We are dancing in the streets of New Jersey. Okay, maybe not dancing but surely residents of the “Soprano State” are rejoicing over the comments of FBI special agent Robert Grant, who commented at a Tuesday morning press conference, “If it isn’t the most corrupt state in the United States, it’s one hell of a competitor.” He was talking about Illinois, folks, not New Jersey. Illinois, home of Abe Lincoln, Elliot Ness, the writer Studds Terkel and our next President, Barack Obama (or maybe North Dakota – see end of this post).
Actually, Special Agent Grant was talking about the last two governors of that once-proud state, George Ryan and now Rod Blagojevich, not to mention a veritable parade of visible and less visible politicians whose behavior makes Jersey look like the garden-fresh state. Be honest: had you even been thinking about Blagojevich? Could you spell or pronounce his name? Did you even know who he was? Well, you do now. The details of Governor Blagojevich’s escapades are all over the news; he apparently tried to use the seat vacated by the President-elect as leverage to (depending on what you read): get a better public sector job, get a better private sector job, get his wife a better job, get the Senate job himself, get more editorial support from the hometown paper, get people fired at the hometown paper, and/or get cash. Nothing was off the table, except perhaps trading the Senate seat for a new hairstylist (I’m sorry to hit a man when he’s down but what’s up with that hair?) I’m surprised he didn’t put the Senate seat up for bid on e-Bay. Maybe that was set for tomorrow.
The only thing he appears to have been definitively offered was the one thing he didn’t want – the appreciation of the Obama transition team, which didn’t seem inclined to participate in the auction. Gratitude – give me a break. Nothing says “thank you” like cash or its equivalent in power.
Chutzpa, hubris, or cluelessness – it’s been hard to figure out why in this day and age politicians continue to believe themselves immune from discovery and prosecution, never mind ethics. Maybe it’s because for too long they have been, in part because we haven’t been privy to what’s going on and in part because we haven’t been keeping an eye on them. Still, this guy takes the cake, doesn’t he? His calculations were wide-ranging, not to mention grandiose. Makes the stuff we’ve been dealing with in New Jersey look like penny-ante stuff. Still, we’ll be happy to surrender the spotlight for the moment while pointing out once again that while absolute power may corrupt absolutely, it can happen anywhere from Alaska to Rhode Island to Louisiana to Florida to Illinois. I’m just sayin’.
UPDATE: It can also apparently happen in North Dakota, which wins the title of most corrupt state, according to a report based on analysis of convictions prosecuted by the Department of Justice. Now North Dakota recently made news for being a state uniquely untouched by the recession so either they’re good at prosecuting corruption or they’re too comfortable to be much bothered by it.
1 Woman' s Vu by Nikki Stern 
And from what I’m reading is that this issue will go to a grand jury and could last for years and will hurt Obama in 2012!
You sound a little too excited about that possibility; quite honestly, I’m not. But having grown up in Wisconsin, I am familiar with Illinois politics, which have long been a mix of sunshine and shadow.
What do you think about the speculation in today’s NY Times that Mr. Obama actually set this in motion by encouraging his former mentor in the state legislature to quit blocking the ethics reform bill?
I wouldn’t be surprised. Obama and Blagojevich have had somewhat strained relations. Obama is a politician; he came up through the Chicago operation and relied on and stood with some of those folks, certainly. And maybe he encouraged passage of the ethics law because he believed in it or because he believed Blagojevich to be a huge embarrassment. I suspect both and I say no matter. Did the governor have to “take the bait,” making his disdain of the concept of ethics so public and continuing the flout the law? Obviously not. If anything, this was a perfect “sting” operation. Blagojevich is an embarrassment; he displays a mind-boggling lack of judgment, that’s for sure. As cringe-inducing as this is for the good people of Illinois, it will only be good for the state if he can be dispatched and perhaps it would put a dent in the culture of “pay for play.” I will be sorry if it turns out Jesse Jackson Junior is involved but not surprised. I live in New Jersey, where many politicians (but not all) routinely put their toes right up to the line between appropriate and inappropriate, never mind legal and illegal.
If it was indeed Obama who set Blagojecvich’s childish, egocentric, “what me worry”, “I did nothing wrong”,”everybody’s doing it” behavior in motion by encouraging ethics reform, then that’s somebody I want in my White House.