The name. The hair. The gall. Illinois Governor Rod Blogojevich is getting lots of attention.
However, the governor’s favor-trading is unique only in blatancy. The longer politicians hold power, the more readily they regard pay-to-play corruption as acceptable, profitable. Which is one reason I advocate initiative rights, term limits, mandatory caps on taxes and spending, and other reforms that pay-to-play politicos despise.
The desire to thwart such reform begets even more corruption.
Pundits say that if Illinois’s state government isn’t the most corrupt in the union, it’s in the running. But I nominate Oklahoma for the title. In Oklahoma, the bad-old-boy political establishment is so eager to thwart reform that politicians are willing to jail you for the “crime” of abetting democracy.
Two citizen activists and I found this out the hard way, when Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson indicted us in October 2007 for allegedly “defrauding” the state by running a petition drive to curb state spending.
The charges are phony, and Oklahoma’s residency law for signature gatherers — which we did not violate — has just been ruled unconstitutional.
Winning attorney Todd Graves said the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling “upholds an important free speech principle and joins other federal courts in upholding citizens’ First Amendment right to petition their government without threat of political prosecution.”
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
5 replies on “Battle of the Corrupt States”
As an inmate in the Peoples Republik of Illinois, I nominate Minnisota as the most corrupt, openly stealing a senate seat. While Blogo has been stopped in Illinois, in Minnisota the Dems are doing it in the open and getting away with it!!
I think every state has a bit of what you experienced in Oklahoma, and generally, Oklahoma is one of the better-run states. You are just too close to it to see. I wish Texas spent no more than Oklahoma does!
How about this for starters: constitutional amendments requiring,
(1) Congress to fund only those items specifically within Congress’ authority as spelled out in U.S. Const. art. I, sec. 8. Congressman Shaddeg has been working on this idea for years.
(2) Any funds for “entitlements,” and any other programs not authorized by section 8, be frozen at the present level in real dollars, not adjusted for inflation. Congress would have the authority to reorder priorities but not to increase overall spending for non-section 8 programs. The goal would be to let inflation cut spending in real terms–it would be gradual and would have the minimal disruption on the economy. It would also send a message to able-bodied loafers that this train is coming to the end of its journy. Get a job!
(3) Prohibit Congress and the Court from putting unfunded mandates on the states. For those in genuine need, the state governments could pick up the slack if the feds would get off their back.
(4) Term limits for all federal elected office-holders.
(5) Allow Congress to override a Supreme Court decision. The Constitution never gave the Supreme Court power to override Congress, the Court unlawfully seized that power in Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137 (1803). The drafters of the Constitution specifically rejected giving the Court that power.
Because so few amendments to the Constitution make it through Congress, and Congress is not going to voluntarily limit itself either by term-limiting or by sticking with only the spending authorized by section 8, the only viable option is an Article V convention for offering amendments.
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