What do you want to bet that the so-called “ethics” bill on which Democratic Party House Speaker Mike Madigan will allow a vote will not include the release of time sheets for his and the employees of the other three party caucuses?

When Ralph Nader had his petitions challenged by the Illinois Democratic Party, I submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request for the time sheets of Madigan’s employees during the period when they were observed by Christine Tobin to be working on the challenge.

That request was denied. Christine and I then sued Madigan, but a Cook County judge ruled that legislative time sheets were exempt from the FOI process.The short of it was that only with a criminal subpoena could anyone see the time sheets.

Considering the past misuse of House GOP staffers and the multi-party legislative caucus staff scandal in Wisconsin (of all places), it is exceedingly strange that major media sources don’t seem to think the legislative staffer time sheet exclusion is too unimportant to mention.