* I’ve written about this topic before, but I’ve done it in a different way today. My Sun-Times column…
‘You were around the old timers who dreamed up how the families should be organized,” mob attorney Tom Hagen reminds stool pigeon Frank Pentangeli in “The Godfather, Part Two.” “How they based it on the old Roman legions and called them regimes . . . with the capos and soldiers, and it worked.”
Substitute “regimes” for “party caucuses,” “capos” for “deputy and assistant leaders” and “soldiers” for “rank-and-file legislators,” and it’s an almost perfect fit for how legislative leaders have organized the Illinois Statehouse.
And just like the old Roman legions, the Statehouse operates on loyalty.
Rank-and-file members are almost totally loyal to their leaders, which they perpetually demonstrate by voting for their leaders’ re-election and showing deference to their leaders’ decisions in all matters.
The leaders are, in turn, loyal to their members’ interests, and they show it any number of ways. Members are rewarded with jobs for friends and family, promotions to “capo” slots and sponsorship of important legislation.
The leaders’ most important job is protecting their members from election challenges by the other political party. And that brings us to my favorite mob movie, “GoodFellas.”
“All they got from Paulie was protection from other guys looking to rip them off. That’s what it’s all about. That’s what the FBI can never understand — that what Paulie and the Organization offer is protection for the kinds of guys who can’t go to the cops. They’re like the police department for wiseguys.”
Mobster Henry Hill’s real-life description of how mob bosses operate pretty much gives you the key to understanding how things work in Springfield.
Now, I don’t consider legislative leaders to be gangsters. But even the leaders would have to admit that the organizational mind-set is strikingly similar.
As with organized crime, protection is the absolute key to legislative loyalty. As a class, politicians are a fearful bunch. They live in terror of losing their jobs, offending the wrong people or any number of things. And the leaders know that once a rank-and-file member is convinced that he or she is safe in the hands of a competent, fearless leader, then everything usually falls right into place.
If a member has an election opponent, the leader steps in with gigantic mountains of campaign cash, armies of trained staff and anything else that’s needed to win. Even if the incumbent loses, the rest of the caucus can still feel safe if they believe that the leader did everything humanly possible.
The leaders also do their best to protect their favored interest groups. Legislation that hurts those groups is either killed or watered down. In exchange, those interest groups show loyalty by filling up the leaders’ campaign funds and hiring their former top staffers as lobbyists.
You can watch this protection-loyalty game play out almost every day.
For instance, several House Republicans privately said they wanted to balance the state budget by voting for an income tax increase during the spring session. But they didn’t dare because House GOP Leader Tom Cross was dead set against it.
House Speaker Michael Madigan has without a doubt perfected this leadership style. His protection skills are impeccable, and few members have had the courage or even the inclination to go against his will. Most of those who did have paid a very serious price.
Henry Hill was hidden away for years in the federal witness protection program after he testified against his boss, Paulie Cicero. Nobody opposing Madigan would ever wind up like that, of course. But they fear Madigan like nothing else.
Perhaps now you can understand why the reform groups are finding it so difficult to change the way things are done in the Illinois General Assembly. Even if the members really wanted serious change, the system is specifically designed to strongly discourage anyone from actually fighting for it.
- WiseGuy - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 7:34 am:
Even though I totally agree with the concept, I can’t help but think that the legislative leaders will take offense at having their carefully crafted system compared to a mob operation.
But I would love to hear the Speaker tell Rich to go home and “get his shinebox” at a future press conference!
- Hank - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 7:40 am:
Good column. Da speaker would like to have a sit down with youse to discuss the errors of your opinion
- BigDog - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 7:57 am:
So Rich, in this context that you have presented, do you feel that there is any reasonable hope for true reform? Do the “common folk” (or, voters) have any way to begin attempts to deconstruct the system as it currently exists?? Your article does not seem to present us with much hope for the future.
- Leave a Light on George - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 8:07 am:
You will soon be sleeping with the fishes.
- always hope? - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 8:07 am:
Yes Rich - please give us some hope for the little guy - can your next column focus on specifics of how the people go about taking our government back?
(not legislation)
- Forgotten Few - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 8:09 am:
Leave the gun. Take the canoli.
- Hank - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 8:09 am:
Big Dog, read the ST today about our elected official’s pension plans and your question will answered
- Honest Abe - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 8:10 am:
These concepts also apply to state agency administrators, who aspire to be like the Speaker in power, but do not possess the intellect to do it as effectively. They also demand loyality and much head nodding and are all form no substance.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 8:11 am:
Kudos to you Rich. Trying to explain the Patch to the starry-eyed is sometimes too unbelieveable for them to grasp. You always hear “they should just vote how they feel, make their mark, make a difference…” but few will open their eyes, then they are disappointed at the reality. Those who, sadly or not, know pieces of the process are enjoying this piece, because, frankly, one of the reasons that it does stay, is that it works, for better or worse. Like the mob, it works, but at the expense of who … the non-mob members(?)
- He Makes Ryan Look Like a Saint - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 8:17 am:
Great analogy Rich, While it will never happen in our life time, Term Limits would solve this….but then again you just explained why it will never happen in our life time!
- Bill - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 8:17 am:
It is what it is. Anyone who doesn’t like it doesn’t have to play.
- vise77 - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 8:25 am:
“It is what it is. Anyone who doesn’t like it doesn’t have to play.”
No, wrong. Just because the greedy and powerful, backed by money (and their own cynical political skills, of course) have crafted a system designed to benefit themselves at the expense of anything approaching democracy, does not mean we should just grin and bear it. I am so sick of the shrugging attitude toward all this from many of my fellow (so-called) citizens. If you’d rather live in something approaching rule by cabal, just admit it and get on with your life. There is nothing all that new in human history or nature with wanting to be ruled by others, of wanting to be a subject instead of a citizen (which is hard work that must be sustained over most of one’s lifetime).
Remember, we are paying dearly for all this, even as most of us struggle with lay offs or pay and 401(k) reductions, and face higher taxes as services decline significantly in all parts of this state. Read the Sun-Times article about the pension mess for further evidence.
- Amalia - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 8:29 am:
so, Rep. Dunkin is what character in this analogy?
- flatearth - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 8:32 am:
Rome burned under its own wait and stagnation of its officals an so will they.
- Johnny USA - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 8:37 am:
I think a bunch of new laws will get us out of this mess. Maybe a few ‘czar’ positions, too.
We just haven’t found the winning combination of laws to combat this, so I say we keep trying.
- wordslinger - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 8:42 am:
And the price for perceived disloyalty? Ask Gary LaPaille.
“Mr. Corleone never asks a second favor once he’s refused the first, understood?”
But you have to maintain the raw power to keep loyalty bred of fear. Once the federales struck at Blago, everyone knew he lost his powers of punishment and reward, so every “friend” he ever had in politics gladly participated in taking him down.
“It’s not personal, Sonny. It’s strictly business.”
- Phineas J. Whoopee - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 8:45 am:
Your right about the timidity of the legislators. A very good friend of mine is one of them creatures. He is unbeatable but is still a nervous wreck that he might have an opponent. Why actually having to run against someone and espouse your views to the electorate is so terrifying escapes me but that is how they think.
Term limits would help solve this inbreeding.
- Anon - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 8:51 am:
Proportional voting would have limited this power in the House. Who is the far-sighted boss who got rid of that limitation on the Speaker’s power?
- No name - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 8:55 am:
The only hope for true reform lies in the U.S. Attorney’s Office which is the only entity that can “take out” the leadership via indictment.
- MrJM - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 9:00 am:
“I don’t feel I have to wipe everybody out, Tom. Just my enemies.” — Michael Corleone
- Rich Miller - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 9:01 am:
No Name, that would mean they’re doing something illegal. I’m not so sure of that, but you got the evidence?
- cassandra - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 9:02 am:
I agree with everything Rich says in the article but I do think we citizens bear part of the blame
If the state House and Senate are dictatorships, the dictators probably don’t want to lose their
loyal minions and contend with new, unknown, legislators, so they do have pay some attention to
helping them retain their seats. So if the legislators are getting a lot of mail or calls about an issue, the dictators have to pay some attention to that.
But how many people know who their legislators are and how to e-mail them or where to write them a letter. How many of them actually write those e-mails and letters. You many not have a lot of respect for these folks, but they are the only legislators we’ve got. And pressure on them means pressure on the big bosses, if it gets strong enough. You have to work within the system while trying to change it. Or do something, not nothing.
- blah - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 9:03 am:
Rich, this is a fun read, but I think you are over-generalize the legislative leaders. Your account is true for Madigan and I bet Cullerton as well. But you cannot say the same for Cross and Radogno. I cannot understand why Cross’ caucus continues to follow him into the abyss. In 2008 the state democrats were tearing themselves apart, yet Cross managed to lose seats. His top Deputy, Brent Hassert, faced a complete unknown (McAsey) and should have had Cross’ “protection” but if you look at the reports, it is as if they just let Hassert lose. It was a landslide. If you’re in his caucus how can you even pretend Cross will help you after he left Hassert hanging in the wind?
- wordslinger - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 9:03 am:
In any system, in any society, at any time, leaders — saints, sinners and everyone in-between — will always seek to maximize power. It’s human nature.
That’s why the designers of the American system created separation of powers, checks and balances.
One of the problems we have in state government is that the great majority of citizens are indifferent to its workings. That allow those who show up — whether at the polls, or in campaign contributios, or in lobbying — to exert a disproportionate influence on how power is exercised.
What’s the percentage of the voting-eligible population you have to persuade to win a primary? Bupkis.
Is it hopeless, can you beat the system? Absolutely. Jane Byrne did. Harold Washington did. They did so with massive voter turnouts. Decisions are made by those who show up.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 9:11 am:
===But you cannot say the same for Cross and Radogno. I cannot understand why Cross’ caucus continues to follow him into the abyss.===
Um, didn’t those two sentences contradict each other? Re-read the column, please.
- VanillaMan - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 9:21 am:
I don’t compare our state government to gangsters. I compare them to the Soviets.
Both Illinois and the old Soviet Union are one party governments in a decaying economic environment. Since 1976, more people move out of Illinois, than move in. The state’s economy is stagnated. The national economic booms are either non-existent or fall far shorter here than in most other states.
After 35 years, we have a government that is focused on protecting what is left of the economic pie. When these things happen, you get top-down government decision making, few reforms, and little economic growth. The people in power, remain in power. They pass their power onto family members. What you are describing as gangster-minded organizations, is what we have seen repeatedly through history when an economy stagnates - it forms these kinds of governments.
The immediate solution isn’t a government solution - because the government is the problem. There are no viable solutions capable of coming from governments in this situation. This is why we have seen the budget gridlock repeatedly since 2005. Reality is meeting political lies.
Feeding this organization with more money will also not work. The problem of reduced revenue is due to the perpetual economic stagnation, not due to low taxes.
Pro-government supporters don’t get it. We have a broken government which has failed to keep the economic success that was Illinois throughout the 19th and 20th Centuries. Illinois government got insular and started focusing on internal monetary redistribution instead of external monetary gain. The lacked the foresight previous Illinois governments had, so when the Industrial Age slowly petered out - so did Illinois.
While it is not wrong to be concerned about how the stagnating economic pie is being divided - not focusing on growing that economic pie is the real problem. We have been stagnating for a generation. It took that long to eat up all the extra, because Illinois was that successful!
With our stagnant economy, we have stagnant Soviet-style government.
The solution will require that we allow this corrupted, broken state government to bottom. Stop bailing it out. Let it crash. Rats don’t leave until the ship sinks. In our case, if we don’t want the rats to continue running Illinois, the only way to get rid of them is to allow this ship to sink.
- downstate hick - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 9:24 am:
Great article Rich,
- The Doc - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 9:25 am:
From the beating a dead horse department - that’s why we’ve witnessed such a disinclination to change our state’s redistricting process. Unless and until incumbents are more fearful of their constituency than they are of their party leaders, there’s little motivation to buck the trend.
And MSM coverage of this particular issue, which I consider to be of the most import, has been woeful.
- siriusly - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 9:27 am:
Good column as always Rich, but I think its too simplistic. The mob’s ultimate power came down to the ability to protect life and inflict death and was only partially checked by fear of jail. In Springfield there are many other forces at work.
I think the end of Casino might be a more appropriate analogy. Where if the mob ceases to control the casinos, another force, like the corporate entities just grows in power. Power abhors a vacuum. If the legislative leaders didn’t have the power, the special interests would.
- Pot calling kettle - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 9:35 am:
I you find a horse’s head in your bed this weekend, I hope you’ll be willing to tell us.
Even when someone is left swinging in the wind, the remaining members have to decide whether it’s worth it to go alone…it’s not. Since the leaders control both the bulk of the campaign cash AND the leadership positions and committee chairs (which add to a member’s pay and boost fund-raising potential), it would be really stupid to go against the flow. You’ll notice that the extra pay for leadership remained intact even in this year’s tight budget.
- You Go Boy - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 9:55 am:
Excellent article. We are cursed with a regime of “Fredo’s”, statewide and nationally. I tell people everything you want to know about life can be found in The Soprano’s or The Simpson’s. Blago has the intent of a gangster and the brains of Homer Simpson.
- CircularFiringSquad - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 10:09 am:
Capt fax: Hate to say this,but this was an extremely poor analogy….the “soldiers” are locally elected by registered voters. Theb they are reelect.
These locally elected officials react to local issues
Any leader who does not respond does not stay leaders very long.
a strong caucus can yield a strong leader who can stand up to well financed, special interests — be they banks, utlities, insurance, gamblers. sloopy doctors or shoddy manufacturers.
Without strong leaders who runs the show? Crackpots like Blagoof? Media darlings?
Special interest stooges?
Term limits will only serve those masters
Be careful in following Motehr Tribune too far down the road.
- Shore - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 10:13 am:
The problem with your column and the blog is that there are 2 ways to change the system. Editorial boards and political journalists can either target the leaders (unlikely to work) or you ran rip the rank and file legislators and let their constituents know what they are really all about (unlikely to be done by media because you guys buy their shtick as nice innocent victims).
The latter was tried and used to get rid of the GOP Congress. Editorial boards accross the country held nice 7 term legislators accountable for iraq, spending, corruption despite how well they had lead and or voted on things like health it bills and pork brought home.
You have the option to change things, and it starts with being a real political columnist and naming and shaming these members you say are the foot soldiers-the hamos’s, may’s, garrett’s, schoenbergs, who somehow aren’t accountable for the springfield cesspool.
- dupage dan - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 10:35 am:
Circular Firing Squad,
You forget that local voters also like the idea of someone who brings the bacon home. Local issues are important but a rep who is (or perceived to be) a powerful figure in the legislature will be re-elected. Everyone likes term limits for the other reps in other districts. That’s why it is difficult to enact term limits.
VM, Perfect analysis. While I agree with the description of the power structure that Rich presents, you describe with devestating accuracy the overall milieu in which it operates.
I wonder, is there anything us comrades can do to accelerate the process?
- Responsa - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 11:43 am:
Good article Rich, and some really insightful and thought provoking comments today to add to the discussion. But gawd, the seeming hopelessness of being able to change it all almost makes you want to stick your head in a gas oven sometimes. And, it’s not because most voters are apathetic, IMO. I just think most voters feel a heavy sense of helplessness, too.)
- Nobody Sent - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 11:52 am:
yeah, they got a lotta buffers…
- Its Just Money - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 12:06 pm:
Rich, You have yourself pointed out in your own Capitol Faxes that the House Republicans are the most democratic (small “d”) of the four caucuses. While you did at least mention the House Democrats, you couldn’t think up one single example over the years? What about the stupid pension schemes over the past, where House Democrats even took the Floor and said they were bad ideas, or later on said they wish they could take back their vote? And you ignore the fact that a handful of House Republicans bucked Cross when they voted for the transit bill? And you single out the House Republicans because, what…Lou Lang is blaming House Republicans for not raising taxes? The REPUBLICAN party that is in the MINORITY doesn’t want to raise taxes. Shocker!
- Rich Miller - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 12:10 pm:
===What about the stupid pension schemes over the past===
You mean when Cross substituted members on a committee last spring to help kill a pension reform bill?
lol
- Quiet Sage - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 12:18 pm:
Rich-the situation you describe is an accurate depiction of the General Assembly circa 2002 (pre-Blagojevich). The situation is much more severe now, with a cracking of Constitutional structures designed to preserve some checks and balances in the respective powers of the legislative leaders and Governor. For example, the unlimited discretion conferred upon Governor Quinn this spring to spend $1.2 billion in tax payer dollars is an abnegation of the legislature’s duty to appropriate funds for specific purposes, and a violation of Constitutional separation of powers. The apparent extinction of conference committees, and even votes to recede on legislation, curtails the ability of rank-and-file members to influence the shape of legislation in the later stages of its passage.
Pre-Blagojevich, it was understood by all the major players that a legislative session would end in a grand, compromise deal negotiated by the leaders. The rank-and-file legislators had some input on the final result with respect to specific issues of particular interest to them. Also, the mere process of compromising forced the leaders to accept some opposing positions. Now, it appears that the the leaders are no longer willing to compromise, and there will be no more final deals.
- bluedog demo - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 12:19 pm:
and the voters thought a Constitutional Convention would cost to much. How much is the current ” system ” costing you the lemmings ?
- Inish - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 12:28 pm:
Dictators only lead by permission. It is not a viable excuse to say it is Madigan’s fault when less than 50% of the eligible voting population bothers to get off their couch and be counted.
The analogue is DEAD on- the population at large does not operate from fear but apathy- it is easier to say “it’s their fault…”
- CircularFiringSquad - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 12:32 pm:
DuP Dan —- Did not mention, but I never forget the “love my guy, hate the institution” folks
I also forgot to ask what grand service, program etc would become available in IL with the weak caucus, weak leader era that will come with term limits:
— more sloppy doctors
— nuke plants on the lakefront (opps they got that lsst time)
I think you get the point and understand how far off the mark the Capt Fax was this a.m. Fortunately it was lost in the Sun Times discovering that pensions are expensive.
Good thing most of us will never collect one
- wordslinger - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 3:29 pm:
Cousin Ralph, that Acorn Leviathan just keeps on keeping the folks down.
Their insidious presence in institutions like Lehman Bros., AIG, and the SEC for their own enrichment is the untold scandal of our time.
- Okay Then... - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 3:43 pm:
I agree with this. Politics in this state do function like organized crime
- Ron Mexico - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 3:46 pm:
Take a close look at California (at least we’re not California!!!) before you advocate term limits. In the Cal. legislature, there’s far less interest in responsible, long-term planning than in Illinois…
- Okay Then... - Friday, Sep 11, 09 @ 4:15 pm:
Ain’t that a kick in the head?
The text edited out of my previous post was inspired by the movie “A Bronx Tale,” which is a story about a Mob Boss named Sunny and an impressionable young neighborhood boy he befriends. Sunny and Mike Madigan are very similar. Just sayin’ .
Ron Mexico,
Other states have term limits and are doing quite well. California is an extreme case on just about everything, so it is not fair to use it when making comparisons.