For decades, House Speaker Michael Madigan and everyone around him insisted that the man was always very scrupulous and extremely careful about not only the language that he used, but the language he allowed to be used in his presence. For instance, if a property-tax client of his law firm began to speak about legislation they were interested in, Speaker Madigan insisted he would immediately stop the conversation in its tracks and inform the client that he could do nothing for them. And nobody else ever said otherwise.

Canada's Prime minister Justin Trudeau, with the enthusiastic support of his assistant Deputy Minister/Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland, unlawfully invoked Canada's Emergency Powers after two weeks of uncontestedly peaceful protest by mostly Canadian truckers using their rigs to occupy the streets surrounding Ottawa’s parliament buildings.  Before Prime minister Trudeau's emergency declaration, local law enforcement and the protestors enjoyed a certain obvious camaraderie because truckers are as beloved as police officers and it was a chance to demonstrate their mutual loyalty, trust, and respect.

By the end of 2020, most people assumed there were only three ways to get House Speaker Michael Madigan out of office, and none were going to happen anytime soon. Not one of those scenarios involved the Republican Party, the Chicago Tribune editorial board, the Illinois Policy Institute, or their fellow travelers and funders of the coordinated effort to dethrone the state’s Democratic king. Their constant attacks on Speaker Madigan only tightened the partisan and union support around him and strengthened his resolve to remain in office by any means necessary.

This entire controversy over Sangamon County Judge Raylene Grischow’s odd ruling earlier this month that statewide mask/vaccine/testing mandates at schools are a “type of quarantine” and therefore fall under the state’s quarantine laws (which include individual due-process protections) could’ve all been prevented with a simple bill last year.