WBEZ got a ton of emails from the office of House Speaker Mike Madigan.

One reminded me to the way McHenry County Board Chairman Jack Franks avoids standing committees, instead appointing ad hoc committees to handle pretty much everything he wants to be sure is approved.

Here’s the quote:

“Emails between Madigan’s top advisers and McClain show how they worked in tandem to silence dissent on the pro-bailout [of Co-Ed’s nuclear power plants] resolution by hand-picking the lawmakers who would get to vote on it in a legislative committee.

“Ahead of the vote, Exelon had identified at least six Democratic members of the committee who were likely to vote against the company’s interests. In response, Will Cousineau, a high-ranking member of the speaker’s staff, suggested a plan to remove opponents from the committee for this one vote.

“The next day the opponents Exelon had identified were substituted from the committee – and the resolution passed 16 to 0. Cousineau’s tactic delighted McClain so much, he wrote him, ‘ love you.'”