Clueless.

Even though I have lived in Georgia 12 years, I still maintain an interest on what is going on in Illinois. Everyday I read The Springfield State Journal-Register online, and most days I read the Chicago Tribune. When I read about the arrest of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich I was not surprised. He has been under fire practically the entire time he has been governor. He was actually re-elected in 2006, but I blame the Republicans for not running a better candidate. He runs the state from Chicago instead of Springfield, which adds travel costs to an already overloaded expense account. Illinois is deeply in debt. He kept proposing new programs, but refused to raise taxes to pay for them.

Political scandals are nothing new for every state, but Illinois has always had a reputation of corruption. I enjoyed a line Mark Evanier posted on his blog yesterday where he said "I kinda thought being corrupt was part of the job description when you were governor of Illinois." Since I was born 3 former governors have spent time in jail, although only one of those was for what he did in office. Chicago also has that reputation. A long standing joke in central Illinois has been when I die I want to be buried in Chicago so I can keep voting.

The honorable thing to do now would be for Governor Blagojevich to resign, but he has shown he is not an honorable man. If he still tries to appoint a Senate replacement for President Obama that candidate will probably be rejected by the Senate. I have a feeling this thing will drag out for a long time. I think he really believes he will get away with this. He really is clueless.