Who says the "culture of corruption" GOP can't be a "reform" party? Coming soon to a statehouse near you: the new "inmate-governor"

I was just reading Howie's update to his report yesterday on the sentencing of Ohio Republicrook kingpin Tom Noe based on his guilty plea to federal corruption charges. Howie was pointing out that Noe is still facing 53 state counts, which involve millions of dollars rather than the mere tens of thousands involved in his federal plea. But what got my attention was his reminder—yet again—that while essentially every Republican officeholder in Ohio is beholden to Noe, among those most deeply implicated is election-stealer par excellence Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell.

And yet Blackwell seems to be sailing on, untroubled, in his ascent to Ohio's governorship. Of course you could argue, ever since GOP incumbent Gov. Bob Taft pled no contest to what I assume are a tiny fraction of the corruption charges that could have been brought against him, that provable charges not only aren't disqualifications but are just par for the course for Ohio chief executives. I do recall hearing suggestions that Governor Taft do the honorable thing and clear his carcass out of Columbus at the time of his little brush with justice, but apparently among Republicans you don't have to even consider such a drastic step until they're about to dump that carcass in the slammer.

Or maybe not even then? This morning I was listening to Rachel Maddow's update on the latest developments regarding the Kentucky governorship. You may recall that Gov. Ernie Fletcher (a) was indicted in May on three misdemeanor corruption charges, with 14 grand-jury indictments still under seal, but (b) nevertheless plans to run for reelection in 2007.

Well, now Lieut. Gov. Steve Pence has announced that he won't be running for reelection, and while he did say that he doesn't expect to be running on any other ticket either (like maybe against the Guv?), he apparently wasn't unequivocal enough to satisfy the Big Cheese, who promptly demanded that he resign. This Pence has politely declined to do, though he seems to have been tactful enough to refrain from pointing out that, while lieutenant governors are generally about as useless as any class of wage-earners you can find in these United States, Kentucky may shortly have, um, rather specific need of its.

Or maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Fletcher and Blackwell (who must surely be in the crosshairs of assorted teams of federal and state prosecutors, even if they are all Republicans) are pioneers in the latest innovation in government brought to us by (sigh!) the party of Lincoln: the inmate-governor. With modern communications technology, after all, there shouldn't be any great difficulty in carrying out the functions of a statehouse from the Big House. Maybe arrangements could even be made to make it easier for inmate-governors to get "day leave" to appear at such civically indispensable happenings as bridge openings and fund-raising dinners.

Come on, people, inmate-governors—it's the future.