A New (Old) Den Of Corruption

Is there anything like Illionois politics? Since even before the days of Al Capone the mixture of money and politics, let alone the occasional floozy and the bathtubs of homemade gin, has made Chicagoland the happy hunting ground for all the would be Eliot Nesses of the world. For the last one hundred years Democrats and Republicans alike have done little else but fight off charges of wrongdoing, in between working out sweetheart deals for their...um...shall we say "constituents."

And the beat goes on:

Any thin veil still hiding the identity of the person prosecutors in the Antoin "Tony" Rezko political corruption case call "Public Official A" was abruptly ripped away Monday -- by a federal judge.

Judge Amy J. St. Eve revealed that Public Official A -- described by federal prosecutors for months as tangled in political corruption -- is Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

She said that Rezko, one of the governor's key campaign fundraisers, schemed along with millionaire attorney Stuart Levine to squeeze Hollywood producer and Chicago businessman Thomas Rosenberg for a $2 million payoff or a $1.5 million campaign contribution.

Prosecutors have said the money was for Public Official A. The money was to go to Blagojevich, St. Eve said in court papers.

"Levine and Rezko allegedly then agreed to approach Rosenberg through an intermediary to either make a $1.5 million donation to Governor Blagojevich or pay Levine an approximate $2 million fee in order to obtain the ... allocation," St. Eve wrote.

News organizations including The Associated Press have long reported Blagojevich was Public Official A. Advertisement

The only one denying it has been Blagojevich, who repeatedly has said he believed he was not the official in question.

One wonders if Blagojevich has been trying to figure out who to pay off to get out of this mess.

The sad thing is you could see this coming from day one. Oh, the particulars of how it would go down were unknown, but the politics of Illinois, and especially the Chicago Democratic party, are so inherently corrupt it was only a matter of time. It is a shame for the voters of Illinois who went from a corruption plagued Republican Governor, in George Ryan, to the Democratic equivalent in Blagojevich, but they always knew it was coming.

All of this brings up a question which has implications far beyond the borders of the Land of Lincoln: Can anyone from the political machines of Chicagoland be unsullied? It is hard not to think of Dan Rostenkowski, the son of a Chicagoland ward boss, who went from being the most powerful man in Congress to being just another felon in prison. It is telling that the Illinois Democratic pol with the best reputation in the last thirty years has to be the late Senator Paul Simon who made his mark defeating the hand picked candidates of the Chicagoland machine.

Can one rise through the ranks of the machine without in some way selling one's soul? History tells us, "Don't count on it."