The Blagojevich Corrupt Sausage Factory
Thanks to the ex-governor's dirty schemes, cleaning up Illinois' political reputation could take years.
Otto von Bismarck, the great 19th century German statesman and aristocrat, once remarked that laws are like sausages: it’s better not to see them being made.
In the case of disgraced ex-Governor Rod Blagojevich of Illinois, the sausage factory he was allegedly running out of the governor’s office included such a long laundry list of “pay-to-play” schemes, kickbacks, bid rigging, and laundered money, that cleaning up the state’s political reputation could take years.
Simply put, Governor Blagojevich became a golden goose of opportunity for well-connected businessmen in the state who were apparently willing to “buy” the governor’s unwavering personal attention for their pet legislative causes. And while Patrick Quinn, Illinois’ new governor, remarked last week that “everybody knows we’ve had a tough eight weeks, but it’s over,” it’s not. Springfield must now work overtime to unravel the mess the ex-governor and his well-connected business friends created, or Illinois will rightly deserve its reputation as the most corrupt state in the country.
Case in point: Legislation signed by Governor Blagojevich not once but twice, which required the state’s four top-earning casinos to give 3% of their gross adjusted annual revenues to Blagojevich’s horse racing cronies. Reasonable people can certainly disagree on the merits of gaming, but the governor’s personal crusade in 2006 and then again last year to tax one industry to prop up another was simply bizarre and left the citizens of Illinois scratching their collective noggins.
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Ken Boehm is the Chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, a Washington DC-based organization promoting ethics in public life through research, education, and legal action.
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11 Comments
1. Spider79:Blago is a stain on Illinois politics. There is little to debate there. I’m afraid that once you put him behind you, your still going to be pretty stained up though. Kind of like the working girls on the corner complaining about the new rude hooker ruining their reputations.
Blago’s biggest crime was being a stupid politician/thief. He should have sought advice from dem experts on the subject like Murtha, Dodd or Rangel.
Mar 26, 2009 - 6:30 am 2. RedFred:There’s plenty of slime all over both parties. If you are a rank and file republican, you have no vote in who makes up the State Central Committee.
There’s a republican civil war brewing here in Illinois, between those who are fed at the pork trough, and those who are fed up.
Mar 26, 2009 - 7:55 am 3. Delia:That “Blago Cabbage Patch Doll” is freakin’ HILARIOUS!
I don’t have time to opine much… I have a major dentist appointment coming up in an hour. *cries*
Mar 26, 2009 - 8:02 am 4. TexEd:Ken, I call BS! Chicago and Illinois are dirty and always have been dirty and they will be after Blago. We used to say that New Jersey, Detroit and New Orleans sent their politicians to Chicago and Springfield for advanced corruption training.
Mar 26, 2009 - 8:31 am 5. ic:That is why it is just too funny for anyone to believe in the purity of South Chicago’s Mugabe Obama.
clean up? Why?
Just re-brand.
We are good at that, e.g. bribes => campaign contributions, earmark => pay back bribers with money confiscated from the little people, war on terror => (…?) contingency, Iraq withdrawal: “They will be called advisory and assistance brigades,” said Gates. “They won’t be called combat brigades.”…
Mar 26, 2009 - 12:42 pm 6. Paul -Indiana:Chicago politics has been dirty since Prohibition. Blago is not even the worst practitioner.
Mar 26, 2009 - 1:37 pm 7. Skip:What every happened to the indictment?
Mar 26, 2009 - 5:21 pm 8. davod:“Thanks to the ex-governor’s dirty schemes, cleaning up Illinois’ political reputation could take years.”
Why just blame Blago for Illinois corruption.
Mar 27, 2009 - 5:40 am 9. Jeff:Blago is the tip of the iceberg. How about Mayor Daley, Senators John Cullerton and Jimmy Deleo? Alderman Ed Burke, Cook County Board Chairman Stroger? Former guv George Ryan? Judges, small time politicos. Tim Degnan?
The list is endless when you think about the corruption. Chicago and Illinois. the City that works when you bribe it enough.
Mar 27, 2009 - 11:32 am 10. Avitar:When I read Spider79’s statement
“Blago is a stain on Illinois politics.” I almost fell out of my chair laughing. First, haven’t four of Blago’s last five predecessors in the Governor’s chair gone to prison?
Question: “Governor Blagojevich! Why do you think you are going to prison?”
Blago: “Tradition!”
Second, I am originally from Evansville, Indiana and my Grandfather was on the taskforce that investigated the stealing of the 1960 election for Kennedy, now fifty years ago. The chief feature of Illinois politics according to my Grandfather was the complete absence of a single honest politician in Chicago politics.
Mar 27, 2009 - 3:08 pm 11. bobdog:Forgive my cynicism, but Blagojavich is just the latest in a long line of slimy Boss Tweed politicians going back to Big Bill Thompson. It’s a rare month that doesn’t include an indictment of one Chicago politician or another, and the corruption is so rife that Chicagoans don’t even notice it any more. It’s just an accepted way of living. Oh, there’s outrage each time the Cook County Board or the state legislature finds yet another scheme to raise revenue (Chicago’s 10.25% sales tax, its parking meter outrage or Quinn’s 50% income tax increase are just three of the most recent), but “it’s the Chicago Way”. One or two crusading journalists pop stories about the clumsiest and most visible scams once or twice a year, but the trials drag on for years and when it’s all over, nobody cares.
Year after year, Chicago’s public schools slip further into the bureaucratic abyss, with a 58% dropout rate, a 50% illegitimacy rate, an out of control gang quagmire, urban blight, failing public works, public employee featherbedding and obnoxious public services.
The worst part of it all is that these same diseased politicians get reelected every single time the polls are open, like drug-resistant venereal disease. Some of the worst are so imbedded and so arrogant that they simply appoint their own children (Stroger, Jones) to continue the dynasty for another 30 years after they’ve had their fill.
Who’s going to stop them? Nobody. It just keeps getting better.
And don’t get me started on Illinois’ Best and Brightest who get sent to Worshington…
Mar 29, 2009 - 6:35 am