CHICAGO POLITICS

Chicago Conspiracy Theory Alert

By Crabby Golightly

IT SNOWED LAST WEEK IN CHICAGO, AND I HAVE YET SEE A CITY TRUCK OUT SALTING THE STREETS. In any other city in the nation, residents could come up with some logical rationale for the lack of service. But in Chicago, everything is suspect.

As local pundits report breathlessly on the indictment of Governor Rod Blagojevich and his alleged "political corruption crime spree, what's missing from the debate is the timing of his arrest.

Blagojevich was imminently expected to name a successor to President-elect Barack Obama's former Senate seat (the one he pledged to hold at least for one term before he sought to run for president, but that's another story). Blagojevich has been accused of offering the seat up to the highest bidder, and the list of Senate wannabes is long: Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., Rep. Jan Schakowsky, Rep. Danny Davis, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan among others. It was state AG Madigan who conveniently petitioned the state's Supreme Court to remove Blagojevich from office on Friday, thus yanking his privilege to appoint the next winner in the "Win-For-Life" lottery known as the U.S. Senate.

Here's why I'm scratching my head and siding with Jim Lehrer, who asks, ''what's the big deal here?"

Do not construe my indifference to the dealmaking as acceptance, but more as the resignation that comes with knowing that this is how the game plays. And anyone in government who pretends otherwise is either deluded or lying.

We need look no further than to the new appointees of President-elect Barack Obama's cabinet to find examples of this quid-pro-quo schema.

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