As State Rep. Jack Franks told Reboot’s Madeleine Doubek last week: “The Speaker knows the law, he writes the law, and he doesn’t break the law. He doesn’t cross the line… He follows the rules.” But let’s also be clear on a second point: Whether he broke any laws is all but irrelevant here. The biggest problem in Illinois’ political culture of corruption isn’t outright law-breaking. We can list dozens of convictions from the George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich investigations (not to mention lots of lesser-known cases) in which law-breakers were caught, tried and convicted.

We can only hope this will make a difference…