With scandal, Ill. goes from glory to ridicule

[December 19, 2008]  CHICAGO (AP) -- Illinois should be basking in the glory of native son Barack Obama's presidential election victory and a high-profile bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Instead, with the ignominious fall of another Illinoisan, it's become an object of national ridicule.

"We were up in the stratosphere, and then comes this one idiot -- Rod Blagojevich," lamented Denise Donald, a 57-year-old resident of the South Side Chicago neighborhood the president-elect calls home.

Blagojevich, the Democratic governor, was arrested last week for allegedly trying to shop Obama's vacated Senate seat to the highest bidder, among other charges. The scandal came as Illinois -- and Chicago in particular -- was hoping to move its reputation beyond its associations with seedy politics and gangsters.

Just before Blagojevich was charged, GQ magazine picked Chicago as its "City of the Year" for 2008, citing Obama's election triumph and, ironically, the burgeoning influence of Chicago politicians on the national stage.

"It's like when you're well-dressed and feeling good," Donald said. "Then someone points out a stain on your clothes and you think, 'I'm still pretty -- but not quite as pretty as I thought.'"

It's also hard to maintain quite the same poise when your state has suddenly become a favorite butt of late-night jokes.

Last weekend's opening skit on "Saturday Night Live" focused on Blagojevich, poking fun at his expletive-laden tirades caught on secret recordings and painting him as a Chicago tough guy (when everyone in the state knows he doesn't have a Chicago accent). In a "Weekend Update" segment, Seth Meyers noted that even other Illinois politicians thought Blagojevich should resign.

"When Illinois politicians think you're too corrupt, you're too corrupt," Meyers said. "That's like Amy Winehouse telling you to go to rehab."

Illinois lawmakers have convened a legislative panel to quickly consider impeaching Blagojevich.

Republicans have been working to capitalize on the public disgust by pressuring Democrats to allow a special election to fill Obama's Senate seat. The state's Democratic majority left town this week without taking up calls for an election.

"When you think of Illinois, for a long time it was defined by Al Capone and that sort of thing," said state Sen. Christine Radogno, a Republican from Lemont. "It seemed like we sort of moved away from that when we got some good stuff in this state like Michael Jordan. Oprah. ... And now we are back squarely focused on corruption, scandal, dysfunction. It's so unfair to the people we represent."

Some fear the taint of scandal could hurt Chicago's bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.

A finalist in the process, many here believed Chicago's selection by the International Olympic Committee would be a slam dunk with an internationally popular Chicagoan as U.S. president. Now, many wonder if Blagojevich erases that advantage.

Not everyone agrees the governor's alleged misdeeds should tar the entire state.

"It's on him," said Alice Bowman, working in the Bronzeville Visitor Information Center's gift shop on Chicago's South Side. "Get this man in an orange jumpsuit. But what's it got to do with Illinois or Obama?"

[Associated Press; By MICHAEL TARM]

Associated Press writers Christopher Wills in Springfield, Jim Suhr in St. Louis and Adam Goldman in Chicago contributed to this report.

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