Illinois' Latest Governmental Shame: Governor Rod Blagojevich

Current Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is following a long and rich history of corruption in the Land of Lincoln.

As this newstory recounts, Blagojevich is the fourth governor of the state to be on the way to the Big House in less than forty years.

The Illinois Democratic governor of my youth, known back then- no kidding- as 'Honest Otto' Kerner, was convicted while on the Federal bench.

"Walkin'" Dan Walker, another Democrat who emulated Jimmy Carter and walked across the state, and into the governor's mansion in Springfield, was imprisoned for S&L-related fraud.

George Ryan, a Republican, left office for a jail term on account of selling licenses and leases while Secretary of State. In that, he continued the proud tradition of his predecessor in the 1970s, Paul Powell.

In those days, I recall that Illinois residents wrote their drivers license payments not to "Secretary of State of Illinois," nor "Illinois DMV," but directly to "Paul Powell."

Upon Powell's death, hundreds of shoe boxes full of uncashed checks were found in his home.

Nice work if you can get it.

There are so many interesting angles to the Blowdryovitch (that's what they call him back home) scandal.

For example, why did Federal DA Patrick Fitzpatrick wait until after the November election to move on the Illinois Governor? You have to suspect political calculation on the part of the Illinois Democratic mafia.

Clearly, with only a 6% point margin of victory, the New Messiah would have probably lost the November election, had Blagojevich been arrested a few days before that first Tuesday.

Doesn't this illustrate how corrupt and rotten is the nest of Cook County, Illinois Democratic vipers from which our President-elect was spawned? It is unimaginable that all of the key Democratic party players didn't know this was going on.

So, why didn't our New Messiah work to change any of this? Instead, he willingly turned a blind eye to it, while scrambling up his own political ladder, knifing old mentors in the process.

Will Illinois voters choose a Republican replacement, the better to punish the deeply-corrupt Democrats? One can only hope. It would be a fitting reaction, should the downstate Republicans finally mobilize and manage to regain at least one seat.

Is the Anointed One complicit in any of this? Well....that is the $64,000 question, is it not?

As William Bennett noted on Hannity & Colmes last night, we just don't know yet. The denials haven't yet been sufficiently sweeping from the Illinois rookie's camp. We don't know whether any of his underlings did him a 'favor' that will come back to haunt him.

Remember, Nixon didn't initially know of the plumbers' activities. His crime was obstruction of justice, not planning the original crime.

Oh....and Jesse, Jr? What about Candidate #5? The Feds explicitly state that somebody representing Jackson approached Blagojevich. Jackson's denial was carefully wordsmithed to avoid denial of responding to requests for bribes to get that Senate seat. He only denied initiating the process- not participating.

Should be interesting to watch this unfold. Of course, the stench of the mess will hang heavy over the Rookie's inauguration.

Wasn't this how Carter's era began? Bert Lance and "Ham" Jordan causing embarrassment from virtually the get-go?

Yes, it's Carter-time again, folks. Only, I predict that this next administration will look Carter look moderate and competent by comparison.