Madigan’s fall from power
Friday, Oct 18, 2024 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Hannah Meisel…
A steady drip of news leaks during the summer of 2019 began to outline a criminal probe with Madigan at its center, though indictments and highly visible FBI raids of other state and local elected Democrats later that summer and fall muddied the emerging picture.
And as General Assembly members settled back into the Capitol for their two-week fall veto session, the powerful speaker was dealing with fallout from the latest action taken by the feds against a prominent new target. Hours earlier, a member of Madigan’s House Democratic leadership team had been hauled into court after his arrest on a charge that he bribed a sitting state senator who happened to be cooperating with the FBI.
In a rare – and brief – availability with reporters in the crowded and noisy hallway off the Statehouse rotunda, the longtime speaker said he would take steps for House members to expel the representative from the body if he did not resign.
But quickly, the questions turned to why Madigan’s name had shown up in subpoenas made public after the spate of recent FBI searches and if he’d been contacted by the feds –which the speaker met with shrugs and a flat “no.” In response to a reporter asking whether he was a target of the investigation, Madigan issued a categorical denial.
“No, I’m not a target of anything,” he said.
Go read the rest.
* Meanwhile, Madigan’s trial should finally start next week…
- low level - Friday, Oct 18, 24 @ 2:04 pm:
Had he only stepped down to make way for Lisa to run for governor, none of this would have happened. Lisa was very popular - still is - even among progressives who always viewed the old man w suspicion. It didnt have to be like this but I guess he just couldnt envision life not being speaker. Like his mentor Richard J. Daley, perhaps he pictured himself staying on for the rest of his natural life.
- 47th Ward - Friday, Oct 18, 24 @ 2:11 pm:
“If I should fall from grace with God
Where no doctor can relieve me
If I’m buried in the sod
But the angels won’t receive me
Let me go, boys, let me go, boys
Let me go down in the mud, where the rivers all run dry”
Shane McGowan
- West Side the Best Side - Friday, Oct 18, 24 @ 3:11 pm:
Also Shane MacGowan:
“We watched our friends grow up together
And we saw them as they fell
Some of them fell into Heaven
Some of them fell into Hell”
- Anyone Remember - Friday, Oct 18, 24 @ 3:54 pm:
Whatever one thinks of Madigan (my lasting memory is he & David Vaught being stumped by Raymond Poe), the notion he’s guilty yet former VA Gov. Bob McDonnell’s $170K in gratuities are legal beggars belief …