Illinois' Political Culture Is Even Worse Than NY's

Illinois and New York both have such awful political cultures that it's tough to decide which state is the biggest loser, writes Gail Collins. Both states have governors who were forced out by scandals and whose successors are mired in controversy, although at least Eliot Spitzer isn't going to be appearing on Celebrity Apprentice, Collins writes in the New York Times.

Both states have recently had politicians involved in domestic violence scandals, Collins notes. Scott Lee Cohen, the Illinois Democrats' candidate for lieutenant governor, quit the race—in a press conference held in a bar during halftime in the Super Bowl—after his failure to pay child support and his arrest for domestic violence surfaced. New York's state Senate, however, had the decency to expel Democrat Hiram Monserrate after he was convicted of assaulting his girlfriend. "It was not exactly the founding fathers at Philadelphia. But, for now, Illinois wins," Collins writes.
(More Hiram Monserrate stories.)