* Capitol News Illinois…
The top Republican in the Illinois House on Thursday called for Democrats, including Gov. JB Pritzker, to either demand that Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan answer questions before a Special Investigating Committee or resign immediately.
During a virtual news conference, Minority Leader Jim Durkin, of Western Springs, openly accused the investigating committee’s chairman, Hillside Democrat Emanuel “Chris” Welch, of deliberately stalling the investigation until after the Nov. 3 election, a move that Republicans warn could thwart the entire investigation.
“There is one person who is in charge, and that is Gov. Pritzker, and he is the leader of the state Democratic Party,” Durkin said. “Today I call on him to immediately demand those answers he has been requesting from Speaker Madigan or demand that he resign immediately.”
Durkin is one of three House Republicans who filed a petition calling for the investigation after Madigan was implicated in a bribery scheme involving utility giant Commonwealth Edison. In a deferred prosecution agreement filed in federal court in July, ComEd officials admitted that, over a nine-year period, they awarded no-work jobs and lobbying contracts to Madigan’s close associates in order to curry his favor for legislation that benefitted the company.
The number of people who just assume that a governor, any governor, can just snap their fingers and make something happen never ceases to amaze me, particularly after the Blagojevich/Quinn/Rauner experiences. My complaint isn’t really about Durkin, by the way. He undoubtedly knows he’s using a rhetorical device. But statements like that are just accepted whole cloth by others and it’s puzzling because it defies all history. Should the governor speak out? Yep. Should people pressure him to do so? Of course. But let’s not pretend we live in a world that doesn’t exist.
* Sun-Times…
State Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch, the Democrat leading the panel looking into Madigan’s dealings with ComEd, fired back that Durkin is the one who must “put the political performances aside and let our investigation take its course.”
Durkin started the latest verbal volley over the simmering legislative probe with a news conference responding to Welch’s decision two days earlier to delay any further hearings in the probe until after the Nov. 3 election.
The Republican leader from Western Springs, who filed the petition that created the special investigative committee, said the stalling of its work until after the election amounted to Welch attempting to take a dive for Madigan.
“After trying to find every possible roadblock to delay this committee, be it by repeatedly misrepresenting the U.S. Attorney’s Office position and refusing to discuss subpoenaed testimony … Chairman Welch conveniently realized that he was out of excuses and pulled the plug,” Durkin said.
* Daily Herald editorial…
The Illinois House created a Special Investigating Committee in September to study whether Speaker Michael Madigan should be censured for connections to the ComEd bribery scandal. This week, the committee’s chairman, Hillside Democrat Emanuel “Chris” Welch, said the body won’t meet again until after the election. Welch complained that committee members are doing too much political campaigning around the committee’s actions.
To be clear, only two of the committee’s six members face political challenges in November — Republicans Deanne Mazzochi, of Elmhurst, and Grant Wehrli, of Naperville — but, to whatever extent they are inserting the group’s activities into their campaign messages, they are hardly alone in trying to steer its work to political advantage.
Welch and the committee’s other two Democrats have done everything possible to block efforts to subpoena the speaker to answer questions about his involvement with the ComEd case. And, when ComEd offered to provide a document it said would clarify that Madigan — identified in the federal bribery case only as Public Official A — pressed the utility to place one of his supporters on its board of directors, Welch instead asked federal investigators to release several years’ worth of documents related to ComEd and Illinois governors, House and Senate leaders and their staffs going back through the Rauner and Quinn administrations.
In a release condemning delays of the committee’s work, Mazzochi colorfully, and accurately, called this tactic “asking for the haystack after we’ve already found the needle.”
That’s her best line yet.
*** UPDATE *** Jordan Abudayyeh…
As the Governor has said, he strongly believes the Speaker should answer questions and that any opportunity to answer questions is one the Speaker should take. That being said, there is a legislative process underway and as a co-equal branch of government, members of the General Assembly have used this process before and they are capable of managing it on their own.
- TheInvisibleMan - Friday, Oct 9, 20 @ 11:38 am:
Maybe Mr. Welsh should investigate the contributions from Ameren as well?
Lets see what turns up.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Oct 9, 20 @ 11:45 am:
=== investigate the contributions from Ameren as well===
LOL
Have you any idea how silly and vengeful that sounds?
- LarryLitesOut - Friday, Oct 9, 20 @ 12:08 pm:
Durkie. Zock & Whirls have used the dumbest tactics possible. It was like they a driving on the Interstate and take the exit marked Dead End.
There are so many other paths that could have been used. It mostly confirms Durkie starts when the the Trump DOJ hit dead end.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Oct 9, 20 @ 12:26 pm:
To the update;
===That being said, there is a legislative process underway and as a co-equal branch of government, members of the General Assembly have used this process before and they are capable of managing it on their own.===
I’ve thought this was the correct and *only* good answer for the Governor since July 18th.
To Durkin, Welch, et al.,
What Demmer wants, what Welch is doing, even what Durkin is doing because he can’t count on Demmer… it’s show business.
All of it, every ounce
If any were at all serious, Welch would agree to the thoughts and questions of Durkin, and Demmer and Wehrli and the partisan cries for immediacy would stop and the good governance of after the election “would be enough”
If Durkin has what he thinks in something to remove Madigan, then hold the powder, do it after the election.
If Welch is honest to the process of the committee, Welch would go through process and navigate with best practices… after the election.
I see the score, I know the inning, I’m not naive to the games, all games here.
Either it’s enough and it will be enough in 28 days, or it’s not enough.
Either we’re going to go at this with a honesty to the processes or we’re going to look at it with partisan eyes.
And let’s be real frank and honest;
If Demmer was going to be any type of spokesperson or leader to this, his achievement would be making it a bipartisan call to any and all his words. The activity says the lacking of that is the partisan reality.
- Cheswick - Friday, Oct 9, 20 @ 12:27 pm:
I can’t help but again wonder if what it’s really about is they want what Madigan has but they still can’t figure out how to get it.
- Euphemism-ist - Friday, Oct 9, 20 @ 12:33 pm:
Well rep Mazocchi, when you carry a hammer, everything looks like a nail. I don’t see the problem in releasing all the paper… legislative processes are deliberately slow so to claim delay is not really living up to their duty. And with the committee not holding meetings, members have plenty of time to now to come up with questions etc. Just because not meeting doesn’t mean they can’t do the work of the committee (the presser doesn’t count as work)
- Euphemism-ist - Friday, Oct 9, 20 @ 12:46 pm:
=Demmer and Wehrli and the partisan cries for immediacy would stop and the good governance of after the election “would be enough=
This is true. I also think if Welch had sustained motion for the subpoenas in the last hearing and set the next hearing to after the election, Demmer et all would have seriously jumbled and fumbled and jumped the gun like they did with the conference call before the last hearing. I see it as Welch restoring a little order here within his powers. I listened to the hearing. Welch seems reasonable and all he wanted was the Republicans to approach him about the subpoena motion prior to the hearing. Instead they sprung it on the committee then and there.
- Huh? - Friday, Oct 9, 20 @ 12:48 pm:
“after we’ve already found the needle.”
The representative has already made up her mind that Madigan is guilty and should be thrown out of the legislature.
So much for a fair investigation. The republicants version of a kangaroo court. They are upset because the democrats aren’t playing along.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Oct 9, 20 @ 12:55 pm:
===already made up her mind that Madigan is guilty and should be thrown out of the legislature===
Settin’ the bar mighty low there, dude.
- Wondering - Friday, Oct 9, 20 @ 1:13 pm:
I’m wondering if Durkin and his crew of future former state reps are so upset because they never thought Welch would flex on them? You can’t be a bunch of bullies and expect someone not to fight back at some point. They didn’t play this one well at all.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Oct 9, 20 @ 1:20 pm:
===they never thought Welch would flex on them?===
lol
Try again. C’mon. You don’t get to chair Exec and be weak sauce on MJM.
- Take a closer look - Friday, Oct 9, 20 @ 1:28 pm:
It sounds to me that Durkin was playing checkers while Welch and Company were playing chess.
- Chicagonk - Friday, Oct 9, 20 @ 2:22 pm:
@CloserLook - Or Welch knows his seat is as safe as safe can get and doesn’t mind being Madigan’s body man. Welch’s messaging is as much directed at his fellow Democrats as it is the super minority party.
- Lucky Pierre - Friday, Oct 9, 20 @ 2:53 pm:
Chess playing Democrats from top to bottom who pretend to be reasonable and moderate are enabling corruption once again.
- Lucky Pierre - Friday, Oct 9, 20 @ 3:53 pm:
JB should personally explain (not through a spokesperson) while he is ok with the leader of the Illinois Democratic party, aka PUBLIC OFFICIAL A, refusing to answer questions the Governor has demanded answers to about his involvement in a decade long bribery scheme with Con Ed.
autocorrect is unintentional but the shoe sure fits