Ex-governor Rod Blagojevich is perhaps the least smooth of them (Roger Ebert skewers the guy in today’s Sun Times), but he comes from a long tradition of shady Illinois politicians ranging from the mild palm-greaser to the downright thieving. As a rule, I’m anti public-corruption; we voters put our faith and trust in our elected officials. They shouldn’t abuse that. But I can’t help wondering: Chicago has a very impressive system of light and heavy rail that cross-crosses the city and connects the suburbs. Most people there assume that happened in no small part thanks to some suitcases of cash trading hands. If we had a little more graft in state and local politics, would we have that whole viaduct mess taken care of by now?