The Governor of Illinois is Arrested

One question that I was often asked by students when I taught the US Constitution was--Do you think that we will ever have a woman president? My answer was--yest, but we will have a Black president first. I was right on that prediction. But I also taught the Illinois Constitution. One comment I made was about the state of corruption in our state government. Now Illinois has a long history of corruption in state government. Going back to my childhood, the following governors have served time in prison--William Stratton, Otto Kerner (race tracks), Dan Walker (Walkin' Dan Walker), and George Ryan. In addition, Attorney General Scott served time in prison and Secretary of State Paul Powell (shoebox Paul Powell) died before anyone knew what he was up to. I would tell them about the past, but always mentioned that the state was much "cleaner" now. Most of these guys have a story that is very interesting--but I won't go into that today.
Boy was I wrong. Today, our present governor Rod Blagojevich--or Blago-- has been arrested on criminal charges of corruption--mainly trying to sell Barak Obama's Senate seat to the highest bidder. He joins a long line of public servants who have been indicted and found guilty, but as far as I know, none of them of anything criminal.
I am just shaking my head. You would think that after George Ryan was convicted, and is now serving time in prison, that Blago would stay squeaky clean. He has been investigated for the past few years, and I assume that the District Attorney is building up a case. Just yesterday, he reiterated his position that he has done nothing--this was in answer to the news that his former chief of staff was wearing a wire. But so far, nothing. Until today. So, Illinois maintains its old reputation.
I don't think that Scott Turow, who writes about Chicago politics in his novels--and many of his characters are based on real people and events--could have thought of a better scenario than this one. Truth is always better than fiction.