Illinois Is #1!

I said this last fall and I still stand uncorrected. The Land of Lincoln has become the Land of "What's in it for me?" politics (HT Ed Morrissey).

As U.S. stock markets plummeted last September, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, Dick Durbin, sold more than $115,000 worth of stocks and mutual-fund shares and used much of the money to invest in Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

The Illinois senator's 2008 financial disclosure statement shows he sold mutual-fund shares worth $42,696 on Sept. 19, the day after then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke urged congressional leaders in a closed meeting to craft legislation to help financially troubled banks. The same day, he bought $43,562 worth of Berkshire Hathaway's Class B stock, the disclosure shows.

Emphasis mine. If you or I had done something like this, we would be in jail for engaging in insider trading. However, since the Democrats have drained the swamp on the culture of corruption, I'm sure we will see the investigation into this any day now.....right?????

Seriously, Ed asks a very valid question when he asks....

Durbin’s spokesman says that the September meeting revealed nothing of an insider nature, and that Durbin traded along with the market as the storm clouds gathered. I wonder if the SEC would consider that a compelling alibi if it had been a Wall Street regulator who met with Paulson and traded like this the next day. The Democrats in Congress would be screaming for his head in the latter example, but will surely remain silent as the graveyard about Durbin’s suspicious trading.

It's nice to know, as long as I have been away from Illinois, that some things are constant - like corrupt politicians.