11/21/20
The nation’s eyes may be focused on the increasingly pathetic
attempts of President Trump to hold onto an office he clearly lost
earlier this month. One would think
more attention would be paid, both by political enthusiasts and by the President
and his team, to the senatorial races in Georgia, which are truly
undecided and on which much of the country’s future depends. (See MOST
OF THE PUNDITS WERE HUMBLED BY THE ELECTION RESULTS…BUT NOT YOURS TRULY,
11/6/20.), but I digress. Here in
Illinois, though, true political junkies are focused, for at least the next
week or so, not on the Don Quixote in the White House or on the really
important races in Georgia, but, rather, on what we consider the real politics,
i.e., state and local politics, specifically, the future of House Speaker
Michael J. Madigan, the longest serving state house speaker in our nation’s
history.
Yours truly, while generally not hesitant to make predictions on most things political, will not even attempt to make a prediction on either the legal or political future of the Speaker. I will, however, point out, as have many in the local media and in politics, that the Speaker’s legal fate lies largely in his most trusted and loyal majordomo, Michael McClain, who acted in the Commonwealth Edison Affair (See “COULD THIS BE THE END OF (SPEAKER MADIGAN)?”, 7/18/20) and, one suspects, plenty of other dealings of Speaker Madigan, as the Speaker’s primary, and probably only, buffer. Everything had to go through Mr. McClain, providing Mr. Madigan with plausible deniability. So if Mr. McClain should start cooperating, it’s curtains for Mr. Madigan if, indeed, Mr. Madigan has committed any crimes; it is useful to note that, at this stage, the Speaker has not been charged with or indicted for anything. It would not be going too far to conjecture that the indictments of former Commonwealth Edison CEO Anne Pramaggirore and lobbyists John Hooker and Jay Doherty were designed with little else in mind but to get them to flip on Mr. McClain, intensifying the pressure on Mr. McClain to flip on Mr. Madigan.
On the political front, it looks like, despite Mr.
Madigan’s protestations to the contrary, his opponents, at last count, had the
votes to oust him as Speaker and that if he loses his speakership, he will
probably lose his position as head of the Illinois Democratic Party. His opponents’ primary argument against Mr. Madigan,
i.e., that he has acted as an ankle-weight, or worse, on the Democratic Party in
this state due to his vast unpopularity among broad segments of the electorate,
has plenty of merit. Candidates for
Illinois House and Senate seats, and even U.S. House seats, that could be
branded with the “friend (or stooge) of Madigan” label were confronted
with a headwind that more of them than expected could not surmount. More importantly,
Illinois Supreme Court Justice Thomas Kilbride was defeated for retention
largely because he was labelled, rightly or wrongly, as “Madigan’s Justice.” The scarlet letters in Illinois politics in
2020 were clearly “FOMM,” i.e., “Friend of Mike Madigan.”
On a more personal level, as many of you know, I
occasionally give talks to small groups on Chicago and Illinois politics. Over the last several years, the first
question in the Q&As following these presentations has invariably been
something to the effect of “How do we get rid of Mike Madigan?” One might argue that DuPage County,
where most of these talks take place, is a Republican county and a natural breeding
ground for distaste of the Speaker. But
at least the first of those assumptions has been invalidated over the last few
years, primarily by President Trump (See PRESIDENT
TRUMP WILL NOT BE RE-ELECTED, 4/22/20), but also by demographic factors far
beyond the control of either Mr. Trump or Mr. Madigan. People outside the 13th Ward
and its environs simply do not like Michael Madigan.
Despite current appearances and the validity of the anti-Madigan
arguments, however, yours truly is in no hurry to pronounce Mr. Madigan
politically dead. Though a sufficient number
of Democrats to defeat him have declared that they will oppose Mr. Madigan when
he runs for re-election as Speaker, don’t count him out yet. He is smarter than perhaps his entire caucus
combined and he is dealing with politicians from Illinois, who happen to be an
especially meretricious lot and who, at least as a group, have never been known
for displays of courage or coolness under pressure. He could still win yet another term as
Speaker despite the length of the odds he currently faces.
While yours truly is no fan of Speaker Madigan, I have to
admire the guy simply because he does what he does better than anybody certainly
in the state of Illinois, probably in the country, and maybe in the world. You don’t stay on top of the heap of the
tumultuous politics of the state of Illinois for 37 years on the basis of good
looks, congeniality, and a talent for, er, obfuscation, the predominant traits
of most of our state’s, and nation’s, politicians. Nobody since one of his mentors, the late,
great Richard J. Daley, has practiced politics with the aplomb of
Speaker Madigan. Even though I, and
most people, don’t like the results of the application of Mr. Madigan’s overwhelming
political skill and power, we have to admit that nobody plays the game more
effectively than Mike Madigan.
Consideration of Mr. Madigan’s skill, dedication, smarts,
and consequent success leads to something that has been nagging at me for years,
to wit, how much of the animosity directed toward Mr. Madigan from politicians
of both parties, most of whom have come and gone since he became Speaker in 1983,
arises not out of their being crusaders for good government and hence their being shocked and appalled at Mr. Madigan’s
real or imagined transgressions but, rather, out of a sense of envy? How many, while publicly decrying the corruption,
real or imagined, and/or the absolute dominance of Illinois politics of and by Michael
Madigan are not secretly saying, or at least thinking
“Damn, I wish I could have done what that guy has
done! I wish I had half his power. I wish that I could be ‘the guy,’ just like
Mike Madigan.”?
How many of these scrub squad players, Democrat and
Republican, care not a whit for good government, fiscal responsibility, or the
other ideals for which they pretend to pine, but, rather, just want to be
like Mike?
First, it is sometimes said, admittedly usually
incorrectly, that we can judge a man by his enemies. Given that Governor J.B. Pritzker, Senator
Tammy Duckworth, and Senator Dick Durbin and a whole host of lesser but
perhaps equally dyspeptic light(weight)s have called for Mr. Madigan to
step down from his speakership, his position as head of the Illinois Democratic
Party, or both, what conclusions can we draw?
If a man can be judged by his enemies, how bad a guy can Speaker Madigan
be?
Second, and more seriously, those of the press and in
politics who are so fervently calling for the end of Michael J. Madigan ought to
be careful what they wish for.
See my two books, The Chairman, A Novel of
Big City Politics and The Chairman’s Challenge,
A Continuing Novel of Big City Politics, for further illumination on
how things work, or at least used to work, in Chicago and Illinois
politics.
