Honest Politician 2

2 comments

1. Opie

   August 21, 2006 at 10:37 pm

   One of our governors here in Illinois was once honest about his deceit. Dan Walker became involved in a banking scandal after he left office. In the courthouse lobby after his conviction, he faced the press and said, “I have broken the law; I am guilty as charged, and I have no excuses, only regrets.”

   Most Illinois governors are more deceitful about their deceit, though. Our last one, George Ryan, insisted for years that he did nothing wrong, but a jury a few months back found him guilty of everything he’d been charged with plus blamed him for several diseases and famines. Our current governor, Rod Blagojevich, can’t get a re-election endorsement from our Attorney General even though they’re from the same party, because she thinks there’s something wrong with endorsing someone both she and the Feds are investigating. (Another reason women are not suited for politics.)

    
2. Frank

   August 22, 2006 at 6:52 pm

   plus blamed him for several diseases and famines.

   I needed a laugh.

   We don’t have too many problems of that sort in Delaware at the state level. Place is too small–everyone knows everyone else. Heck, I used to go to PTA meetings with Governor (now Senator) Carper–his son attended public schools and he attended in his capacity as a father.

   The local level can be a different story.

   I ran into Dennis Greenhouse, ex-county executive of New Castle County, in Las Vegas waiting for a change of planes (he’s now a Federal employee and was returning from a conference in beautiful Winnemuca, Nevada–I’ve been to Winnemuca–I can assure you, it was not by any means a junket).

   We got chatting, as people do in airports when they find themselves staring out the same window. When I mentioned I was from Wilmington, he introduced himself, and I said, “I voted for you.”

   He told me that, when he took county office, he made a pledge to himself: that he would never meet with a real estate developer in private; he always took along the County Attorney or the head of the Zoning Board. This is a paraphrase, but it’s close: “Real estate development is where local politicians get into trouble.”