Illinois politics:

By Weekly Archive On Dec 17, 2008

Among
America’s governors, one man stands out for delivering on a liberal
agenda. In just six years, he brought about ethics reform and
continued the state’s moratorium on the death penalty. He expanded
eligibility for the state’s earned income tax credit to help the
poor, and supported a comprehensive statewide smoking ban. He
expanded health programs like KidCare and FamilyCare, and signed
legislation banning discrimination based on sexual orientation in the
workplace, housing, public accommodations and credit. He delivered
record increases in funding for public schools without raising income
taxes or sales taxes.

He
is, in fact, the most progressive governor in the land. His name,
believe it or not, is Rod Blagojevich. And he is also, of course, the
most corrupt governor in the land. Baby-faced Rod Blagojevich,
governor of Illinois, has been nabbed red-handed by the FBI, trying
to sell Barack Obama’s Senate seat to the highest bidder.

Blagojevich’s
audacity is stunning, even for Illinois politics. Given the
opportunity to make a historic appointment, he saw, instead, an
opportunity to line his own pockets and brazenly plotted with his
chief of staff on how to trade the Senate seat for cash or a
lucrative job for himself.

Putting
a price tag on a United States Senate seat is shocking to everyone —
except to those who know Blagojevich best. For them, what’s
surprising is not that he would stoop so low, but that he lasted so
long before getting caught. Even though he first ran for governor in
2002 as a reformer, vowing to "end business as usual" in
Springfield, Blagojevich started making questionable financial deals
in year one and has been under federal investigation on multiple
corruption charges since 2005.

Three
of the more notorious charges against Blagojevich were cited in the
76-page criminal complaint filed by the Justice Department at the
time of his arrest. According to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald,
the governor demanded $500,000 in contributions from a contractor in
exchange for state funds for a new toll road. He demanded that the
Chicago Tribune fire members of its editorial board, who had written
critical editorials about him, before he would help with a plan for
Tribune Co. to sell Wrigley Field to the state. Proving he would pass
up no opportunity for personal profit, Blagojevich even threatened to
cancel $8 million in state funds for Children’s Memorial Hospital
unless he received a $50,000 contribution from one of its executives.

But
it was the prospect of a Senate seat that really got Blago’s greedy
juices flowing. What others saw as an honor, he immediately seized as
his ticket to big bucks. "I’ve got this thing and it’s
(expletive) golden," Blagojevich says on a phone call recorded
by the FBI. "I’m just not giving it up for (expletive) nothing."
When a staffer warns him to be careful about making it look like a
quid pro quo, the governor cuts him off: "I want to make money."

Instead,
of course, he ruined his political career. Blagojevich is toast. He’s
effectively cut off from making any Senate appointment. If he doesn’t
resign, he’ll be impeached. And if found guilty, he’ll soon follow
three other recent Illinois governors who went straight from the
Statehouse to the Big House. Democrat Otto Kerner was convicted for
taking bribes from the managers of two horseracing tracks. Democrat
Dan Walker served time for making fraudulent loans. And Republican
George Ryan is still in prison for accepting gifts in return for
political favors. Blagojevich is merely the next in line.

Which
does make you wonder: What is it about Illinois politics that
attracts so many crooks? "If it isn’t the most corrupt state in
the United States, it’s certainly one hell of a competitor,"
said Robert Grant, head of the FBI’s Chicago office. Yet, despite its
high levels of government corruption, Illinois also produced such
great public servants as Abraham Lincoln, Adlai Stevenson, Everett
Dirksen, Paul Simon, Harold Washington and Barack Obama.

Such,
we must realize, is the nature of the American political system, in
every state. It attracts both the best and the worst of humanity.
And, in the end, the good far outshines the bad. It would be a big
mistake to let our disgust with the actions of Rod Blagojevich
diminish in any way our joy over the achievements of Barack Obama.

Bill
Press is host of a nationally syndicated radio show and author of a
new book, "Train
Wreck: The End of the Conservative Revolution (and Not a Moment Too
Soon)."
You can hear "The Bill Press Show" at his Web site:
billpressshow.com. His email address is: bill@billpress.com.