Another Illinois Machine Politician Heads for Prison, but the Alternative Has Been Far Worse for Gun Owners

The former head of the Illinois Democrat party and the longest-serving Speaker of the Illinois House, Michael Madigan, will soon be calling a federal prison home. After a complex, multi-week trial, a jury has found him guilty of multiple counts of political corruption. Given his current age 83, he’s likely to spend the rest of his days in the federal pen, which most would say is fitting.

While corrupt Land of Lincoln politicians winding up in jail is hardly anything new and gun owners probably won’t shed a lot of tears over his conviction given Madigan’s general support for gun control for the little people, the power vacuum he left behind has left gun owners in an even worse position.

But first, more on the conviction from The Center Square . . .

Government attorneys say the corruption conviction Wednesday of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan was historic.

In Courtroom 1203 at the Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. Courthouse Wednesday, a jury convicted Madigan on 10 counts of bribery, conspiracy, wire fraud and use of a facility to promote unlawful activity.

Morris Pasqual, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, said the longtime speaker breached and violated the public trust over and over again.

“Bribery, whether it’s the old-fashioned cash stuffed in an envelope or the more refined practiced by Madigan, it’s still illegal, it’s still corrupt, and it’s still against the law, and it still undermines public confidence in government,” Pasqual said.

Pasqual added that Illinois taxpayers have a right to honest, clean government.

The jury found Madigan guilty of ComEd-related Counts 2, 4, 5, and 6 of the indictment, plus Counts 8-10 and 12-14 involving a state board position.

Madigan’s ComEd-related convictions were for conspiracy, bribery, and use of a facility to promote unlawful activity. His state board convictions were for wire fraud and use of a facility to promote unlawful activity…

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, each wire fraud count is punishable by a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison, while each bribery count is punishable by up to 10 years.  The maximum for conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States and each count of using interstate facilities to promote unlawful activity is five years.

When Madigan was forced to resign, the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus filled the void for the most part. While Michael Madigan managed to keep the kook fringe of his Democrat party on a short leash, the new leadership has put the radicals in leadership positions that has let them fly their flags proudly.

That has saddled Illinois residents with everything from gun registration via the “FOID Modernization Act,” gun and magazine bans via the so-called “Protect Illinois Communities Act,” to the SAFE-T Act otherwise known as no-cash-bail that codifies catch0and-release for arrestees. There’s also been a whole host of radical leftist legislation unrelated to guns that makes California’s lawmaking seem almost sane by comparison.

In other words, while many of us in the gun community celebrated the feds indicting Michael Madigan, we should have been careful what we wished for, because in politics, the alternative can always be far worse. And in Illinois, it usually is.