Keep Your Mouth Shut And Don't Rat On Your Friends

Crain’s Chicago Business Columnist Greg Hines said it best. “Sleep with the dogs and you get fleas.” He was referring to Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan in a column where he strongly suggested it was time for a change.

Hines and many others feel a 2012 e-mail reported by WBEZ Radio in Chicago, from longtime Madigan Aide Mike McClain, might be the straw.  In writing, McClain sought lenience for a state worker in a disciplinary case arguing that the man was politically loyal and stayed silent about “the rape in Champaign.”

Yikes. The e-mail went on to say the worker did a good job of keeping quiet about ghosts on the state payroll. You throw that in with some rather convincing stories of sexual harassment on the speaker’s watch over the past year and you start to believe the man who has ruled Illinois for 37 years might be slipping.

Even with this revelation, which glosses over a sexual attack, the Governor and other state Democratic officials are not calling for Madigan’s ouster. And the Speaker isn’t calling for a legislative probe into the matter.

Here’s the most remarkable part of the McClain e-mail. It’s an e-mail. Who puts into writing a request for leniency for a state worker who helped hide rape and other illegalities? Who could be so stupid?

Here’s what will likely happen. The feds have been nipping at Madigan’s heels for years. They will find as much as they can on McClain, charge him, then try to flip him.

If you don’t understand, watch the movie Goodfellas. It is instructive. “Keep your mouth shut and don’t rat on your friends.”

Here’s to hoping Mike McClain never saw the movie.