I’ve been sort of disappointed as of late. Usually, Illinois is a treasure trove of bipartisan corruption. As of late, the Republicans have been getting all of the print and while I’m a loyal Democrat, that just isn’t as fun. Robert Rita, who I thought I’d posted on before, has rectified this for today. Rita (D-Blue Island) has been indicted for beating his girlfriend.
This was known during the election. He is backed by Da Speaker (Madigan) and he knew about the incident. The Speaker refused to distance himself, reportedly because Rita could deliver a lot of votes in the Southwest burbs. The irony of this is Lisa Madigan ran on a platform strong on reducing domestic violence and rightfully criticized Birkett for some dubious deals in a domestic violence case in DuPage.
Democrats have long been stronger on domestic violence issues in the law, it is time to be stronger on it in the legislature. Da Speaker may not care about policy and ethics aren’t at the forefront of his mind. He does care about votes though and the Democrats in Illinois need to let him know how they feel about Robert Rita.