2016-02-21 – In Illinois we usually arrest our politicians at the conclusion of their term as governor. Some folks believe that a term in prison is simply part of our governor’s term in office. It’s not true, of course. Not every governor has gone to jail. Our last governor (Quinn) is a free man, though his predecessor (Blagojevich) is still serving time. Our current governor (Rauner) is still in office. We seem to be batting around .500.

At the national level, we don’t arrest politicians nearly so often.

There’s always someone clamoring for their least favorite politician to be arrested. But I’m not recommending it. Even though the visuals from the Republican debates looked very much like a police line-up.

On the Democratic side, this week, we had the interesting discussion about whether one of the candidates comes pre-arrested. The candidate is Bernie Sanders and the arrest occurred in 1963 as a result of his participation in a civil rights protest.

In Illinois. We arrest politician. Even future politicians.