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Better Than Illinois - But Not By Much

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By STEVE OTTO

sotto@tampatrib.com

Published: December 14, 2008

How many times last week did you hear something along the lines of, "It's only politics as usual in Chicago"?

The alleged putting-up-to-the-highest-bidder of a U.S. Senate seat by the governor was big news all last week. It even managed briefly to take over the top spot ahead of an ever-darkening economy.

It was as if that was an acceptable rationale for the way politics is played in the land of Lincoln. "That's just the way" is the excuse. It was like saying "They're always starving in Somalia because it's in Africa," as if one had to follow the other.

Of course, if one does follow the other long enough it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy if only because enough people keeping saying it has to be so.

True or not, there are those places in America - Louisiana comes to mind - where money under the table seems to be almost a way of life in politics. There are those cities in this land where politics is a blood sport. Boston, Philly and Detroit, perhaps, along with the Windy City.

Business As Usual

What is most troubling about the events in Chicago is the current governor may be no more corrupt than a string of recent governors. If you listen to the charges presented by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald you feel like you are in an old black-and-white movie with George Raft and James Cagney and busloads of extras serving as the sleazy entourages around Illinois state politics.

The disturbing issue isn't the crime as much as the attitude that this is the way things have always been and what do you expect?

Here, in slightly more transparent Florida, politics are a little different; ineptness holds sway over corruption, although both have their niches.

This weekend the Florida governor is on a honeymoon with the new first lady, but the honeymoon he has had with voters is now history.

My guess is it was the 12-day trade junket to Europe where his entourage managed to chalk up a $430,000 bill, which is a lot of cuckoo clocks.

The only thing that might keep Gov. Charlie on the plus side is a Legislature that would serve Floridians better just by staying home.

The Pork Choppers

I'm not sure how many decades it has been since the late great Trib editorial chief Jim Clendinen went after the pork chop politicians of the Florida Panhandle, but it might as well have been yesterday.

It was only last week that the St. Petersburg Times reported that new Florida Speaker of the House Ray Sansom, a Republican from Destin, accepted a $110,000-a-year job with his alma mater, Northwest Florida State College. The newspaper reported it was only a few days later when he took a $1 million funding request from the college and transformed it into a taxpayer-supported $25.5 million campus building project. Gov. Charlie, probably wondering about the flower arrangements at the wedding, did not veto the appropriation.

And if you think Tallahassee is too far away to deal with, you might have seen our report on the audit of the Hillsborough County Affordable Housing Office, which may not be corrupt but is taking incompetence to heights impressive even by county standards. These clowns couldn't even fill out forms in time to get grant money from the feds.

Florida, mercifully, is not Illinois. But be careful about bragging too much.

Keyword: Otto Graphs, to read and comment on Steve Otto's blog.

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