Pat Quinn: Hey, he picked a tie! (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
Gov. Pat Quinn and the Illinois legislature last week met expectations by agreeing on a $26 billion budget for the fiscal year that started July 1 — the agreement is every…
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Illinoisans soon will get a new weapon to fight political corruption. It’s not the machete that’s needed to hack away decades of endemic corruption sown by pay-for-play political contributions that have gone totally unchecked. State lawmakers couldn’t bring themselves to…
One way corruption creates jobs.
It’s a fine mess the Illinois legislature has gotten itself into. Its members have known since January that they had to fix a $12 billion budget deficit. But first they had to remove Gov. Rod Blagojevich from…
Rod Blagojevich talks to reporters the day he was impeached.
Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevcich, who was impeached by state legislators earlier this year, was indicted Thursday on federal charges in Chicago. (Read the AP story here.)
The indictment said Blagojevich operated…
You want the truth? Which version?
Listening to U.S. Sen. Roland Burris, D-Ill., try to explain Sunday why he didn’t exactly lie about his contacts with associates of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, we were reminded of the advice that comedian Steve…
Now-former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevcich talks to Diane Sawyer on Monday about his impeachment hearings. | Getty Images
So, the Illinois Senate convicted (now-former) Gov. Rod Blagojevich, removing him from office.
The nation (or at least the media) seemed transfixed by the…
Gov. Blagojevich explains himself remotely to Barbara Walters' head during Monday's bizarre media tour. (Associated Press Wirephoto)
It’s hard to decide which of soon-to-be-former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s images of himself we like best. Is it Rod the Martyr for the People,…
No, that's not a check Roland Burris is taking from his pocket as Gov. Blagojevich introduces him Tuesday. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
In a way, we don’t blame Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich for defying the leadership of his own Democratic Party last…
On the other hand, there were financial vices. And if somebody in City Hall saw a chance to make a fast bundle or two, Daley wasn’t given to preaching. His advice amounted to: Don’t get caught.
— Mike Royko, about Chicago…
In March 2005, a month after Alberto Gonzales became U.S. attorney general, Justice Department staffers sent to the White House a chart ranking all 93 U.S. attorneys in terms of their allegiance to President George W. Bush and his administration.
On…
The guessing game has begun.
Lisa Madigan
Several people under consideration for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama were discussed in the criminal complaint against Illinois Gov. Rod Balgojevich announced yesterday.
Now pundits are trying to figure out who they are. The people were listed as Candidate 1, Candidate…
Today is Rod Blagojevich’s 52nd birthday. It should be the last one he spends as governor of Illinois.
He has betrayed the citizens of his state. He is not fit to hold public office. If he doesn’t have the good sense…
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich
Two years ago, as this page was debating the editorial endorsement for governor, and the page was leaning toward Rod Blagojevich, one writer told another writer, “You’re going to endorse someone who will be indicted before his…
One year after beginning a six-and-a-half-year prison sentence for racketeering and fraud, former Illinois Gov. George Ryan still hasn’t admitted to or apologized for the systematic corruption that marked his single term as governor and his two terms as secretary of…
Illinois Auditor General William Holland has been poking his nose into Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s Office of Management and the Budget. What he found smells distinctly fishy.
Mr. Holland reported last week that the OMB had issued no-bid contracts, awarded contracts to…
In Chicago, federal prosecutors are prying the lid off the rotten practice of pay-to-play politics in Illinois. The stench just might change the way business is done in Springfield.
Put the emphasis on the word “might.”
A year ago the Illinois House,…
