Prairie State Wire

Mike Madigan is a man in love.

The usually stoic Illinois Speaker of the House is smitten.

And last week, he didn’t even try to hide who he holds dear.

The object of his affections?

Why, it is himself of course.

I’ve been in the news business for more than 30 years but I’ve never encountered a news release quite so full of self-adulation and gloating as the one Madigan issued about himself the day after the election:

“Last night’s election results definitively proved that the Rauner Republican playbook of attempting to make the entire 2018 election a referendum on Speaker Madigan, to distract from Republicans’ record, is a failure. Rauner and the Republican Party spent several years and hundreds of millions of dollars focused on tearing down one man, and last night that strategy definitively failed for Republicans up and down the ballot who joined in the effort.”

Ok, it’s a little weird that he talks about himself in the third person. But all the same, we get the message: He’s sticking it in the eye of his arch nemesis, Gov. Bruce Rauner, who was defeated last week.

And, yes, Bruce Rauner is a failure.

But just because your foe fails, doesn’t mean you’re a success.

Mike Madigan’s news release was the equivalent of him running on the street and hollering: “People really like me.”

Look, Illinois Republicans had a rough election.

The reasons are myriad: a GOP president unpopular in the Chicago suburbs, a Republican Party unable to unite after a bruising gubernatorial primary and getting outspent 3 to 1 by J.B. “Big Bucks” Pritzker.

None of these things equates to Mike Madigan being popular.

In fact, last year, a poll conducted by Southern Illinois University’s Paul Simon Public Policy Institute found that 61 percent of Illinoisans disapprove of Mike Madigan and 58 percent disapproved of Bruce Rauner.

Voters rendered a judgment Nov. 6 that had “damned if you do” edging out “damned if you don’t.”

But Madigan said this of Rauner’s efforts: “It failed because Speaker Madigan and the Democratic Party of Illinois are champions of smart economic and social policies that better the lives of Illinoisans and create a state that works for all of us.”

Huh?

Illinois has the worst credit rating in the nation, and has an unfunded pension liability of $250 billion according to Moody’s. The state is on the brink of insolvency.

Over the last 40 years, both Republicans and Democrats have contributed to this fiscal mess. But the common denominator during those four decades is Mike Madigan.

His fingerprints are on nearly every vote that has contributed to Illinois’ fiscal death spiral.

To say Mike Madigan has exhibited “smart economic policies” is silly.

For Madigan to claim such is an exercise in self delusion.

– Scott Reeder, a veteran statehouse journalist, works as a freelance reporter in the Springfield area; ScottReeder1965@gmail.com.