“Most aldermen, most politicians are hos,” corrupt Chicago Ald. Arenda Troutman said, rather famously, on federal tape.

She wasn’t speaking about gardening tools, was she?

Indicted Ald. Willie Cochran (20th) on Thursday blasted the federal case against him as the former City Council sleuth who brought it to the feds warned of “a handful” of aldermanic indictments to come.

Cochran unleashed his anger — and former Legislative Inspector General Faisal Khan took a bow — one day after a 15-count indictment accused the South Side alderman of looting a 20th Ward fund meant to help children and senior citizens, using $5,000 to pay his daughter’s college tuition and withdrawing $25,000 from ATMs near his preferred casinos.

Gov. Bruce Rauner shared the stage with Chicago Democrats Thursday as he signed a bipartisan criminal-justice bill aimed at reducing recidivism — but the partisan state budget crisis couldn’t help but loom over the feel-good event.

Rauner signed the legislation at A Safe Haven, a West Side not-for-profit that helps the homeless. Rauner himself has donated money to and volunteered with the organization, one of many social service providers that rely on state funding and could face hardships without a budget deal.

It’s among the first votes the new Illinois General Assembly will take next year: whether or not to re-elect longtime House Speaker Michael Madigan to his post.

It’s normally a breeze, but this year, several Democratic lawmakers are facing scrutiny from their constituents upset at the speaker’s role in the ongoing budget impasse.

Could Republicans and some Democrats actually plot to dethrone Madigan and install someone else in the position?

Chicago Public Schools succeeded in selling $729 million in bonds for capital projects on Thursday — more than it had planned — just as a longshot but publicly trumpeted option for plugging a $215 million budget gap disappeared.

Unfortunately for the broke district, the two are unrelated: The bonds can be used to fund only capital spending. They can’t be applied to day-to-day district operations or teacher pensions.

The union, House Speaker Mike Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton are now crying foul over negotiations with Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration. “Don’t Dictate, Negotiate” is the common chorus.

That’s an absurd framing of the historical power dynamics in Springfield, where AFSCME typically demands and receives whatever it wants with little friction.

Northwest Side Ald. Nick Sposato (38th) dropped out of the City Council’s Progressive Caucus on Thursday, one day after he was called out by a colleague on the Council floor for opposing a $1.3 million legal defense fund to assist immigrants threatened with deportation after the election of Donald Trump.

Sposato said his reasons for leaving the 11-member caucus, which includes Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s staunchest opponents, are part medical and part philosophical.