I'm not sure how any sane person could convince himself that he wouldn't get caught taking bribes. In the last forty years, three Illinois governors have been arrested on various corruption charges, including George Ryan, Blago's immediate predecessor, who's sitting in a federal prison at this very moment. In fact, it was only a few days ago that the papers were filed with Senator Dick Durbin's plea to President Bush to pardon Ryan for Christmas. By the way, I guess the Blago scandal kills that idea.In addition, legions of Chicago aldermen, state reps, judges, sanitation workers, and cops -- hey, everyone's doing it -- have gone to jail for various shakedown schemes. In the late 1970s, Chicago's other major daily, the Chicago Sun-Times, set up a bar called the Mirage just to see how many city workers would try to shake them down. It resulted in a 25-part investigative series. They ran a picture of a fire department inspector taking cash to look the other way at fire code violations. 60 Minutes ran a feature on the operation. You would figure all the publicity might scare folks straight. But, no, the corruption beat goes on.
Otto Kerner, Jr., is usually remembered, if he is at all, as the leader of the Kerner Commission, in 1968, which evaluated the riots and other unrest that was then rocking American cities. He was governor of Illinois at the time, and went on to serve as a federal appeals court judge, but his later claim to fame may be of greater historical note. In 1969, he was charged in a corruption case where he and a subordinate received bribes from a racetrack owner in return for an expanded racing schedule. That particular scandal came to light because the owner tried to deduct the value of the bribes on her taxes. Paying bribes to the governor was, in her view, an ordinary business expense in Illinois in the late nineteen-sixties.Helluva place, Chicago.
