Over in corrupt and content Philadelphia, Milton Street, the free-loading and influence-peddling brother of outgoing mayor John Street, is getting indicted on federal corruption and tax evasion charges. My favorite charge involves Milton shaking down an apparently none-too-bright airplane contractor for $80,000 in exchange for the promise of a $3.2 million contract that, as it turns out, didn't exist.

This is the most fun since the FBI bugged Street's office during the 2003 election, which had the perverse effect of increasing black turn-out and helping Street win re-election. I wrote a dispatch that year from Philly that detailed a radio debate (with traffic and weather breaks on the twos), when his opponent accused him of running a pay-to-play administration, and Street cheerfully agreed that contributors to his campaign “have a greater chance of getting business from my administration… there are these rules that have been informally accepted in this country for as long as there’s been government, as long as there’s been patronage. That’s how the game is played."