Getting rid of gov isn't going to change politics

Here's the saddest part about Rod Blagojevich's spectacular crash-and-burn collision with the law:

Forcing the governor from office and sending him to prison isn't going to change anything fundamental about Illinois politics.

By all means, let's hasten to accomplish both as quickly as possible -- without discarding his due process rights. There can be no higher priority at this point than Blagojevich's removal and incarceration.

And in the short run, we'd surely be better served with the earnest Pat Quinn running state government for the next two years than this fellow in need of serious psychiatric care.

But let's not kid ourselves. In and of itself, getting rid of Blagojevich isn't going to do us any more good than it did to get rid of his predecessor, George Ryan.

There's a deeper problem here, one that extends beyond the personalities of the moment.

Throwing out the bad apples doesn't accomplish much in the long run when it's the tree that's diseased.

Another crook is taken down. Corruption still reigns.

Why is that?

I don't have the answer any more than I have the cure, but I know generally it's because the corruption is systemic and because it's tolerated, in ways large and small, from the highest officials in our land to the average voter.

Whether we're the most corrupt state in the union or just the leading contender doesn't matter. We know the problem runs deep, and in many ways, what we don't recognize is our own role in allowing it to continue.

That's not intended to be defeatist or accusatory. By all means, the more crooks the U.S. attorney and FBI round up the better. Let's hope they keep the momentum. It's encouraging somebody cares enough to try to put a stop to it. And it's difficult for voters to clean up the mess themselves when the candidates offer no clear choice.

But even Patrick Fitzgerald seems to recognize indictments will never be enough without a fundamental change at a level he can't reach.

"I think this is a moment of truth for Illinois," Fitzgerald said Tuesday during the news conference announcing the charges against Blagojevich -- in a room just across the street from where another product of Illinois politics is laying his plans to govern our country.

The words stopped me cold because it felt as if Fitzgerald was calling us out. In that instant I realized I had not been entirely appalled at first by the news of what our governor had done. As stunning as each revelation was, it still seemed like more of the same. The allegations were shocking the nation, but I wasn't shocked.

When your moment of truth arrives, you want to be ready, and so I returned to Fitzgerald's words Wednesday to better understand his meaning. Here's what he went on to say:

"In all seriousness, we have times when people decry corruption, and yet here we have a situation where there appear to be wide-ranging schemes where people are seeking to make people pay contributions to get contracts or appointments or do other stuff.

"The FBI and their sister agencies at Postal, IRS and the Department of Labor have done a magnificent job. They will continue to work very, very hard. But what we really need is cooperation from people who are not in law enforcement, the people outside who heard or saw things or were approached in ways that felt uncomfortable.

"If they felt uncomfortable, and they think this is not how you run a government, then they ought to come forward and give us that information."

What I take from that is that everybody has to say no to the corruption and have the guts to stand up against it before anything will change.

To my knowledge, nobody on the receiving end of the governor's alleged efforts to muscle benefits for himself in return for doing his job came forward on their own to report anything untoward.

That doesn't mean they were all willing to participate in his schemes, only that they weren't willing to get involved and step forward to stop him. That's a big problem in this state. Nobody wants to get involved.

Some say we like a little corruption in Illinois. I think we're sick of it but don't know how to make it stop.

If wiretaps were used more liberally, dozens more politicians in the Statehouse, City Hall and County Building would find themselves facing prison. That's not to endorse the approach, only to state the size of the problem.

I don't know where and when it will stop. But not here and not until a whole lot more people are ready to step up.