke puts it, "Reality got in the way." Political scandals involving Chicago Mayor Richard Daley hit the news the day before, which meant that much of Chicago's media would be unavailable to cover the signing of the games bill.

Clearly, it was a media coverage issue that led to the cancellation. Here at GamePolitics, we speculated that President Bush's then-pending announcement of his choice for the Supreme Court, to be aired Tuesday evening, might have been seen as grabbing the news cycle away from Blagojevich. As it turns out, the ESRB's Hot Coffee investigation was released on Wednesday, and the Governor will surely not miss the chance to mention the impact of the sex mod when he signs the bill. As Doug Finke reports, GTA: San Anreas was the game that drove Blagojevich to move forward with the legislation in the first place.

Finke also mentions that despite not signing the bill, Blagojevich, whom he describes as "the media-hungry governor," did a spot on the CBS Evening News on Tuesday. The bill must be signed by August 6th, or it will die, so expect action by Governor Blagojevich within the next week.