Madigan delivers body blows to Rauner's extremities

When Madigan wants to hurt a guy (publicly), he has the word for it:

Rauner . . . blasted Madigan, saying he stood to personally profit from a failure of a property tax freeze. 

That drew a strong retort from Madigan later in the day. At a Capitol news conference, the speaker said he has always held strong ethical standards in his law business and encouraged Rauner to stop “functioning in the extreme.”

Same news conference:

Rauner reiterated on Tuesday that he wants a property tax freeze before he’ll agree to talk about other budgetary issues. And he wants to [?make?] other business-friendly changes, too.

“We’re being reasonable. We feel he is functioning in the extreme as he advances these issues,” Madigan said.

 It's a favorite. From an interview several days ago, again referring to Rauner:

“If peo­ple are op­er­at­ing in the ex­treme, . . .  he’s on the ex­treme, . . . op­er­at­ing in the ex­treme,”

Well, he didn't get where he is today by arguing his case. Anyhow, consider how little practice he's had with anyone smart enough to take him on.