Pay to Play

Pay to Play

I Told You So. But of course with this audience, I’m preaching to the choir. I don’t have any magical insight, except that I live in Illinois and pay attention to what is going on. I wonder how many RPM’s Lincoln is spinning right now. Even thought Lincoln was a Republican and this Governor was a Democrat.

This is what happens when you have 1 party rule for decades.

On my previous posts, I told you that there are more FBI Agents in Illinois investigating corruption than any other State. Now you know why.

Of the past 5 Illinois Governors, 2 have served jail time, 1 has just been arrested, and 2 were clean. The 2 clean Governors were Republicans, and Jim Edgar was and remains highly respected. Under Edgar’s reign, Illinois was the cleanest in terms of corruption, and Government honesty.

Governor Blagojevich (D) was not popular in Illinois to begin with. He won his reelection based on the Democratic population of Chicago. He is the 2^nd Governor in a row in Illinois to be taken down by corruption. It crosses party lines here. When it comes to the machine in Chicago and Illinois, Republicans who are part of the machine are Republicans in name only.

In listening to local talk radio, many of the politicians say they new there was corruption but were surprised how blatant, and extreme it was.

There is a major political shift beginning to occur in Illinois. Obama is a Democrat brought up through the Democratic machine, but the citizens here have turned angry and a major party shift will bring in a wave of Republicans at the next election. The entire Democratic contingent in the Illinois House and Illinois Senate are now at major risk and this will be used as a bludgeon against them at the next election.

Many of the Republican candidates tried to tie Illinois House and Senate candidates to Blagojevich, and were not successful. This time, the Illinois Citizenry will move the other way. Nationally we are moving to the left, while in Illinois we are going to be moving to the right. Of course there are a few years until the next election, but we will not forget. If Blagojevich goes to trial rather than plead, the proceedings should last quite a while, reminding us here in Illinois on a daily basis who we voted for. Should it go to trial it will only cement the will of the Illinois people to vote out 1 party rule.

Blagojevich is not the only one, Mayor Daley and Todd Stroger are also under investigation. All are Democrats.

Everyone knew for a long time that Blagojevich is was not ethical, he has been under investigation for almost 4 years. There is no provision in the Illinois Constitution to recall a Governor like they did in California. To remove an Illinois Governor, he would have to be impeached. Until yesterday, there wasn’t enough to impeach him.

During the recent election, there was a ballot initiative to have an Illinois Constitutional Convention. The reason was to change the Constitution to allow a recall of the Governor. However, having a Constitutional Convention opens it up to other things that might be added or changed. The measure was defeated.

Based on my last posting, I’d like to review again for you who the players are and where they stand. This will become more important for you when the National news and pundits try to interpret what is going on. For starters, Blagojevich was unpopular among his own party. Obama had distanced himself from the Governor a long time ago. Michael Madigan is the Democratic Illinois Speaker of the House. Madigan and Blagojevich have been at odds for years. Last year, Madigan refused to show up to budget meetings with the Governor. Michael’s daughter, Lisa Madigan is the Illinois State’s Attorney. She was rumored to be a possible candidate to replace Obama in the Senate only to get her off of Blagojevich’s back.

Illinois Senate President, Emil Jones was a staunch ally of Blagojevich and was also Obama’s mentor. Tony Rezko was Blagojevich’s money-man as well as doing real estate deals with Obama. But this doesn’t mean that Blagojevich was liked or respected.

Mayor Daley has been at odds with Blagojevich for years as well. Budget shortfalls have plagued this State for years. When there was a public transportation shortfall, Blagojevich decided there should be free rides for Seniors. Daley pushed back asking how this should be paid for.

I had assumed in my last post that Jesse Jackson Jr. would be appointed to replace Obama. Obama has recently indicated he’d like to see an African-American named as his replacement as right now there are no African-Americans in the US Senate. We now know that Blagojevich was trying to sell the Senate seat to the highest bidder. There is a Candidate #5, and there is strong speculation of who it might be. The day before Blagojevich was charged, The Rev. Jesse Jackson was interviewed about the Senate prospects of his son. To the surprise of many, The Rev. Jackson did not have any comment about it. One of the rare occasions.

The Republic Windows and Doors sit-in is located in Chicago, and many Chicago and Illinois politicians took it as an opportunity to pile on. Many of these politicians came with food for the workers such as turkeys. Blagojevich also came. But he brought rice cakes and water. While at the sit-in, Blagojevich compared himself to Nixon and dared those investigating him to tape him and that he had nothing to hide. The very next day, he was arrested.