Blago goes down and Quinn is in. Once again the nation sighs and shakes their collective heads at the Land of Lincoln. How embarrassing for us all. Actually, it’s all an evil conspiracy, didn’t you know? The powers that be secretly amended the Illinois constitution. For every year a politician serves as governor of our fair state, they get to serve a year and a half in federal prison. Don’t bother fact checking that in your copy of the constitution, I just made a joke. Yet I think you get my point just the same.
Regardless of your opinion of the man, or of his predecessor George Ryan – who is now serving a prison sentence up in Wisconsin – you have to admit that we are now the laughing stock of the American political scene. Endless strings of jokes and political cartoons will be dedicated to us. Books, screenplays and PhD dissertations will be written about the Springfield/Chicago political machine, and of how everyone’s handshake is sticky because they all have their fingers deep in the pie.
In fairness, it must be said that Blagojevich did a lot of good things for the people. Education, health care, all sorts of progressive and idealistic legislation has seen his signature. This much is true. One could also argue that others in Illinois politics are just as corrupt and there are perhaps bigger fish to fry as well. So why go after this man, why make him the victim when they are all corrupt? Or maybe he’s a martyr. Excuse me, I forgot that we’re crucifying Gandhi! We can’t do that, can we? How would we ever sleep at night?
I am starting to sound bitter, so let me clarify my point. The bottom line is this: Ryan went down, and so have others. Although still considered innocent, my money says that Blagojevich will also hit the mat. Nor are the Feds done with their sniffing around, so as I alluded to before, other fish will also likely see the bad side of a frying pan. Corruption is not a positive force, and in nearly all cases it is an extremely undemocratic force. Furthermore, in this country, the level of corruption these politicians play with happens to be a federal crime, and rightfully so.
As an ex-convict once told me, and I paraphrase his quote, “If you’re going to do the crime, make damn sure you get away with it, otherwise be prepared to do the time.” Our recently impeached governor knows the truth when he looks into the mirror at night. He also knows that the federal government probably has enough on him to lock him away. Do you hear echoes of Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr. gasping their last breaths? I’ll tell you what I hear; it’s the sound of a fish flopping around in the pan as they turn up the heat. Bon appetit.