Madigan Trial Begins

For all you political junkies, this trial promises far more entertainment than Burke's:

• Michael J. Madigan has been the man at the center of corruption trials in Chicago for nearly two years, painted by prosecutors as an all-powerful political wizard who sought to line his pockets and augment his political power through a series of bribery schemes.

  But for the first time Monday, the man himself sat in the well of a courtroom at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse when Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Streicker gestured toward the former Illinois House speaker and accused him and a longtime ally of “corruption at the highest levels of state government.”

  “This was the defendants’ racket,” Streicker said as she began her opening statement in Madigan’s racketeering conspiracy trial. “The corruption of public office for private gain. This racket went on for years.”

That's pretty much the M.O. for every Illinois, Cook County and Chicago pol for over a century. They've just gotten better at shielding it from public view, using "referrals" to law firms where they happen to be partners, and then (like Ed Burke) altering their legislative votes after the fact to hide the steering of business.

Madigan's trial is significant in that ex-aldercreature and current fbi mole Danny Solis wore a wire that provided key evidence in convicting Burke, and Madigan's right hand man and co-defenmdant has already been convicted in a previous trial.

Lots of cards stacked against Madigan.