NOTE TO BROADWAY BANK: CHECK YOUR SHOE BOXES--updated

John Ruberry at Marathon Pundit keeps his finger on the pulse of Illinois politics better than anyone I know. If it has to do with Illinois, Ruberry covers it.

Today Ruberry is waiting for the Broadway Bank to close its doors. It seems the bank finds its ledger sheet a tad out of balance, and by tad I mean $85 million. And since this bank is located in Illinois and family owned, it comes as no surprise that a member of the family just happens to be the democrat nominee for U.S. senate.

All is not lost, though. The Broadway Bank has until Monday to locate $85 Million.

It's long been argued which state is the most corrupt. Most go with New Jersey, Illinois and New York. Folks with more history behind them almost always go with Massachusetts, specifically the Boston area. The Fitzgeralds or something like that. Since I'm not an expert on the beginnings or levels of corruption, I will defer to them on that point.

Inventing state corruption--or being the biggest and best at it--is one thing, perfecting the process of screwing your state all the time is quite another. Illinois, I think, has long been tops in this category. Corruption in Illinois is not only common and widespread, to some it's a fine art. The people of Illinois almost expect it.

As a youngster in Illinois, I always heard the name of a particular politician. He was skilled in the fine art of corruption. Without a doubt, he was a master. And he had a slogan as well:

"There's only one thing worse than a defeated politician, and that's a broke one."

To fully understand corruption and the state of Illinois, you needn't go any further than the master himself: Paul Powell. He could've held seminars: How to steal from voters AND get re-elected.

Mr. Powell, however, had one unavoidable failing: he died. But not broke. (TIME MAG, 1971)

*Ruberry's follow up story.

**It's now official: Broadway Bank fails. Chicago Tribune reports.

Reader Don sends this:

From the Obama Timeline (Parts I and II) at www.colony14.net:

Obama, his now-jailed money man Tony Rezko, and his Pentagon-bombing buddy William Ayers have all used the mob-tied Broadway Bank. Giannoulias was elected Illinois State Treasurer in 2006 largely because of Obama’s endorsement. (Obama supported Giannoulias when powerful Illinois Democrats refused to be seen with him. Obama called him “…one of the most outstanding young men I could ever hope to meet”—despite the candidate’s youth, lack of experience, mob connections, and Broadway Bank’s financing of Chicago crime figure Michael “Jaws” Giorango.) Obama’s first home in Chicago, a townhouse, was bought in 1993 with a loan from Broadway Bank—in a complicated deal which for several years left various names other than Obama listed as the owner. Giannoulias donated $10,000 to Obama’s campaign.

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The book pictured above: Paul Powell of Illinois: A lifelong Democrat