I wonder how many house reporters cover more than one state house. If the answer is low, then that survey may well say more about the reporters than the politicians.

In terms of Guilty Officials, per Capita, I'm a bit surprised WV isn't up there somewhere. Maybe it's corrupt prosecutors. :)

I say we need a playoff! I reject the idea of the computer-driven New York Times Crook Championship Series!!
Massachusetts, my state, is really out of its league in this discussion. Our politics is more dysfunctional than corrupt.
New Jersey has a strong case, but Louisiana is the favorite.

Nixon famously said, when Agnew had to resign because of corruption charges related to when he was governor of Maryland, that the best thing that ever happened to him was when he lost the race for governor of California.

Although on one level a source of amusement, these corruption stakes have very really consequences for all of us, in the "Corruption Tax" that we pay for in the waste, inefficiency and kickbacks of corrupt local government.

I speak as a resident of Joisey, a state that got used to a paying a certain level of Corruption Taxes when it was much richer, before the telcos and Wall Street went south, and before Whitman cut state revenues off at the knees.

Property taxes are a big deal in this state, and Corzine to his credit wants to do the right thing but in opposition to the deeply corrupt Democratic machine. If they weren't as corrupt as the Democrats and batshit crazy to boot, this state could be rich pickings for the Republicans.

A straight count of offenses may not tell you which state is most corrupt. The offenses should be rated by degree. There's the bent the rules too much (some of the lobbyist funded junkets), let's call it the Tom DeLay category; there's the clearly broke the rules then tried to cover up, the Ted Stevens; finally, there's the broke the rules, put them in the wood chipper and then hid them in the freezer, the William Jefferson.

Bob - Or you could grade them as 1) systematicaly tried to bribe in exchange for small favors (Jefferson) 2) Laundered bribes in exchange for huge earmarks (Stevens) and 3) Set up a mafia style system combining many congressmen, executive branch members and lobbyists (Delay).

Glad to see at least one mention of Maryland, although I'm surprised there haven't been more. Never resided there (I was in Virginia, which was unlivable in a different way), but the stench wafted fairly steadily across the Chesapeake.

And how about my home state of Ohio, mother of (crooked) Presidents? Thought its glory days had waned since Harding laid the ground for the Great Depression, until the final (I certainly hope) Taft administration and the election of 2004. That's the fun of an argument like this: there's always the future.

And how did we miss Texas? Hard to down a state so crooked it nearly destroyed the world. Tearful apologies to the ghost of Molly Ivins.

Seems to me that based on these numbers, Louisiana is the clear winner. It came in third (among actual states) in convicted officials per capita, tenth in convicted officials overall (and every state above it was bigger than it), and second in reporters' perceptions of corruption.

For all the talk about Rhode Island, it was nowhere near the top on the list of convicted officials per capita. (Unless the judges, prosecutors, and cops there are so corrupt that no one is getting convicted...?)

THE RACE TO THE BOTTOM.... Matters of civic pride can focus on unusual qualities.

Absolutely wonderful issue to address in social science for every day living. As for crazy drivers, “drivers in their area are the worst�, lets not forget the millions of aliens that do illegally possess the ability to drive all while not obeying the rules of the road adding to chaos in statics. Would it be selfish to say that powers in the know actually manipulate these masses to future advantage in a political agenda? Yes, absolutely, and it is going on now.

For me Steven is on target with just the notion to talk about simple corruption that is wide span, is deep with the appearance to be dynamical. The topper of the corruption list just keeps on changing, liked to the Ponzi scheme pyramid pointing out selfishness that spans through ones life time or history of a culture. Then appears as news timed in a certain way, taken out of the buried pile of stuff to move the future political agenda on our cable system.

Saying it before and again these networks are the key player in the corruption of America. It all is moving at a faster pace even the rags papers owner sees this and is moving into the electronic mainstream medium. Not for you and me but to keep their own power.

Politics begs the question, why does a politician who is nothing more than a citizen, man, or women in a country tries to serve but yields and falls in grace?

Which is nothing new if one ponders going back to the time of Christ when Judas took money to squeal on Jesus? Then we all know Pontius Pilot then governor of Judea also seeded the crowds with corruption to be able to condemn Jesus washing his has of guilt then free a radical murderer, Barabous also an agent of change? Or is it all to blame those drunken monks that took money from King James to rewrite history, his version of what is right?

There is nothing crazy for what Blagojevich has done, though it seems so, shopping around for the going price of the Senate seat. That saying goes Bush has those in the Supreme Court in his pocket. Money is and has been changing hands at an ever accelerated rate for those positions. Sounds irresponsible, corrupt, selfish, and just plain immoral, yes, it is, but the practice is usual with many more sealed and hidden disgusting controversies.

For all types of reasons going back in time we sense the pay offs of the early Bush family to get political position, or for the banking scams perpetrated by them, we can not leave out the Kennedy’s well known for bootleg money, or the best the Rockefellers chief architect of the Jekyll Island Group that today is called the Federal Reserve. There is a wide and huge list that dominates the issues and really makes Blagojevich looks like small potatoes on the periodic table of political mischief.

For me huge political swindling is going on right before our eyes. Southern Senators stubborn with maneuvering cheap labor in the south via auto manufacturing with foreign area influence is now being played out to break the back of the traditional American Detroit manufactures and Unions.

Just think about the millions of undocumented aliens coupled having the ability to work cheap, the controversy of getting a drivers license with the mystique growth in the southern auto industry. Worse, all subsidized taxes, with that pool of American free tax money from the Federal Reserve free and unaccountable to build this empire while chocking traditional Detroit. I agree with the Governor of Detroit it appears as if it is unpatriotic. No, it is unpatriotic. If we really follow the money trail it precipitates treason. And who would want to get caught with that legacy of history. The Neo-Con Hoover party? The real kicker is Cheney and Bush realize Joe the Plumber, and Joe Six pack is catching on and they are angered, very, very angered.

"Number of guilty officials per capita" was an exceptionally silly metric to use. (USA Today did so.)

Presumably, small population states will often have a much higher number of public officials per capita to start with. For example, little Wyoming has one governor and two senators. But so does big/huge California. Beyond that, the size of state legislatures are roughly similar, even though state populations are vastly different. So big/huge states and little/tiny states may have roughly the same number of state legislators. This would massively tilt this metric "against" small population states.

Moral to the story: If there's a really silly way to "analyze" a problem, the press corps will quickly find it.

In my experience people don't think others from their state are the worst drivers, they think people from neighboring states are the worst. And while most of those people are wrong, I know that I'm 100% right that northern Illinois drivers are the worst and that it's a travesty that those of us in southern Wisconsin have to put up with them.

"using three competing methods to determine the 'winner.'"

The fact that PA does not qualify as "most corrupt" using these methods just proves how thoroughly corrupt my state is! PA is so corrupt no one gets caught or charged!

It's Reader's Digest level argument-by-anecdote. It's anti-government propaganda. Yes, we're all so very worldly and smug, and we know all politicians are liars and crooks. It's easier than thinking, and differentiating who, how many, how much, and how important.

I read lies every day in the newspaper. Most often, when military officials say things, and the media repeat them as facts. There's never any attempt to independently confirm, or even gauge the likelihood of the statements. Even when the media itself acknowledges that it was used as a conduit for propaganda and disinformation in the recent past.

Who are the bigger liars - greasy politicians trying to make a few hundred thousand dollars, or a movement that seeks to justify, legitimize, and expand wars that have killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people?

In my experience, the public officials of Oklahoma aren't thoroughly corrupt so much as dumber than a box of rocks and willing to play to people's worst instincts (of which Oklahoma has incredibly high levels). Rampant lesbianism in the bathrooms of SE Oklahoma anyone?

As a raised Illinoisian (born in Penn. and that's another story), I have to throw my weight toward Illinois here. But Weisburg is not a impartial observer. His own MOTHER is the head of Chicago's Cultural department -- she's known as the culture czar -- so Weisburg knows from Illinois corruption.

Still I think we all deal with corruption just fine as long as things get done. Illinois might have a higher tolerance for that -- but as soon as the government has trouble paying its bills, as soon as the garbage doesn't get collected or the streets plowed -- then you have trouble.

What brought down Blago and is fueling the feeding frenzy? He's been a TERRIBLE governor.