Broken pledges: Rod Blagojevich and "pay to play"

Eric Krol of the suburban Daily Herald wrote and excellent article yesterday about Governor Rod Blagojevich.

An excerpt:

"When Rod Blagojevich was running for governor, he frequently and emphatically vowed to clean up state government. To end “business as usual.”

“I believe we have a chance to make history here. To elect a governor who’s going to change a system. A system that’s become corrupt. A system that’s become cynical,” he told a campaign rally in downstate Johnson County in October 2002.

But a cross-check of the governor’s campaign contributors against lists of those he’s named to state posts and a special class of state contracts shows a strong correlation. That, government watchdog groups say, is essentially business as usual in a “pay-to-play” state, and not the work of someone truly committed to reform in Illinois.

The laughable spin defense from the Blagojevich camp bears posting:

"Blagojevich campaign spokesman Pete Giangreco strongly disagreed, dismissing as ridiculous any suggestion that contributions influence state contracts or appointments.

“We set the bar high. We knew there were going to be sneaky articles,” Giangreco said. “We’ve done more to reform state government than the other (previous) governors combined.”

Sorry, Pete, you're wrong. And Krol backs up his charges with lots of data, so this is by no means a "sneaky" article.

And as I posted Saturday, a 2008 Blagojevich presidential run is beginning to look absurd. No wait, it is absurd.