Archive for December, 2008
“One hell of a competitor”
FBI Agents aren’t known for being quotable, but when Robert Grant said Tuesday if Illinois “isn’t the most corrupt state in the United States, it’s certainly one hell of a competitor” he won instant renown.
And a fact check by USA Today.
The newspaper today published a story that put to the test the words uttered by the FBI agent who spoke to reporters the day the feds arrested Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
The paper tried to figure out which state was the most corrupt, and based the answer on the number of federal public corruption convictions per capita between 1997 and 2008 in each of the 50 states.
The winner (loser?) wasn’t Illinois. Or even New York. Or Jersey. Surprisingly enough, North Dakota won the brass ring. It had a per capita conviction rate of 8.3. Illinois, by comparison, was at 3.9.
Iowa, true to form, came in near the bottom (top?). Thirty five public corruption convictions over the 10-year span for a per capita rate of 1.2.
What’s with North Dakota? Don Morrison, the executive director of the North Dakota Center for the Public Good, surmised it might be because the state is so small everybody knows everybody else, according to USA Today.
That doesn’t explain why sparsely populated Iowa suffers so little public corruption. It’s not like there’s a mob-like code of silence here.
The juiciest scandal we’ve gotten lately is the CIETC affair out of Des Moines. As salacious as it was, it can’t really compare to the affidavit full of the grandiose, vulgarity-filled schemes Blagojevich is accused of.
Whatever it is, we’ll have to keep on suffering through it and look with amazement at our neighbors. ”What is it, we ask, with Chicago?” And, now, Minot.