"Gotta Run, Rod"

We posted in December (12/9) the question of whether Illinois was the most corrupt state in the union. After yesterday's historic day, where the Land of Lincoln officially ran Rod Blagojevich out of the Captiol office he seemingly was never at, it's time to compare the former Gov's situation -- not to Ghandi or Mandella -- but to Nigeria.

A Nigerian living in the US maintains a blog he calls, Grandiose Parlor.

In a recent post, the blogger does some comparative politics by examining the cases of Illinois governor Rod Blagojevic and some Nigerian governors charged with similar levels of corruption.

The comparison is not favorable to the Nigerian governors or the Nigerian regime.

Musing on Illinois governor Blagojevic and his Nigerian counterparts

"A comparison between Blagojevic and Nigerian governors: while the two are corrupt — well, maybe not in equal measures, the political system in the state of Illinois is able to self-correct, promptly...

"[T]he Nigerian Guardian newspaper captures the Rod Blagojevic matter...

"'First, Mr Blagojevic and his admirers did not plead an immunity... Secondly, Mr Blagojevic was not blindly supported by his own political party... Third, the law enforcement agencies were not corralled out of intrepid investigation...

"'In contrast, Nigeria is unfortunately in the abyss of institutional and leadership collapse. The typical Nigerian state governor today, more or less Mr Blagojevic’s counterpart, is virtually unavailable to account to any institution or person...'"

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Next, CBS 2 School has this comparison of Illinois politics to the Wizard of Oz. You US History scholars might remember the Oz allegory comparison to the Populist movement.

Before he became Governor of Illinois, Pat Quinn stated that Illinois politics was beginning to resemble the Wizard of Oz. With the departure of Wicked from Chicago and Rod Blagojevich from the governor’s office, there seems no better time to delve into the similarities between Illinois and Oz.

Wicked Vich of the West
We’ll start off with the easiest comparison of Blagojevich and the Wicked Witch of the West. The Illinois Senate has now melted Blago with 59 cups of water in his conviction and ouster from the governor’s office.

While he’s known for his poetry, Blago’s last ditch public appeals bore more resemblance to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked in which we learn about the complexities of the evil witch. In Wicked, Elphaba must battle rival witches, a culture of corruption and constantly being misunderstood. Add some FBI wiretaps, and you’ve got a musical starring Blago.

Dorothy
We haven’t seen him wear any ruby red shoes lately, but new Governor Pat Quinn still makes a wonderful Dorothy.

For three decades, Quinn has been a political outsider championing the causes of reform and the marginalized. He now enters the world of insiders where all of the characters have a little more color.

His yellow brick road will take him to Springfield, but watch out. Flying monkeys, tax hikes and plenty of other obstacles will be lurking and attempting to side track his bid to win in 2010.

Cowardly Lion
Like the Cowardly Lion, the General Assembly finally gathered enough courage for confrontation at the end. But even Blago was confused by this newfound bravado.

Several of the impeachment articles related to actions Blago took in his first term when plenty of Democrats in the General Assembly supported these efforts and then supported his re-election. They then managed to find the courage to impeach him for these and other offenses.

Toto
We’ve managed to impeach a governor with hardly a mention about Illinois Republicans, and that’s where Toto comes in.

As the minority party, Illinois Republicans are expected to play the role of watchdog. But with their own recent ethics scandals and political woes, the Illinois GOP seems to have as much bite as cute little Toto.

Scarecrow
That’s where you come in.

You, the voters of Illinois, have managed to elect three recent governors who have ended up in prison. You also re-elected this most recent governor despite full knowledge that he was the subject of serious FBI investigations.

You have a terrible of track record of voting with no brain, and until you get some smarts we’re probably destined for more of the same.

Others?
We’ve left plenty of roles uncast. Feel free to comment on who you think would be the best fit to play the Munchkins, the monkeys and of course the Wizard.
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Check out the Chicago Sun-Times site, "Blagobusted.com" for full coverage of the removal by impeachment of Blagojevich. By the way the tollway signs with Blago's name prominently plastered above the open road tolling lanes started coming down on Day One of the Pat Quinn administration. They cost about a half-a-million to put up and will cost about that much to remove or cover.

www.suntimes.com/news/metro/blagojevich/index.html

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The Transparency International CPI measures the perceived levels of public-sector corruption in a given country and is a composite index, drawing on different expert and business surveys. The 2008 CPI scores 180 countries (the same number as the 2007 CPI) on a scale from zero (highly corrupt) to ten (highly clean).



Here's where are comparative countries rank (the higher the number the less corrupt
between 10 highly clean and 0 highly corrupt) :

16. UK -- 7.7

18. USA -- 7.3

72. Mexico -- 3.6

72. China -- 3.6

121. Nigeria -- 2.7

141. Iran -- 2.3

147. Russia -- 2.1



The full index can be found here:


click to see the CPI table and Sources