In today's discussion Doc Oc briefly touched upon the corruption that this country has seen even in the past year. I am always appalled to find out of the new scandals in government. I decided to take a look at our great state of Illinois, which has argueably, in the past 10 years encountered more political contreversy than any other state.
Recent Illinois scandals began with Dan Rostenkowski in 1996, who served thirty-six years in Congress representing Illinois. He was convicted for mail fraud, but was specifically known for sending government payroll checks to non employees that did him personal favors. He was sentenced to seventeen months in federal prison.
There was also Governer George Ryan who was charged with awarding business friends state contracts for projects in exchange for gifts and money. He was indicted in '04 and in '06 was sentenced to six and a half years in prison under the official charges of racketeering, conspiracy, tax fraud, mail fraud, and lying to the FBI while under oath. His legacy plagued Illinois politics until he was one up-ed by his predecessor, Rod Blagojevich. We'll call him Rod for typing's sake. Rod, in a spontaneous fit of genious, decided to auction off Barack Obama's vacant seat in the Senate to the highest bidder. Needless to say this isn't quite legal. He is now awaiting trial and sentencing.
My only question is why Illinois. Is it the cows, the plains, or the vast expanses of corn fields that prompt corrupt politicians to come here. Maybe the policies are more lax here and allow for such corruption to occur. Something must be wrong as nearly all corruption related political contreversies have taken place in Illinois in recent years.
No comments:
Post a Comment