A seat in hell for Blago

A Chicago alderman once complained to me about modern reform hiring laws -- the line was so good, I borrowed it, unembellished, for a novel -- "What's this world coming to when a guy can get a job for a stranger more easily than he can for his brother in law?"

But even those who live by this kind of code are appalled by the allegations against Mr. Blagojevich. [...] But unsubtly putting a senate seat up for personal auction, as if it were a piece of family jewelry, is arrogance that makes even hardened pols shudder.

Yet that's not even the item that angers me most. Among U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald's bill of particulars is the charge that Gov. Blagojevich sought to rescind a state payment of $8 million to Children's Memorial Hospital if their CEO failed to organize a $50,000 contribution to the governor.

Many shameless politicians would send free turkeys to a children's hospital. The publicity is good, and it might help them sleep at night. But this governor was willing to stint on their care if a hospital official didn't oblige him with cash.

When I was in high school, a group of friends and I would pass out toys and candy to children in the hospital wards there. It was both the saddest and sweetest event of the season, and the thought that a public official would dare diminish the care of sick, innocent children over a campaign contribution doesn't just deserve an indictment. I think it reserves that politician a seat in Hell.

Chicagoan Scott Simon, writing in The Wall Street Journal: Even Chicago's Crooks are Appalled by Blagojevich (13 Dec 2008)

I, da ho

Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho), a staunch "family values" man and a big Romney supporter, pled guilty to cruising for gay sex in a Minneapolis-St. Paul airport bathroom in June 2007 .

Upon arrest and interrogation, Senator Craig apparently tried to throw his weight around:

After he was arrested, Craig, who is married, was taken to the Airport Police Operations Center to be interviewed about the lewd conduct incident, according to the police report. At one point during the interview, Craig handed the plainclothes sergeant who arrested him a business card that identified him as a U.S. Senator and said, “What do you think about that?” the report states. (source)

The police sergeant's reaction is not reported, but I hope he said something like, "You're still not getting that blowjob..." (or giving, as the case may have been.)

Whew. Anyone who still plans to vote a straight Republican ticket in 2008 may have trouble finding enough straight Republicans.

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Postscript: An editor at The Nation wants to know: "What's up with Republican politicos getting arrested by undercover cops for soliciting sex in public restrooms?" Yes, there are some obvious (and very funny) cheap shots taken in the editorial, but it's also surprisingly thoughtful.

Counterfeit goods

Government scandal and corruption, North Carolina-style:

State Division of Motor Vehicles Commissioner George Tatum resigned today, a spokesman said.

The resignation comes a little more than a week after The News & Observer reported an allegation that Tatum had helped a friend get a replica of a 1937 Ford truck titled as the real thing.

DMV Commissioner Resigns (Raleigh, NC News and Observer, 18 July 2007)

This is *so* Southern, I can't even begin to cope with it.

Dude resigns in shame and disgrace because he got caught helping a friend counterfeit a pickup truck.

Throw Denny From The Train

John deVille tips us that, in this morning's Washington Times, the lead op-ed calls for Speaker Hastert to resign over the Rep. Foley "inappropriate e-mails" scandal (gosh, remember back in the day, when Congressmen used to actually schtup the underage pages, not just type dirty to them?)

House Speaker Dennis Hastert must do the only right thing, and resign his speakership at once. Either he was grossly negligent for not taking the red flags fully into account and ordering a swift investigation, for not even remembering the order of events leading up to last week's revelations -- or he deliberately looked the other way in hopes that a brewing scandal would simply blow away. He gave phony answers Friday to the old and ever-relevant questions of what did he know and when did he know it? Mr. Hastert has forfeited the confidence of the public and his party, and he cannot preside over the necessary coming investigation, an investigation that must examine his own inept performance.

A special, one-day congressional session should elect a successor. We nominate Rep. Henry Hyde, also of Illinois, the chairman of the House International Relations Committee whose approaching retirement ensures that he has no dog in this fight. He has a long and principled career, and is respected on both sides of the aisle. Mr. Hyde would preside over the remaining three months of the 109th Congress in a manner best suited for a full and exhaustive investigation until a new speaker for the 110th Congress is elected in January, who can assume responsibility for the investigation.

Resign, Mr. Speaker (lead editorial, Washington Times, 3 October 2006)

Arrivederci, Denny. Nice knowin' ya.

Turn the page

John Tierney (behind the TimesDestruct firewall, dammit) wants to do away with the Congressional Page system.

The justification for the page program is that it gives teenagers an insider’s glimpse of how Congress works. But why disillusion them at such a tender age? If they stayed in school, they could maintain their innocence by reading the old step-by-step textbook version of how a bill becomes law. By going to Capitol Hill, they see how the process has changed:

1. A bill is introduced to build highways.

2. A congressman receives a donation from a constituent who wants to open a go-kart track.

3. The congressman persuades his committee chairman to slip in a $350 million “earmark” for an “alternative sustainable transportation research facility” in his district.

4. The chairman quietly adds similar earmarks for all members of the committee.

5. The bill is passed unanimously.

6. The president complains about the “wasteful spending” but signs it into law anyway.

7. The congressman attends a fund-raiser at the new go-kart track.

What lesson has the page learned? That Congress is the closest thing in modern America to a medieval court: an enclave governed by arcane ancient rules of seniority, a gathering of nobles who spend their days accepting praise and dispensing favors to supplicants.

Your Page, M'Lord (John Tierney, New York Times, October 3, 2006 - TimesSelect)

Once my wife wakes up (it's before sunrise as I post this) we'll have to get her take on the page system... although I don't think she was herself a page, she did intern in Senator Bob Dole's office back in the Late Pleistocene era.