« And still they spend… | Home | More Politics — Illinois Style »
Corruption - New York vs. Illinois
By W. Guy Finley | March 11, 2008
New York is an awful long way away for most of us to think about but I thought I would include this eloquently written commentary from the Wall Street Journal as New York becomes the latest proud owner of a scandalous governor (we’re on our second one here in Illinois):
Spitzers Rise and Fall - WSJ.com
The big difference between New York and Illinois? Well, apparently in New York they actually go after you when you’re still in office! Here in Illinois we’re far too civilized for that, when the indictments come down and you’re still in office you get to be called “Public Official A” until the end of your term when they really come after you. In this case Spitzer is “Client 9″ but that case shows no signs of slowing down just because Spitzer is in office. Here in Illinois he probably wouldn’t just stay in office, he would probably be re-elected!
No, the differences in the situations are clear to see: when you’re dealing with sex you can expect quick and swift retribution but it’s no big deal in Illinois if one of your key fund raisers is on trial for forcing kickbacks and promising appointments in return for contributions. In fact, you can even run for President of the United States and few will seem to notice that an indicted land developer was one of your key contributors, whom you never did any favors for, who you went to to buy your mansion’s backyard which was on an adjoining lot, who just so happened to get a $3.5 mil loan from a convicted Iraqi businessman with ties to Saddam Hussein three weeks before the deal was closed. Not convinced Rezko bought Obama’s backyard? Take a look at the overhead footage in the attached MSNBC report.
No, this is politics Chicago style where all of this apparently is quite normal. In fact, some defenders are now saying that you can’t expect to get a candidate out of Illinois who isn’t a little dirty, a “regular Cook County Democrat.”
You can almost see Rezko, a veteran fundraiser for Harold Washington, Blagojevich and others, sitting down with Obama in a scene almost straight out of The Untouchables filling Obama in on how you do politics “the Chicago way”.
So while the Rezko trial marches on, Rod Blagojevich continues to comfortably serve as governor from his Chicago home and Barack Obama is crossing the country with his message of change and hope an overzealous district attorney turned governor in New York is going to be forced to step aside in a prostitution scandal. It all makes you really wonder where our priorities are and who the true prostitutes are.
Topics: Illinois, National, News, State Issues |
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.