Blagojevich Gets 14 years

I am not surprised. What politician from Illinois is not corrupt?. Can anybody tell?

More likely than not, other corrupt pols in Illinois are either thinking about ways to legally achieve the same results (oodles of campaign cash) as Blago, or more creative ways to avoid getting caught.

As for what politician from Illinois is NOT corrupt, I can think of a few examples from the recent past. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, for example, a Republican who preceded Obama in the seat that later became the subject of Blago’s “sale”. He was pro-life and generally conservative, and was most responsible for getting Patrick Fitzgerald (no relation), the man who eventually prosecuted Blago, appointed U.S. attorney.

Likewise, I do not believe the current governor, Democrat Pat Quinn, is corrupt in the legal/criminal sense (i.e. directly soliciting bribes as Blago did). However, non-corruption alone does not a statesman make. He is incompetent, waffling, and very messed up in his notion of Catholic moral teaching. As far as basic competence and in potential damage to state (and especially Catholic) institutions, arguably Quinn is as bad or worse than Blago.

In theory, Blago could end up as a cellmate of his predecessor, George Ryan, who is currently in the federal pen at Terre Haute, Ind. and has a year left to go on HIS sentence. However, since Blago’s sentence is over 10 years he will most likely be sent to a slightly higher security institution than Ryan and not a “Club Fed”.

I have a dream.

In a couple years you will read this headline. “Obama Gets 50 Years to Life for Stealing $3 trillion Dollars and Wrecking America.”

Dante would provide a specific trench in the Inferno for Obama, Biden, Pelosi, Sibellius, Teddy Chappaquidick, et al.

A commenter at one of my favorite Illinois political junkie blogs said this today: Blago’s sentence amounts to about 30 seconds for each of his 13 million victims (Illinois residents).

Actually, Dante did assign a specific trench in the Inferno to “grafters,” i.e. corrupt rulers/politicians, who spend eternity immersed in boiling tar, symbolic of their “sticky fingers.” At one point a demon shows up bearing one of “Santa Zita’s elders,” an alderman from the Italian city of Lucca, where “no is yes, and yes is no, for a fee” — the 13th century version of “pay to play.”