* Gov. Bruce Rauner reverted to his “Speaker Madigan and the legislators he controls” rhetoric today. Click here. Relevant comments start just after the 11 minute mark

* On to John Kass…

Old, wizened, wealthier than a great lord but running out of time, House Speaker Michael J. Madigan sits upon the Iron Throne and looks at what he’s done to Illinois.

Perhaps not a throne of iron exactly, but some great pyramid of bleached skulls of taxpayers who couldn’t make it out of this failing state alive.

It really doesn’t matter what he sits on. For decade upon decade, Boss Madigan has controlled state government and the state Democratic Party, while making a fortune in his legal practice by reducing taxes for owners of downtown real estate, most of whom are Republicans. He sits on high for now.

But he’s in his 70s. His Southwest Side 22nd House District was once heavily Polish, Irish and Lithuanian, but the old ethnics have given way to young Latinos.

Madigan draws the state political maps, but he can’t control the demographics forever. He’s as sentimental as a boning knife, so he’s wise enough to see the end of things.

And he finally has a real challenger in the March 15 Democratic Party primary: Jason Gonzales, 40, a successful business consultant with two postgraduate degrees, one from MIT, the other from Harvard.

* PR consultant Kitty Kurth linked to the Kass column on her Facebook page and then explained why she’s working for Jason Gonzales…

(F)or me it is all about what Mike Madigan did to Patrick Botterman. And what he has not done for the Illinois Democratic Party. I have endured decades of humiliation when talking with my Democratic friends around the country and what seeing how they are all light years ahead of us because Madigan won’t join the modern world. No email in bound or outbound for the Illinois Dems.

Botterman ran John Schmidt’s Democratic primary campaign against Lisa Madigan in 2002.

* From the Daily Southtown…

Ed Ronkowski, chairman of the Will County Republican Party, says House Speaker Michael Madigan is behind the influx of cash into the Democrat’s coffers.

“(Rep. Kate Cloonen) does exactly what Madigan tells her to do,” Ronkowski says. “When Madigan authorizes money for a campaign, he asks people to vote a certain way. Republicans don’t do it that way.”

Cloonen disputes that depiction.

“There’s never been a time when the speaker has come to me and told me how to vote. That’s not how it works,” Cloonen says.