This is legendary sportscaster, commentator and deepest of thinkers Howard Cosell, speaking of Illinois politics.
I have been gone lo these many years, but, for many good reasons, am not forgotten.
A cur of a reporter solicited my opinion as to the vagaries and vicissitudes of the Illinois political scene this past year.
I deigned to respond and, as a consequence of my admittedly condescending generosity, offer the FINAL — how could it be otherwise? — disposition of the issue.
DOWN goes Madigan.
Three simple words — the snap, crackle and pop of my singularly brilliant lexicon — sum up the most significant political event of 2021 in Illinois.
Yes, I refer to the once-unthinkable political demise of the heretofore all-powerful, longtime Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan.
This political savant learned to ply his trade sitting at the knee of the legendary Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley.
At its zenith, Madigan’s political reach exceeded that even of his mentor as he voraciously and methodically grasped for more power, more perks and more patronage.
If only his priorities had included sound public policy, perhaps Illinois would not now be the equivalent of a punch-drunk pugilist trying to bob and weave his way back to an unachievable condition of fiscal sobriety.
Some predicted that Madigan’s political demise would never happen, could never happen.
They averred this peerless pol would rule Illinois for decades to come, that even in his dotage Madigan would remain the political straw that stirred Illinois’ drink.
Of course, I never saw it that way, and why would a commentator of my unmatched sagacity and perspicacity, however self-effacing it may be, err in such an egregious manner.
No one lasts forever.
That’s manifestly unfair, particularly in my case, but still an undeniable truism.
The end was nigh.
Still, Madigan never saw the bullet coming.
One day, he was adding up his profits in his political counting room; the next day, the U.S. attorney in Chicago was foreshadowing the speaker’s political doom.
Those in the media, scurrilous jackals WHOM THEY ARE, dubbed it the “ComEd bribery scandal.”
Voluminous grand-jury documents outlined a tale of corporate and political skullduggery and avarice that fleeced millions of dollars from rate-payers. Madigan was cast in the starring role in this vast, yearslong conspiracy.
His friends and associates — swinish lawyers insist I say “allegedly” — got no-show jobs at the utility, and the utility got what it wanted in Springfield courtesy of the speaker’s legendary legislative legerdemain.
But that was then. Before. The. Fall.
It was a different story in the aftermath.
Close Madigan associates were besieged by criminal indictments that carry prodigious penalties.
This tsunami of investigative terror bolstered the courage of previously weak-kneed and resentful members of Madigan’s House Democratic Caucus who — just as Brutus turned on Caesar — finally found the courage to bring the curtain down on Madigan’s astounding career in Illinois politics.
Astounding. That’s a word I do not use often, unless it’s to describe my accomplishments.
But it’s fitting in the case of the former speaker.
We shall not see his like again. Some might assert that is a good thing, an arguable proposition.
History shows that, in Illinois, someone bad is inevitably replaced by someone worse.
Also to be determined is the fate of this wily operator.
The speaker insists he is “innocent,” a word that does not normally go hand-in-hand with an individual of his character.
But he’ll be a tough target for federal prosecutors to take down.
Some may not want to hear that, but I tell it like it is.
This is Howard Cosell, speaking from ... well, that’s none of your business.
(Sports columnist Richard Sandomir is the inspiration for channeling the inimitable Howard Cosell.)
