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thatcrazycajunCourtesy of a poster in the ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
neworleans community today, here's an interesting comparison of my home state, with its legendary reputation for...shall we say, "colorful" elected officials, with the stronghold of the Daleys pére and fils and Rod "Show Me the F#@!ing Money!" Blagojevich.
Slate.com's Political Corruption Smackdown: Illinois vs. Louisiana
As the poster says on his own page, "Illinois seems impressive because they keep getting caught and keep going to jail. In Louisiana, our 'impressive stats' are just the tip of the iceberg. For every conviction, we've got at least 1,000 unprosecuted cases of corruption [emphasis added] slipping around, over and under the radar."
I would add it only took Blago one term to get caught, and this after being elected on a reform platform to succeed another jailed governor from the other party. Our own former Gov. Edwin "Vote for the Crook" Edwards made it to four terms—not even consecutively!—before he finally slipped up and went to the slammer. Uncle Edwin (as my Cajun daddy used to call him; he was from our part of the state) reportedly joked about his once-uncanny ability to be indicted and escape conviction that "the only way they can bring me down is if I'm caught in bed with a dead woman or a live man." And he's only the most recent in a long and storied line that began with the Kingfish himself, Huey P. Long...nor have I even gone into all the smaller fish lower down in the food chain, such as Congressional and state legislators (Hi, "Dollar" Bill Jefferson!), insurance commissioners, mayors and such.
neworleans community today, here's an interesting comparison of my home state, with its legendary reputation for...shall we say, "colorful" elected officials, with the stronghold of the Daleys pére and fils and Rod "Show Me the F#@!ing Money!" Blagojevich.Slate.com's Political Corruption Smackdown: Illinois vs. Louisiana
As the poster says on his own page, "Illinois seems impressive because they keep getting caught and keep going to jail. In Louisiana, our 'impressive stats' are just the tip of the iceberg. For every conviction, we've got at least 1,000 unprosecuted cases of corruption [emphasis added] slipping around, over and under the radar."
I would add it only took Blago one term to get caught, and this after being elected on a reform platform to succeed another jailed governor from the other party. Our own former Gov. Edwin "Vote for the Crook" Edwards made it to four terms—not even consecutively!—before he finally slipped up and went to the slammer. Uncle Edwin (as my Cajun daddy used to call him; he was from our part of the state) reportedly joked about his once-uncanny ability to be indicted and escape conviction that "the only way they can bring me down is if I'm caught in bed with a dead woman or a live man." And he's only the most recent in a long and storied line that began with the Kingfish himself, Huey P. Long...nor have I even gone into all the smaller fish lower down in the food chain, such as Congressional and state legislators (Hi, "Dollar" Bill Jefferson!), insurance commissioners, mayors and such.
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Date: 2008-12-17 03:56 am (UTC)Ahh, yes. "Uncle Eddie". I voted for the crook when he ran against David DuKKKe.
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Date: 2008-12-17 04:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-17 04:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-17 03:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-18 03:49 am (UTC)How art the mighty fallen....