What's
a little Senate seat bribery between friends? Sure, Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich is accused
of trying to profit from the sale of President-elect Obama's newly vacant Senate seat. And he may
have allegedly tried to force the newly bankrupt
Tribune Co. to fire editorial staff members who were critical of
him. And it's possible he traded favors for campaign contributions. But this is
Illinois; as Robert Grant, the special agent
in charge of the FBI's Chicago field office,
told the press at the announcement of the indictment, "if it isn't the
most corrupt state in the United
States, it's certainly one hell of a
competitor." (Read TIME's
2-minute bio on Rod Blagojevich)
Reach
as far back into Illinois
history as you like and your hands will likely come out dirty. Blagojevich is
the sixth Illinois
governor to be subjected to arrest or indictment — seventh if you count Joel
Aldrich Matteson (governor from 1853-1857), who tried to cash $200,000 of
stolen government scrip he "found" in a shoebox. Matteson pulled a
"how-did-that-get-there?" excuse and escaped indictment by promising
to pay it back. (Oddly, this isn't Illinois's only shoebox-full-of-money
scandal; after former secretary of state Paul Powell's death in 1970, a search
of his home revealed shoeboxes full of hundreds of thousands of dollars in
checks made out to him by unsuspecting Illinois residents who thought they were
paying license plate registration fees).