Our good bad neighbor

It's nice to occasionally have a bad neighbor, the kind who, just being there, guarantees you'll never have the worst-looking house or yard. Illinois performs that service for Indiana:

And does it make sense to talk about relative crookedness of states, how Illinois is slimier than Minnesota?

Oddly enough, the governmental honesty of different states can be measured and compared -- sort of.

Larry J. Sabato, a professor at the University of Virginia, is a kind of all-purpose political commentator. He told me, "The unholy trinity of politically corrupt states are New Jersey, Illinois and Louisiana."

I asked former Gov. Jim Thompson what he thought about Sabato's Top Three. "Illinois can't hold a candle to New Jersey and Louisiana," he said indignantly. "We're poor country cousins compared to those states."

I was disappointed that "Big Jim" did not stick up for his own state. We're No. 1!