Editorial: Here’s how Michael Madigan browbeats Illinois

From the Chicago Tribune

July 9, 2014

We keep wondering when Democrats in the Illinois House — forlorn little mushrooms on whom Speaker Michael Madigan regularly dumps his putrid embarrassments — will decide they’ve had enough of self-serving-antics-by-Mike.

Maybe never. Maybe they’re breathlessly seduced by the campaign money he gives to them and the cozy district lines he bestows on them. Or maybe they draw perverse pride from hobnobbing with clout, even if that means marching in subservient humiliation as his dupes.

Then again, maybe the sorry consequences for Illinois citizens of Madigan’s 44 years in Springfield — witness your broke and broken state — are sparking some dim awareness within his caucus: Even as his legislative giveaways to cronies drove Illinois toward financial ruin, Dear Leader still obsessed on rigging government decisions to help his political toadies. Have we all, um, been chumped?

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