the state of new jersey resigned in disgrace having an extramarital affair and putting his lover in a cabinet position for which she was not qualified. so we ve had some fairly serious that s not even getting to the things you talked about with chris christie s yeah, there was a big mass arrest of public officials with a bunch of rabbis and organ dealing. that happened really. what s the thing we were just talking about in the greenroom? when new jersey has corruption, right, you ve got your run of the mill corruption, guys taking envelopes full of cash and there s bribery. 40 guys get arrested for selling approvals, you know, construction approvals for money. well, we also get a kidney dealer in that mix. you know, so the headline is, you know, political corruption and black market kidneys. congressman grayson, the state of florida, florida, i have to tell you, florida barely made it in. it was duking it out with rhode
spectrum of places, you have places that aren t very corrupt and places that are very corrupt, it s unclear whether it s something about the laws or constitution intuition intuition l culture of the place. louisianaens don t want good government, they want good entertainment. i grew up in a state where everyone knew edwin edwards was corrupt. i grew up as a kid knowing edwin edwards was corrupt. he was our governor but he gave us some money. we had books. we liked it, you know? and until you shift the paradigm of people, until we re out of a parade mentality here, you know, i m a civil rights attorney. i find the humor in all of this because i have to. otherwise i wouldn t be able to survive. but i understand just as the six kids died in illinois, we have problems when we have this kind of corruption. so it s shifting the paradigm, and the mindset of people with their tolerance for this. yeah, there are, i mean, that s the other thing is
punished. the reason why you don t think of florida, so much never gets punished. the ethics committee is appoi appointed by the governor. they re not going to do anything to the governor. the ethics committee is not allowed to bring charges or perform inexcellent investigations. if a citizen brings a charge of corruption against a public official in the state of florida and can t prove it we clear or convincing evidence, the citizen, informants has to pay the attorneys fees for the official. everyone, very quickly, ten seconds. one-line pitch for your state. we have a boardwalk empire. hbo series devoted to new jersey corruption and nuky thompson. tracie? i can t top back waxing. we have more corrupt public officials in florida than alligators. my headline for illinois, four of seven of the governors previous to this one in the slammer. i m going to declare tonight s tournament too close to call.
our louisiana politicians are the ones who teach you to be corrupt. when huey long started the share our wealth program, he meant, no, no, you don t understand, this is our wealth, we re going to share it with you people, but this money from the oil is mine. you know? so we talk corruption in louisiana with money and with all due respect to mr. christie, our mayor can even top him on the bullying stance. you know, mitch landrieu s got bullying down. so when we talk in terms of corruption, the department of justice has said louisiana, particularly our area of louisiana, we have nine convictions per 100,000 people. we don t have as many people as you all have in illinois and in florida, but the people we have, we like to throw in jail. i would also say you did have, i mean, just part of what makes a great corruption story from a narrative perspective are
corruption, you know, there are corruption scandals that are humorous because they tone have, you know, they do not take a tole of a human life or something like that. and, chris, we ll throw you a parade. you know, the more corrupt you are in louisiana, the bigger your float. so think about that. congressman grayson, part of the reason i was skeptical of florida, i think about rhode island, louisiana, i think about new jersey, illinois, as places who have a tradition of boss politics. patronage machines. tend to control both fund-raising and jobs and party machines who get slated. that s this kind of almost futile system in which lords control their turf. i don t think of florida that way. is that am i wrong not to think of florida that way? well, the state level it s clearly a one-party system and the republican party in florida is hopelessly corrupt. they handed out credit cards to top officials. corporation contributions to the republican party of florida ended up paying fo