Blago’s Third-World-Style Corruption

Lots of other folks have chimed in on Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s arrest today. What strikes me about this is how little this resembles a typical Chicago scandal and how much it looks like the sort of thing you see in Latin America, Africa or elsewhere in the Third World.

Most Chicago (and Illinois) scandals are based on machines. Going back to the 19th century Illinois had several local and statewide machines that promised all sorts of political favors in return for political support. Especially in Chicago’s First Ward, political machines allowed a thriving red light district in the Levee to bring in tons of cash for the city, replete with payoffs to local ward bosses. In the 1920s, Chicago had a Republican machine run by Big Bill Thompson, and the Democrats had an “lace curtain” Irish Democratic machine. Thompson was ultimately toppled after years of association with Al Capone. When Anton Cermak, the Czech immigrant, defeated Thompson in 1931, it signaled the rise of the new ethnic machine (and the permanent demise of Chicago’s Republican Party).

Cermak built up a machine among other Slavic immigrants and formed strong alliances with working class Irish to take over the Democratic Party from the old high-brow Democratic elites. After Cermak’s assassination in 1933, Mayor Kelly emerged and built the great Chicago Democratic machine that exists to this day.

But the sort of corruption that made the Democratic machine operate was well-heeled and professional. After the goony days of the 1920s, Chicago pols knew exactly how to step up to the line of pay-to-play corruption and not cross it – or at least not make it so damned obvious.

What’s more, the beneficiary of Chicago corruption was the whole organization. Yes, sometimes family members directly benefited too, but the aim was much larger: build a city-wide patronage network to funnel jobs and contracts to political allies in return for votes.

Outside Chicago, the Republican Party built its own well-oiled machine Downstate. The reformers in the Collar Counties and Hyde Park complained but nothing ever changed. Billy The Kid Stratton, Republican Governor in the 1950s was indicted for tax evasion. His successor, Democrat Otto Kerner (who was actually related to Anton Cermak by marriage) was convicted in the early 1970s of bribery. A later Democratic Governor, Dan Walker, was convicted of S&L fraud in the 1980s. And then Republican Governor George Ryan was convicted in a massive scandal relating to his service as Secretary of State (he used to carry wads of cash around with him, just to keep his trail clean).

Yes, Chicago and Illinois have a long history of corruption, much of it related to machine politics. And it is bipartisan. They refer to politics in the state as the Combine, because Democrats and Republican collude for corrupt gain.

But something about this latest scandal is different.

First of all, it was so audacious and stupid. He knew he was being investigated and yet he persisted in corruptly offering up Obama’s Senate seat. The other Illinois crooks at least knew their limits.

Second, Blagojevich doesn’t seem to be much of a machine-loving guy. He was made by arch machine man, Alderman Dick Mell, whose daughter Blago married. But the beneficiaries of much of Blago’s corruption seem to be only his immediate family. Most of the statewide Democratic machine despised Blagojevich; they rallied to him in 2002 because Dems were desperate to retake the state house. His 2006 re-election was made possible only by the utter collapse of the state GOP.

Third, Blagojevich has delusions of grandeur. Most Illinois politicrooks understand their place in the larger scheme of things. They find an office, figure out how to make it profitable for them and their associates, and keep at it. On occasion they get a promotion, but usually only after they’ve been cleared of obvious wrongdoing. That’s why true Chicago machine pols rarely run for statewide office; they usually BACK somebody who does.

If anything, Blagojevich’s monumental venality, arrogance and stupidity resemble the sorts you see in the Third World. Yes, I know this is politically incorrect to disparage Third World corruption this way. But the culture of personal connection and kinship networks is so much stronger in the Third World than here. Illinois goons usually have well-oiled patronage machines, and the pols usually know how to work the media.

That’s why Chicagoans are so shocked by this. It’s not the corruption, per se. It’s the super-charged highly-personalized (and profanity-laced) naked greed. Who else speaks so openly – even in a private conversation – of a Senate seat as a personal cash machine? Who else would, after the state’s US Senator was just elected President, so disparage his former office by calling the former occupant a “motherf*****?” In a world filled with selfish and self-serving politicians, is there anyone in America – and I’ll include Ted Stevens, Bill Jefferson, Duke Cunningham and anybody else recently charged – THIS selfish and self-serving?

Even by the standard of Chicago and Illinois corruption, Rod Blagojevich is beyond the pale.