Word: madigans
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...campaign donations from what turned out to be a bigoted rock band, though she did wisely donate the cash to anti-hate groups. "He really did go out and put the arm on people to raise money," says Redfield, who knew and briefly worked with Michael Madigan in the 1970s...
...their power, the Madigans don't exactly embrace the notion that they constitute a political line of succession. "Calling them a dynasty, I don't know if that's unfair," says the elder Madigan's spokesman Steve Brown, who has been with his boss for 26 years. "He's powerful, but he wields that power with respect and, more importantly, by talking to people. He doesn't use his power as a big hammer over someone's head...
...Madigan, a graduate of Notre Dame and Loyola University Law School, got his start in politics as a ward leader from the working-class and politically powerful southwest side of Chicago. He headed to the state capital of Springfield in 1970 as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, or "Con Con" - the same body that helped craft the impeachment rules Madigan is now playing by - and really never left. Over more than 30 years, he has pushed through legislation on such issues as education, electrical deregulation, child-predator laws, medical and mental-health care and, recently, a transportation tax that...
...Birkett, a Republican state attorney from DuPage County (outside Chicago) puts it, Madigan demands respect and gets it. "I've had the chance to work with Michael Madigan for some years, and while I've felt on some occasions that he has helped ax my bills, there have been years when he has brought them through - allowing the state to do more to protect our children, for example...
...Those diplomatic words come from a man many are expecting will put up a fight for the governor's mansion in 2010, when Lisa Madigan is also expected to run. When asked whether he would have made the same move as Lisa Madigan in trying to get the governor ousted, Birkett insisted he would not. "Illinois is currently the laughingstock of the nation," he claimed. It was a power play by the AG, he said, and one that stood little chance of success since it requires some proof that the governor is somehow incapacitated - not just allegedly corrupt...