Like father like son. Chicago Alderman Isaac “Ike” Carothers has pleaded guilty to corruption and faces 28 months in jail.  His father, former Alderman William Carothers, was convicted of attempted extortion in 1983.

Here’s how Chicago’s WGN TV News announced the 31^st Chicago City Council Alderman since 1973 – but, hey, who’s counting – to be convicted of crimes that include paying a bribe, taking a bribe, extortion, attempted extortion, tax fraud, tax evasion, racketeering, and ghost-payrolling schemes.

Ike was formally charged with fraud and bribery last May by U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the legal beagle who has former Governor Rod Blagojevich facing trial this summer.  That is, unless Blago does enough talking to turn a plea deal. And that’s a potential factor that makes the Carothers’ case particularly interesting.

You can catch up on the details of Ike’s misdeeds in the Chicago print media here, here and here.

Let’s piece together lines from two of those articles. First, the Chicago Sun Times piece: (more…)

Judicial Watch issued its  Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians” for 2009″ list a couple of weeks ago and I’ve been waiting for MSM coverage of this story–as President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Tim Geithner, Eric Holder, Charles Rangel, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, John Murtha, Roland Burris, Rep. Jesse Jackson, and John Ensign are this year’s trophy winners.

For the record, Ensign is the only Republican and President Bush has never been on the list. I wonder if the Ds and Rs were flipped, if the MSM would have covered the story because I have not been able to find anything on this story from the major networks.  I found the story handily on the FoxNation but nowhere else in the MSM.

After Senator Harry Reid, in 2005, called the Republican Congress the most corrupt in history, he may want to look at the 2009 list and retract that statement.  It’s refreshing to see that the United States government is so well represented on this list, including the President, Speaker of the House, Secretary of the Treasury, Attorney General, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, House Financial Services Committee Chairman (Frank), and Chairman of Housing, Banking, and Urban Affairs (Dodd).

Furthermore, Obama has been on Judicial Watch’s Most Corrupt list each year since 2006—in 2008, and 2007, and 2006 (dishonorable mention). (more…)