North Egypt News

Franklin County activist Karen Tucker has arrived at a harsh reality when it comes to what she thinks it will take for House Speaker Mike Madigan to pay for the offenses she thinks he has long perpetrated on the people of Illinois.

“He’s gotten away with so much for so long it’s almost like you’ll have to actually catch him burying the bodies for it to really mean anything,” Tucker told the North Egypt News. “It’s gotten to the point where he thinks he doesn’t have to answer to anyone at any time.”

With a bipartisan Special House committee now convened to look into some of the speaker’s more questionable behavior related to the ongoing ComEd federal corruption probe, Madigan recently let it be known he has no intention of answering questions about his suspected involvement before the bipartisan panel. The state’s longest-tenured lawmaker made his feelings clear in a three-page letter he sent to committee members in which he also forcefully defended his widely known practice of patronage hiring as not “ethically improper.”

“That problem with someone as amoral and corrupt as he’s shown himself to be is they never see a problem with what they’re doing,” Tucker added. “It’s what people like him do; they justify their actions and tell us all the good reasons they have for acting the way they do.”

No matter what, Tucker said she can never see Madigan leaving on his own, regardless of how bad things may get.

“He’s already proven that,” she said. “Illinois is on the downturn and will continue to pay a price as long as he’s in charge of things."