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So. Who Will Appoint the Next Illinois Senator?
Looks like it is Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn, the man on the right. He better have zero uncovered corruption scandals in his past, because the entire national media is going to turn its eyes to him as soon as it's done digesting Fitzgerald's complaint.
Given the track record of Illinois governors, I'm not optimistic. Here's the list of pols who have recently held that position: Blago (2003-present?), George Ryan (1999-2003), James Edgar (1991-1999), James Thompson (1977-1991), and Daniel Walker (1973-1977). Blago is Blago. Ryan was convicted of 16 charges of conspiracy, fraud, and lying under oath and currently resides in federal prison. (Patrick Fitzgerald, apparently the greatest prosecutor walking the planet, was Ryan's prosecutor.) Edgar was indicted (but not charged) with saw his subordinates charged with giving a sweetheart deal to a major campaign contributor. Thompson does not appear to have run into any legal trouble, but the law firm he heads did represent Ryan against Fitzgerald. And Walker was sentenced to seven years in federal prison for his role in a savings and loan scandal after leaving office.
So that would be... four three of the last five Illinois governors charged with some kind of wrongdoing. Excellent work, Land of Lincoln.
* Correction made. Thanks to the commentor.
I assume you mean Edgar was indicted but not convicted -- if he was indicted, he was charged, 'cause they're kind of the same thing.
Ok, I looked at the wikipedia link, and if wikipedia's right, Edgar was linked to a sweetheart deal scandal in which several other people were prosecuted, but Edgar was never charged with anything, which means he was never indicted (see above).
You omitted Otto Kerner, governor 60-68, appointed in 1968 to the US District Court by LBJ. He was indicted adn convicted in a racetrack scandal from his days as governer while a sitting federal judge.
More on OTTO: The federal prosecutor who nailed Kerner was Jim Thompson, who used that and other corruption prosecutions to get himself elected governor--served 14 years. His (relatively) clean image was tarnished recently when as a member of the Hollinger board looked the other way as Conrad Black looted the company.
tangential trivia: Otto Kerner's father in law was Anton Cermak, the Chicago mayor who was killed in 1933 when he took a bullet meant for president elect FDR.
I must say, as a Texan I have always felt a sort of perverse pride in our next door neighbor, Louisiana, for the quality of crooked governors they have sent to office and then prison. Edwin Edwards is doing a ten year stretch right now.
I hadn't realized what pikers the Louisiana pols were compared to the Illinois ones.
I spent the two years after my undergraduate graduation teaching high school in Chicago through the Teach for America program. One thing I could never get over was the extent to which political corruption was expected and tolerated. Though today's news is tragic, it doesn't come as a surprise.