Who would have thought someone named Madigan could play hardball so well against insiders and do so for the citizens of Illinois. Stephens is the ultimate combine guy so while he is nominally a Republican, he is happy to help out Democrats when it suits his needs. He helped Blagojevich and has helped the Madigans out on many occasions.
But that hasn’t stopped Lisa Madigan from pointing out that Stephens and Rosemont have ties to the Outfit and questioning the sanity of the Gaming Board.
The biggest advantage of all of this is that it keeps Blagojevich on his toes, though Rich Miller points out how that has led to suspicions from Madigan’s people about what he is doing. Holder supported Madigan’s primary opponent John Schmidt, as they both came out of the Clinton Administration’s justice department. Schmidt was clearly more qualified in terms of experience, but such a move is strange given the odd relationship Blagojevich has with the Madigans and that Lisa has full power to investigate the Gaming Commission.
The reality is that the Gaming Commission is now probably going to tie up the 10th license into a lot of litigation.