Gifting the boss? An Illinois government worker tradition

The Chicago Tribune reports on the Illinois way:

For the janitor, the retired state police officer and the current mayor of Carbondale, nothing seemed odd about slipping a few dead presidents into their boss' Christmas card, even though their boss at the time was the governor of Illinois.

"The governor was a friend of mine," said Brad Cole, George Ryan's one-time deputy chief of staff in southern Illinois and now Carbondale's mayor. "I give gifts to friends at Christmas."

This kind of gift-giving, the details of which have been trickling out in Ryan's corruption trial, may be commonplace in Springfield or other political arenas. But news that Ryan's underlings pitched in to give him $12,500 in cash as a 2002 Christmas gift during his last year as governor came as a bit of a shock in more traditional business circles.

Public service,altruism, and "good government" are a good laugh in the public sector in the state of Illinois.Stealing is a way of life for these rent-seekers.