Rep. Dan Caulkins (R-Decatur) fumes about House Speaker Mike Madigan (D-Chicago) acting as if he's exempt from the rules he helped put in place to govern Springfield.
"These are the House rules that he has drafted over the last several decades," Caulkins told the Chambana Sun of the state's longest-tenured lawmaker declaring he has no intentions of appearing before a bipartisan Special House committee recently convened to look into his role in the still-unfolding pay-for-play scandal involving ComEd. "This is House Rule 91 as I recall."
Madigan, who also finds himself at the center of an ongoing federal corruption probe on the matter, made his feelings known in a three-page letter he fired off to committee members where he also defended his widely known penchant for patronage hiring as not ethically improper.
"He's not immune to House rules," Caulkins said. "I think it's very unfortunate that speaker Madigan has not come forward on his own to testify. I know that Gov. Pritzker has publicly at least three times asked him to do that."
In the end, Caulkins is hoping Madigan may be forced to appear, though he's convinced his act of stretching things and making the situation as chaotic as he can is all be design.
"What I see happening now is purely a political game being played to keep him out of the news until after the election," he said. "This is part of the problem that we have in Illinois when we have one-party rule."
In the end, Caulkins said Madigan owes an explanation to all the voters that have kept in power now for roughly the last four decades.
"I'd like to hear him tell his side of the story," he said.
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