It’s a travesty

Illinois State Representative Derrick Smith was formally indicted today by a federal grand jury for allegedly accepting a bribe.  Smith is charged with accepting $7,000 in cash from a trusted campaign worker that he thought was a payoff from a day care operator who wanted him to write an official letter supporting a bid for a $50,000 state grant.

That is quite a high fee for writing a letter, it is 14% of the total loan amount.  Representative Smith must have exceptional penmanship.

The Chicago Tribune published a news report about this subject today and it can be read at this link:

Lawyer: Rep. Smith has no plans to quit, despite indictment

I am in complete agreement with the defense attorney when he says: “A lot of things are troubling about this case.”

Chicago politicians once again provide us a view into the inner workings of government.  In this case the state government creates a program to give away taxpayers' money.  Of course to receive this "grant" the person or firm will need the support of influential politicians.  Inevitably when the influential politician intervenes on behalf of the grant recipient there will be a quid pro qou.

For those who do not speak Latin quid pro qou means this for that.  In Chicago it is more commonly understood as "where's mine?"

So we have a situation where politicians create programs to take money from the taxpayers and give it to their supporters, taking a commission for themselves.  It beats working for a living!

Another interesting part of this story is that the Democratic Machine Politicians did not request that Representative Smith withdraw from the primary election.  In fact the Democratic Machine supported Representative Smith in the primary election.  If Smith had withdrawn prior to the primary an outsider may have won the nomination and the Machine may not have been able to control that new Representative's vote.  Now the Machine will throw Representative Smith under the bus.  When Representative Smith is all gone the Machine will be able to appoint his replacement, thus insuring the new Representative's unwavering alliance to the Democratic Machine's agenda.  And that my friends is the heart and soul of Chicago politics.