The World

What a delight to discover that the governor of Illinois seems to have wandered in off the set of the “The Sopranos”. When Rod Blagojevich says of his right to appoint Barack Obama’s successor in the Senate – “I’ve got this thing and it’s f***ing golden, and I’m not going to give it up for f***ing nothing,” – it could be Tony Soprano himself speaking.

There is also a lovely contrast between the unbelievably sleazy reality of Illinois politics and the absurdly prim and exacting ethics-standards demanded from potential appointees to the Obama administration. For those of you who haven’t seen it, here is a link to the lengthy questionnaire all job-seekers must fill out. It would seem to me to rule out anybody who is not either a liar or a Mormon missionary.

My favourite is question 14 in section 2, where applicants are asked if they have ever “kept a diary that contains anything that could be a possible source of embarrassment.” Now what diary, worth its salt, does not contain anything that could be embarrassing?

In the light of the Blago scandal, however, perhaps they could add a new question to the  form – “Have you ever been taped by federal prosecutors, discussing the sale of the president-elect’s senate seat in profane language?”