POLITICAL MESS IN ILLINOIS: FEW SAINTS IN POLITICS, NOT EVEN LINCOLN
by JIM BROWN (excerpt)

When the Governor of Illinois was arrested recently and charged with selling political favors to the highest bidder, the federal prosecutor in the case was incredulous. He stated that Abraham Lincoln” would rollover in his grave” if he were to know all the shenanigans going on Illinois. Not so say a number of historians who have written about Lincoln. Maybe the Civil War President would not have been as blatant as the current Illinois Governor. But selling political favors for campaign contributions or other personal benefits has been a way of life in Illinois, and other states including Louisiana, for centuries.

I’ve never fully understood the fascination withLincoln. More than 5000 books have been written about the 25th president, more surely than about any other figure in American history. Lincoln was the guy who micromanaged a war that all told took the lives of almost 1,000,000 Americans. On one day alone, September 17, 1862, more American soldiers were killed in the Battle of Antietam than in all other wars fought by the United States in the 19th century together. How did Lincoln, this supposedly great compromiser, allow such devastation to take place? Was ripping apart our country worth such a price?

When it came to patronage and personal gain,Lincoln was certainly no slouch. Pulitzer prize-winning Lincoln biographer David Daniel paints a picture of Lincoln fully immersed in the political world of “pay to play” and patronage tied to large political contributions. Rather than “rolling over in his grave,” Lincoln would have been more likely “rolling his eyes” over the naivety of federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who brought the charges against Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Thomas DiLorenzo, in his new book, “Lincoln Unmasked,” paints a portrait of Lincoln as the master string puller in Illinois at the time he was elected president. One of his first acts was to call Congress into a special session in June of 1861 to begin work on the Pacific Railroad Bill, which would eventually result in one of the greatest spectacles of graft and corruption in American history (the Credit Mobilier scandal). Lincoln benefited personally from this legislation which gave him, as president, the right to choose the eastern starting point of the government-subsidized transcontinental railroad. He chose Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he had recently purchased a large tract of land that is known to this day as “Lincoln’s Hill.”

The current Illinois deal maker-in-chief is certainly up to his ears in big time problems. He was called by the largest newspaper in Illinois “the craftiest and most dishonest politician that ever disgraced any American political office.” No, they were not referring to Gov. Blagojevich. It was Abe Lincoln who was the brunt of this burning commentary by the Illinois Register back in the 1850s. This whole current sordid mess has a long way to play out. But be assured the Lincoln is certainly not “rolling over in his grave.” Maybe chuckling a bit.