Al Capone is the most famous Illinois gangster of all time, but now we are learning that Mike Madigan — Speaker of the Illinois House for 36 years who ran a pay-to-play syndicate for decades — may be a close second.

Madigan was finally chased from office in 2021 after being implicated in a bribery scheme in which Commonwealth Edison offered sleazy and lucrative contracts and jobs to his close allies.

Madigan’s trial is scheduled soon and the prosecution’s case will be strengthened by this week’s perjury and obstruction of Justice conviction of Tim Mapes, Madigan’s chief of staff for two decades.

Over the decades Democrats like Madigan and “the boss” Richard M. Daley were corrupt – and payoffs were a cost of doing business. But at least if you bribed the right people things got done. Chicago was known as “the city that works.” The garbage got collected.

The new progressive Democrats, like Mayor Brandon Johnson, are more honest – but they are ideological to the point of complete incompetence. They can’t fight crime, they can’t fix the potholes, they can’t get the homeless off the streets, the schools don’t teach, and they raise taxes through the roof as business owners and wealthy residents flee.

We think the old-style Democrats were less harmful. What do you think?