Reaching the end of the driveway, I retrieved the Trib from the gutter where it was “delivered,” being the way they do it in “Chicagoland”—rather like a drive-by shooting. Talking about gutters, the lead article was on Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich’s attempt to sell Barack Obama’s senate seat. What in most areas is political scandal, in Chicago is simple entertainment. But this one is so bad, it’s actually a scandal even there.

This governor is the fifth of the last eight elected Illinois governors to be charged with a crime. If sent to jail, he would be the fourth to serve time. Since 1951, more than 1,000 Illinois government officials have been convicted of corruption. Just from Chicago, 30 aldermen have gone to jail.

But this one has shocked everyone. They aren’t at all surprised a governor tried to sell his appointment of a senate seat to replace president-elect Barack Obama. What shocks them is he did it so openly. A Chicago politician worth his or her salt is smarter than this. Chicago attorney and best-selling novelist Scott Thurow said he would never dare submit such a plot to a publisher as fiction, because it would be rejected as implausible. Truth is, after all, stranger than all.

When I lived in Chicago, I was offered the job of a sewer inspector at a good deal more money than I was making as a college professor. All I had to do was “make the rounds about once a month” and collect my check at city hall. I had always presumed such positions, especially the ridiculous sounding “sewer inspector” were stereotypical jokes. When I received a follow-up call, I recognized they were serious. Usually these titular positions with their sinecure went for political payback, but this was to return a professional favor. Ironically, it was by a city official who had sought my counsel on a moral issue.

I turned to the opinion section (of specific interest to me wherever I travel) of this Sunday issue and thought I found a really funny joke—but it was serious. The Trib had already reported its own survey that found eight percent of Illinois voters still supported Blagojevich. This wasn’t the joke, because this is all part of the political environment. The paper was curious about the reasons these people would give for their support of a governor exposed as he was. So it engaged the Chicago-based Glengariff Group to survey 600 of this eight percent.

It found two percent had performed in a David Mamet play, and four percent were comb manufacturers. Unsurprisingly, former Illinois governors formed seven percent of the eight percent. Eight percent replied affirmatively because they thought pollsters would like them.

We get into substantial numbers from here on. Eleven percent also approve of Kim Jong-Il, Donald Trump, and Alfonso Soriano in the playoffs. Slightly more, 14 percent, presumed “G-Rod,” as he has been known locally, was “that guy dating Madonna.” The same number, 16 percent, though they were being asked if they were undecided voters as those who were too embarrassed to ask what “approve” means.

The largest single group, 22 percent of the eight percent who still support Governor Rod Blagojevich, are individuals the Tribune calls “pathologically sarcastic.” I know the type.

Now, believe me, folks, this comes directly from the dignified opinion pages of the Dec. 14 issue of the esteemed “Chicago Tribune.” This isn’t another one of those predictable screeds from the Herald’s Thursday columnist. This is Illinois as seen from Chicago.

(By the way, I just kept teaching college and watched my savings go down the drain.)

With this on Chicago minds, I didn’t get nearly as many questions about the senatorial recount in Minnesota or whether that Jesse guy is still around. But those who support a political crook deserve the crook they get.