They are making a big deal about "pay to play" ...

[SHRED]

...in Illinois.

WTF?...sports teams, foreign auto manufacturers, and corporates in general do that all the time with state tax dollars.

Either you give them the "incentives"...or they don't "play".


----

[jimshoes]

1. Kind of like K Street

Let's open up that can of worms. I'll make a vat of popcorn, m'kay.

[zbdent]

2. and yet Ted Stevens is "being railroaded"

despite actually TAKING the bribes ...

[billybob537]

3. Democrats have to learn to be more ruthless

Play to the emotions of the stupid sheeple. Use everything the pukes use. After 8 years of being sold out at every oportunity by this Admin.they have the gall to say culture of corruption. After Abrahoff and Cunningham, Iraq and Katrina, I can't believe these bastards haven't been rounded up tarred and feathered and thrown in the river.

[lame54]

4. What about rampant Bush cronyism?...

That went on for 8 years and we didn't hear a whole lot about that although it proved, time and time again, to be quite harmful

[KharmaTrain]

5. And Everyone Forgot About The "K Street Project"?

No, Illinois didn't invent pay-to-play...from what I've been reading about New Jersey, Rhode Island, Louisiana, Texas and Alaska, this state has a long way to go to reach the lower Abramoff levels.

Here's the rub...while Blago wanted pay for play, not that many in this state were playing...a major reason he went wild. Some here may remember the first Mayor Daley...he was in office for 20 years...always under allegations of corruption, yet he was never caught. His underlings were, but he was smart, if he was paid to play, he was either discreet or just had enough friends to cover for him. Blago was such a shitty governor and person in general no one wanted to play with him. When he saw that they had to, that's where this story goes off the deep end.

Sports teams play in stadiums using tax dollars, but so do hundeds of "regular citizens"...security, vendors and maintenance people. I don't know of any government money going to pay players salaries.

One shouldn't need to give an incentive to either do the right thing or the job you're hired to do.