In the week since U.S. Attorney John Lausch charged Commonwealth Edison with bribery, most of the attention has focused on Public Official A — Illinois Speaker of the House Michael Madigan.
As the charging documents lay out, ComEd admitted proffering payments and positions in hopes of winning legislative support from Speaker Madigan, who has not been charged with a crime.
The documents show systemic corruption inside ComEd that ranged from the prosaic to the profound. ComEd hired interns put forward by Madigan’s 13th Ward organization; gave questionable contracts to Madigan patronage workers and hired lobbyists in Madigan’s orbit; guaranteed 850 hours of billing for a law firm favored by the speaker; and even placed a Madigan designee onto ComEd’s board of directors, according to information in the ComEd charging document.
The government-for-sale system needs to come to an end. But let’s reserve some outrage — and demand for reform — for the complicity and corrupt behavior of the state’s largest utility.