As the ethics investigation of Missouri House Speaker Dean Plocher, R-St. Louis, continues, there are parallels to the investigation of Illinois Speaker Mike Madigan, a Missouri political science professor says.

Private attorneys hired by the top Republican in the Missouri House demanded on Tuesday that the ethics investigation into their client be formally dismissed. House Speaker Dean Plocher has still not publicly commented on the allegations of ethical misconduct that have hung over his final year in the legislature,

To take seven months to get to the unlawful and circus-like events of April 15, is quite unbelievable,” the top Republican’s attorneys wrote in a letter to the chair of the House Ethics Committee.

Attorneys for the scandal-plagued speaker of the Missouri House blasted a seven-month-long investigation of their client Tuesday, calling on the chairwoman of the House Ethics Committee to formally dismiss a complaint that has hovered over his final year in the House.