Aaron Chambers had an excellent column last week that I missed until ArchPundit blogged it today.

…The same goes in Illinois. Public corruption is not a Democratic problem or a Republican problem. It’s an Illinois problem. A huge problem. […]

“We don’t seem to be as mindful as we need to be about appearances of impropriety,” Obama told me.

Then, positioning himself above the fray, he added: “I can’t judge where there have been improprieties and where there haven’t been because I haven’t been intimately involved in what’s been happening in state and local politics over the past couple years.”

Anybody following Illinois politics, even tangentially, knows what’s up in Illinois: Pols and their pals are gorging themselves at the public trough, and those pals are in turn helping the pols.

Illinois put Obama into the national spotlight. He could show his appreciation by putting its people before the gang.

First, as Aaron gently notes, Obama’s response is total bulloney. He doesn’t read the Chicago papers? He doesn’t check the TV news when he’s home? Give me a break.

Chambers connects Obama’s statements on Illinois corruption to political expediency - putting partisanship (he compares the political process to gang loyalty, which is absolutely correct) above the people.

The national media probably won’t start on this topic for a while, if ever, so it’s up to the Illinois outlets to keep the pressure on Obama. He’s so intensely popular and so widely covered here that even one comment from him might rattle the establishment to its core. It’s high time that he spoke out.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. Yours?