10 Responses to “Illinois, corrupt governors, and “Do the right thing””

1. 1. tee bee Says:
   May 3rd, 2008 at 5:59 am

   “and their most recent Senate candidate was Alan Keyes.”

   That’s where I have a problem with your dichotomy control conclusion - if the Repubs had things wrapped up, why’d they bring in a pinch-hitter, or shall I say, carpetbagger, for that race?

   I’m not willing to go so far as to say an imbalance is subject to corruption; that may be the tail wagging the dog. Lower order power exploiters tend to jump on the engine that runs the gravy train.

2. 2. Ben Says:
   May 3rd, 2008 at 8:33 am

   More like guidelines than conclusions.

   There’s nothing inherent in an imbalance of power that will reduce corruption, but my supposition is that, if we assume a constant ratio X of honest men to dishonest men in a political party, the honest men will have more leverage within a party in which primaries serve as de facto general elections, and are expected to be contested.

3. 3. Jason Says:
   May 4th, 2008 at 11:50 am

   Hey Ben I could use California,Louisiana, New York and Jersey to show the same thing your talking about. I love how everyone was talking about the poor people in New Orleans that City and the State of Louisisana have been run by Dems for 40 years or more should’nt it of been a Utopia by now?

4. 4. Ben Says:
   May 4th, 2008 at 12:55 pm

   Far from being run by Democrats, Louisiana leans Republican (the corrupt middle ground in my paradigm), and has voted with the winner in every presidential election in the last thirty-six years. There’s a Republican governor, a Republican senator (the family values guy who was caught with a hooker), and the congressional delegation includes three Democrats and three Republicans.

   And it’s not like the Louisiana Democratic Party is being run by people like Russ Feingold or Paul Wellstone. The two most prominent members who come to mind are a conservative who applied a patina of bipartisanship to a GOP effort to kill health care legislation, and then left Congress to become a lobbyist for the pharmaceutical industry; and the guy who had $90,000 in his freezer.

5. 5. Jason Says:
   May 4th, 2008 at 9:01 pm

   The Governer is new and ran on Cleaning up the state government. I was refering to Schoolbus Nagen and the Incompatent Governer who helped botch the aftermath of Katrina.

6. 6. Ben Says:
   May 5th, 2008 at 7:27 am

   If I were briefed to defend the proposition that the GOP is the party of good government, I don’t think I’d mention Katrina…

7. 7. Jason Says:
   May 5th, 2008 at 8:22 pm

   HA HA that was more a failure of citizenship and local Government than anything on the Fed level. I also forgot to mention what is going on in the land of the 1 state Recession.

8. 8. Irish Says:
   May 6th, 2008 at 11:03 am

   The citizens are responsible for the levees?

   http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/01/AR2005090102261.html
   http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0905/090105jv1.htm

9. 9. Jason Says:
   May 6th, 2008 at 7:04 pm

   NO but they are responsible for evacuating when they are told to.

   I would say the City and State Gov. are responsible for the levees

10. 10. tee bee Says:
    May 9th, 2008 at 11:21 am

    Don’t know why I’m struggling to follow you on this: “the honest men will have more leverage within a party in which primaries serve as de facto general elections, and are expected to be contested. ”

    I think it leaves out too many factors - why would they have more leverage, presuming a 50-50 split of honest-dishonest? How will it tip if the dishonest get the nod? Do we assume a similar voter ratio? Are voters always “good” and by extension popular elections lift the best candidates?

    We know that’s not true.

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