Political Corruption Reaches Courtrooms.

      What does Chicago, one of the largest cities in the country, and the tiny, impoverished municipality of Bell, California have in common?

      Corrupt politicians begging for mercy this past week before courtroom judges.

      Both settings provided tragic examples of our political structure crumbling before the American public's eyes. Instead of watching like a hawk, we naively click away to the next controversy for more juice and sensationalism.

      Just what were Chicago's attractive darlings, Jesse Jr. and Sandi Jackson, thinking during their political tenures?

      Perhaps they fantasized about a royal reality show as king and queen of the windy city.

    In real life, the power couple faces prison dates this summer after both pled guilty Wednesday to siphoning roughly $750,000—three-quarters of a million dollars—in campaign funds into personal accounts for their lavish personal and political lifestyles.

      Jesse Jr., veteran U. S. Congressman and son of the famous Reverend Jesse Jackson, and his wife Sandi, a Chicago city alderman, stonewalled the public for nearly a year. But they ran out of excuses Wednesday in separate courtrooms and entered guilty pleas to agreements afforded them by the U. S. Justice Department.

      More specifically, they lied to the IRS and the public they supposedly served.

      Will they receive the maximum sentence or just a pat on the wrist in U. S. District Court?

      The plea agreements with federal authorities are troubling.

      Jesse Jackson Jr. was reeled into the Justice Department investigation of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, currently serving a 14-year prison sentence on bribery charges. Those charges included the selling of President Barack Obama's Illinois Senate seat when Obama was elected to the Presidency in 2008. Feds had caught Blagojevich on tape offering a trade of campaign money in exchange for the U. S. Senate appointment. Jackson was identified as the candidate offered the dirty deal.

      But Jackson was allowed to stall his own investigation, citing a six-month absence for "health problems" up through the 2012 elections, and he retained his 17-year Congressional seat before resigning after last November's election.

      What legitimate legal system remains here in the United States?

      Friday, the citizens of Bell, California, asked that very question while observing a political corruption trial too unbelievable to sensationalize.

      The two year-old Bell story, broken by a pair of investigative reporters at the Los Angeles Times, is just one more tale of the American political system failing because the public wasn't in tune with public meetings, albeit through ignorance and apathy.

      In the four week-old trial currently in the jury's hands, six Bell city council members Luis Artiga, Victor Bello, George Cole, Oscar Hernandez, Teresa Jacobo, and George Mirabal are charged with financially raping the city and its 40,000 citizens in Los Angeles County of more than $10 million worth of inflated salaries, bogus contracts, and outrageous fees.

      The apparent mastermind behind the whole scheme that had played out over a six-year period is former city administrator Ron Rizzo who, along with his assistant Angela Spaccia, will go on trial separately this summer.
     They forged signatures on contracts. Approved contracts in private closed-door meetings. Gave themselves $100,000 annual salaries without voters’ knowledge or approval, and also wrote up lucrative pensions.
      The Bell fiasco was so secretive and complex, California state judges had to nullify the contracts written and signed by the former office holders before the state could bring them up on trial and prosecute them.
      The real key in American government is the domino effect here. If indeed 9 of 10 United States cities are considered by experts to be "financially stressed", where does this road leave city citizens tomorrow?
      It is just a matter of time before another municipality falls under the bridge, due to corrupt politicians operating behind closed doors. Six like-size California municipalities and their office holders are currently under investigation in southern California. And the cry for public election campaign reforms has fallen on deaf ears in Washington, DC for decades.
      Ask yourself if we can afford the next scandal.