Living in Louisiana is a lot like being on Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras: none of the abundant, scandalous activity surprises anyone —  only because everyone looks like they’re having a great time.    It’s a good way to describe the corruption in this state, although the corruption crown has shifted slightly further up the Mississippi River.    Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested and indicted for trying to sell President-elect Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder. Blagojevich was quoted as saying, “I’ve got this thing, and it’s fucking golden. I’m not giving it up for fucking nothing,” according to wiretaps taken by the FBI.    In addition to threatening to withhold millions in Medicaid reimbursements to a children’s hospital if the CEO failed to contribute $50,000 to his campaign fund, the embattled governor is also accused of planning extortion and trying to force the Chicago-based Tribune Company to fire editorial writers in exchange for a tax break allegedly worth $100 million.    The Illinois House of Representatives impeached Blagojevich — 114 to 1, with one member voting ‘present’ — and at the time of this column, he awaits trial from the Illinois Senate.    In lieu of resigning his position, the governor instead appointed former state Attorney General Roland Burris, 71, to fill the vacant Senate seat. The appointment caused a predictable stir around the Capitol and across the mainstream media, as the race card once again showed its ugly face in the form of Rep. Bobby Rush, asking the media “not to hang or lynch the appointee as you try to castigate the appointor,” while calling the U.S. Senate “the last bastion of plantation politics,” according to The Associated Press.    The media circus sparked by Blagojevich’s actions brings Illinois — yes, Illinois — back to its true place atop the corruption echelon in America.    A columnist hailing from the home state of Huey P. Long and Edwin Edwards is claiming — nay, asserting — that Illinois was, is and will continue to be the most corrupt state in the nation’s history.    According to Time Magazine, Blagojevich is the first governor in Illinois history to be impeached but is the sixth Illinois governor to be subject to arrest or indictment.     His predecessor, George Ryan, was convicted in April 2006 on 18 felony counts, including racketeering conspiracy, mail and tax fraud and lying to the FBI. The former governor was exposed for trading truck operators’ licenses for political contributions, as well as exchanging government favors for family vacations, tickets to events and other gifts.    Ironically, when Blagojevich was elected governor, becoming the first Democrat to be elected governor of Illinois in 30 years, he pledged to end a “Republican legacy of corruption, mismanagement and lost opportunities.”    Illinois corruption dates back to the 1920s, when former Gov. Lennington Small was charged with embezzling over $1 million in state funds.     Small went on trial in 1922 but was acquitted and would serve seven more years in office, of course after giving state jobs to four jurors from the trial.     Otto Kerner was indicted and convicted in 1973 of bribery, conspiracy, income tax evasion, mail fraud and perjury, stemming from deals made with a horse racing association, promising favorable race dates in exchange for $356,000 worth of stock.     Dan Walker became governor the year Kerner was convicted but left office to start a savings and loan business, only to be indicted for making $1.4 million in fraudulent loans to provide maintenance to his private yacht.    After his death in 1970, former Ill. Secretary of State Paul Powell — no relation to Colin — had his house raided, only to find shoeboxes full of checks, totaling more than $800,000, made out by Illinois residents thinking they were paying license registration fees.     Also found in space he rented: 49 cases of whiskey, 14 transistor radios and two cases of creamed corn. When it was all settled in 1978, his estate was estimated to be worth $4.6 million, including $1 million in racetrack stock.    Considering he was in public office for 42 years, never earning more than $30,000 a year, Powell lived the fullest of his personal motto: “There’s only one thing worse than a defeated politician, and that’s a broke one.”    Only the coming weeks will tell whether Blagojevich will resign from office or be forced out by the Illinois Senate. But the day Robert Grant of the FBI’s Chicago office announced Blagojevich’s indictment, he said, “If [Illinois] isn’t the most corrupt state in the United States, it’s certainly one hell of a competitor.”    Bad news for Illinois: If corruption were a baseball player, Illinois would be Barry Bonds.–Contact Eric Freeman, Jr. at [email protected]