OK, your latest update from the Land of Stinkin’.

To understand the process which is going on right now, all you need to remember is this: Illinois is a Hereditary Kleptocracy. Our political leaders work hard to both steal, and to ensure that their offspring will be in a position to steal when their time comes. This whole Blagojevich situation revolves around characters who, unlike Obama, have dynastic/generational connections.

First, Blago was working so hard to steal so fast because on January 1, a new ethics law, forbidding state contractors from contributing to state office-holders, goes into effect. This law was being blocked by State Senate President Emil Jones, one of Obama’s political mentors, till Obama leaned on him and it passed with veto-proof majorities. Jones then resigned, and his son, Emil Jones Jr, was placed on the general election ballot and won his seat. Sr, Jr, what’s the diff? The Joneses are keeping up.

forblogpost79.jpg Now, what will happen next? Pinhead senior senator Dick Durbin is calling for a special election, which would cost at least $30 million, and which might hand Obama’s seat to a Republican (they have a clean pol or two who could stand there and look Righteously Angry about corruption—and remember, Obama only won because his first Republican opponent, Jack Ryan, was found to have taken his impossibly hot ex-wife, 7 of 9, to sex clubs, and the Republicans let out-of-state-Religious Right Loon Alan Keyes run. This eliminated race as an issue (which it very much still is, especially but not exclusively downstate) and gave Obama a seat he might not have otherwise won). Such an election would probably require amending the Illinois Constitution, so that’s probably out.

There’s calls to impeach Blagojevich if he won’t step down (and remember: he’s still Governor. He could, today, appoint himself or Lou Piniella or Bozo the Clown Senator. The Senate could then refuse to seat him—as they did William Lorimer, from Illinois, who in 1912 openly bribed the State Legislature to elect him Senator. This malfeasance led to the 17th Amendment, establishing direct election of Senators).

But the Hereditary Kleptocrats might prevent that: the head of the Illinois House is stubborn-ass Democrat Mike Madigan, whose daughter, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, has been openly contemplating a run for Governor in 2010. If Blago is impeached, then Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn (in Illinois, the Gov and Lt. Gov don’t run as a ticket, it’s two separate things), an old ’70s lefty liberal gone slightly to seed, would be in a position to run as a sitting Governor in 2010, essential acing Lisa Madigan out. What would Daddy’s little girl do then?

The Mayor of Chicago is the son of a former Mayor (some would argue THE former Mayor, pronounced “Mare”). The President of the Cook County Board is the son of the former President of the Cook County Board. Blago got where he is by marrying the daughter of a powerful North Side Ward boss, Dick Mell. Everywhere you look in Chicago, you’d think it was Europe right before the outbreak of the Great War, with all the rulers related somehow to Queen Victoria.

Here endeth the lesson.

26 replies on “Hereditary Kleptocracy”

  1. “Chicago is not the most corrupt American city, it’s the most theatrically corrupt.” – Studs Terkel, June 9, 1978.

    I love Chicago.

  4. In Chicago, when I lived there, the motto could have been “No free lunch”. It’s a place where you don’t get something for nothing. It is an ethos that makes it both a great and a sometimes difficult place to live. But that’s more or less the tradition.

  6. The more that I read about it, the more mundane this affair seems. I mean, trading favors for cash is what happens everyday in every state and DC, right?

    Isn’t this basically how our system of legalized bribery–er, campaign finance followed by cronyism and pork barrel spending–works?

    Blagojevich’s prob is that he was just too obvious about it.

  8. i’m surprised Obama was able to make it out of Chicago politics with all that bullshit. I understand why he probably went for the presidency. He didn’t want to become lost and confused in Chicago and Illinois’ politics like JJ Jr for example. that’s a sad example of what happens when you follow the crowd rather than go your own way.

  10. CF,
    Agree with your history of Chicago & Illinois politics and it’s family ties. I also recall the Stevensons’ (Adlai, Adlai, & well… Adlai) dynasty as well as the Pucinskis (father Roman was a US Congressman & Chicago alderman while daughter Aurelia is now an elected Cook County judge). I agree with much of what been said as well. Chicago “works” for better or for worse. It is just to be expected.

  11. No, this is criminal stuff because it’s direct trading for personal benefit which is illegal. Trading support by folks who share the same goals isn’t criminal. (You like light rail, you get environmentalist groups to endorse you, they contribute money, you get elected you deliver light rail– is a bit different than you deliver light rail if the Sierra Club hires your wife for $300K a year).

    Obama’s on TV right now btw.

    Obama needs to come forward with his own plan to clean up Illinois. How about this for starters: ALL STATES TO GET STIMULUS MONEY MUST MEET MANDATORY ETHICS STANDARDS AND MUST NOT HAVE A GOVERNOR THAT’S UNDER INDICTMENT. Then make them enact tough ethics laws like the normal donation limits and reporting laws they seem to lack in Illinois as a condition of getting aid.

    Blago would have to resign in a couple of days, if Obama said that.

    This thing is endangering Obama’s momentum and getting us off message and shit, it means we are one vote short in the senate till this is resolved.

    Time for him to be big alpha male and use his power to BRING ABOUT THE CHANGE WE WANT and ensure no one ever fucking trades in a US senate seat again, and ensure not one corrupt pinky touches any US federal stimulus money given over to the states.
    Another thing — he could say he will name that Chicago US attorney to a special position in DC in Dept. of Justice….overseer of distribution of federal stimulus funds….give him jurisdiction over corrupt local officials nationwide….AS the one who is about to be president and about to hand out ONE TRILLION DOLLARS in stimulus including a few hundred million directly to the states….I would think he can do a bit better than “oh, um, I wasn’t involved in this horrible mess, I, too, weakly and passively call for Blago to step down.”

  12. I think it’s more that Obama didn’t want to go through his political career feeling like he owed anyone anything…to do it on his own terms. I think that speaks well to his character, but it also exhibits a bit of a flaw: how recipient is he going to be in asking for help when the time comes and he absolutely needs to?

  15. @ 5 6 8 9 etc
    Stay tuned, kiddies.
    Obama is going to bring
    Chicago style
    ‘buisness as usual’
    to DC.
    And Democrats will
    find a way to
    rationalize and
    justify and
    explain it all away.
    Don’t confuse
    True Believers
    with the facts.

  16. I don’t know why, but I was personally offended by the whole John/Todd Stroger thing (successive Cook County Board Presidents) a couple of years ago.

    Basically, dad was a well-respected African American leader/politician, longtime board president. He has a stroke a few weeks before his re-election in 2006. The severity of his condition was not fully known, so he makes it through the primaries, and then replaces himself on the ticket with his (totally unqualified) son Todd. Todd wins. Dad dies about a year later, and son makes a name for himself through more nepotism and fiscal idiocy.

    Needless to say, I voted for Lizard People in that election (jk, I voted for the Republican).

  18. Who says that stripping the governor of his appointment ability in favor of a special election would require a state constitution change? I haven’t read that anywhere else.

  22. @18

    The Illinois State Constitution gives the Governor the right to appoint the replacement senator. If we’re going to do something different, we have to amend the Constitution. Or break the law.

  23. PC@11, it’s clear you need to do some serious reading up. A new ethics bill in Illinois is happening in January, and while it may be an improvement, it’s not going to change things fundamentally.

    And don’t listen to any of the analysis coming from Washington. I’d start reading John Kass’s Chi Tribune column. He’s an annoying right winger, but he gets the problem of Illinois politics better than anyone else I’ve read.

    No matter what Obama may try to do to improve ethics state by state, nothing he can do will force Blago to resign. Of all the scenarios discussed to get him out of office, the only viable one involves concrete boots and Lake Michigan.

    By the way @21, I hear Sasha is the better fundraiser. My money’s on her in ’40.

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