The Ming Report

BIRDS OF A FEATHER

June 21, 2004 - The Bush Campaign is gearing up in Illinois. Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) and former Illinois Governor Jim Edgar will meet the press today to anoint Edgar as the Chairman of the Bush campaign in Illinois. It is a felicitous choice, but just for which candidate is unclear. The State Republican Party was soundly thrashed in the 2002 elections in the throes of a bribery and corruption scandal that saw the then incumbent Governor, George Ryan decide not to seek a second term and who now faces trial on Federal corruption charges, Polls show Kerry with a substantial lead in Illinois.

Edgar had his own brushes with scandal as Governor. During an investigation into overcharging on a no-bid contract to modernize Illinois’ Department of Revenue computer system it was revealed that shortly before the contract had been awarded the Governor had accepted a $4000 state of the art laptop computer from the contractor. Two high ranking Edgar administration officials and top company officers were convicted in the scheme but Edgar himself escaped indictment.

Edgar’s path to the Governor’s Mansion followed his two terms as Illinois Secretary of State after serving in the Illinois House of Representatives. The Illinois Secretary of State traditionally controls the state’s largest army of patronage employees and wielded enormous political clout and funds as a result. When Governor Jim Thompson (R) called it quits at the end of his third term Edgar used his troops and warchest to secure the Republican nomination and the election as Governor. George Ryan followed him into the Secretary of State’s office. During the investigation that led up to his indictment Ryan claimed that he was in the dark about the bribes that fueled his own political fund raising. He complained that he had inherited a “culture of corruption” when he took over as Secretary of State.

Illinois has a tradition of people who enter politics to do good and end up doing right well indeed. Edgar was a young man of modest means when he entered the Illinois House. He now lives in a spacious mansion surrounded by a state of the art security fence on the banks of the Sangamon River near Mahomet, Illinois while he serves as an adjunct professor at the University Of Illinois Institute Of Government.

With his experience as Governor behind him Edgar will have no difficulty finding creative ways to defend the Bush-Chaney no bid contracting and Halliburton overcharges. He has been there and escaped his successor’s fate. In Illinois we have a non-partisan tradition of politicians flocking to the political bird feeders. It is a case of “Birds of a Feather” and only a few get caught.