“We need taller interns,” a statehouse wag told me during my first year covering the Illinois Capitol.
I was a bit perplexed. After all, at 6 feet, 4 inches, I’ve never considered myself too short.
This was in 1988, and the need was for someone tall enough to peer into a high window of the governor’s office and tell the assembled reporters what was going on during a meeting between House Speaker Michael Madigan and then-Gov. Jim Thompson.
I was too short to get the job done.
It’s a rite of May in Springfield that the legislative leaders gather at private meetings and negotiate agreements on the state budget and assorted other legislation.
And Madigan, D-Chicago, has always been a power broker in those sessions.
This year, Gov. Bruce Rauner has instituted what he calls “working groups,” where a variety of legislators, not just the leaders, are included in private discussions.
That apparently doesn’t sit too well with Madigan or Senate President John Cullerton.
“If the governor is serious about the changes he is proposing, the right thing to do now is for us to bring these issues into the open and have a constructive and open discussion, vote and see what steps need to be taken from there,” Madigan said.
Underlings for both Madigan and Cullerton, D-Chicago, have been more critical of the meetings.
As a journalist, I don’t like closed-door meetings of public officials. I never have. I didn’t like it when Madigan and other legislative leaders were having them with past governors.
Over the years, as a statehouse reporter, I’ve spent countless hours camped outside the governor’s office waiting for Madigan to emerge.
So I’m not keen on the current working groups keeping out the press and the public from some extremely important discussions at a time of financial crisis for Illinois.
Pardon my radical view, but public policy should be formulated in public.
Voters should know what sort of political horse trading is taking place, and be able to weigh in, before a major deal takes place.
That said, it is the height of hypocrisy for Madigan to condemn the meetings of these working groups for being held in private.
He has been conducting secret negotiations with governors since before some members of the General Assembly were born. And he annually promotes a legislative process about as transparent as a slab of concrete.
Sure, there are legislative committees and debates. But Madigan, as the longtime and powerful speaker, pulls the strings and decides if and when bills will be called for a vote.
It’s hardly a transparent process. But Madigan says he wants more transparency.
What next? Hugh Hefner condemns promiscuity? Michael Vick joins PETA? Rod Blagojevich calls for reform and renewal?
Michael Madigan condemning government secrecy?
Give me a break.
Scott Reeder is a veteran statehouse reporter and a journalist with the Illinois News Network, a project of the Illinois Policy Institute. He can be reached at sreeder@illinoispolicy.org
