The Illinois Governor saga continues onward and upward...or is that downward? Today the Illinois Supreme Court declined to consider Attorney General Lisa Madigan's motion to have Gov. Blagojevich declared unfit to serve. And of course, her dad, long time speaker of the Illinois General Assembly, Mike Madigan, along with Pres. elect Obama, Lt. Gov. Quinn, and many others, have basically called for the same thing. But Gov. Blago isn't cooperating.

But what we aren't hearing is from those, like former Illinois state senator Larry Woolard, who was one of the first mainstream, pretty powerful democrats to endorse Blagojevich during a very divided and heated primary. It was really kind of a political stretch for a very conservative southern Illinois democrat like Woolard to endorse a relatively unknown Chicago U.S. representative with a very foreign sounding name. But, nonetheless, in a very divided pack of candidates in a climate where it seemed like a good bet that the over 2 decade stranglehold that the republicans had on the Illinois governship might end with the corruption scandal of the George Ryan administration, Woolard endorsed Blagojevich early on.

Woolard had challenged the democratic establishment in southern Illinois, which had chosen Sesser Mayor Ned Mitchell to succeed long time state senator Jim Rea. Woolard, as state representative, had already defeated Mitchell in an election and felt he was the rightful candidate, and by all rights he was. And, he emerged as the overwhelming victor in the primary, (in which I also was a candidate) and established himself as the major political heavyweight from Southern Illinois. So when Woolard, after this huge hard fought anti-democratic establishment victory to propel him into the state senate, resigned his seat to take a position as the governor's executive assistant for southern Illinois, my eyes certainly were opened. That's a lot to give up, so the pluses must have been many. And was there a connection to Woolard's early endorsement of Blagojevich? Hah! You tell me.

A good connection of mine that is deep into Chicago political society said "any close associate of Blagojevich is probably hiring themselves a good attorney, because they have no idea what might or might not be on tape." I wonder if Woolard has any such concerns. Woolard is well respected in southern Illinois, and any corruption connection with him is going to be a big blow to the democratic party in southern Illinois. Gary Forby got Woolard's seat, and he did win re-election in November, but it was a hard fought election. How much room for error the dems have in holding that seat in the future is up for discussion.

But lets be honest here. Let's ask some questions that the mainstream press isn't asking. And don't misconstrue this as being any kind of support for our governor. I'm not saying that at all. But, there is no doubt that there are some kind of internal democratic politics going on here that you would have to be inside to know exactly what is going on. Most of the Illinois powerful politicians take plenty of special interest contributions. Blagojevich might be in big money's pockets, but he isn't the only one.

So what is really going on in Illinois? What are the ramifications for southern Illinois? Will Woolard pull away from Blagojevich? Ah, time will tell. But if you think this is simply a case of a crazy governor going wild in the midst of a bunch of other honest politicians who are trying to hold him accountable for honorable reasons...uh...I remind you...this is Illinois politics. Think again.