From the Tribune (Editorial):

EDITORIAL
Failing upward

November 19, 2007

Illinois government has become a forgiving place for the woebegone.

Take former state Rep. Calvin Giles, who was booted out by voters in 2006, only to land a far more lucrative $85,000-a-year state job .

Giles has always had a certain way with words. When he was chair of the House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee, he stated: "We're frustrated with the way things are ran. Our children are not being educated throughout the state of Illinois. ... The proposals we have heard have not went far enough."

He once said that when lawmakers vote against giving themselves pay raises, they set "a very dangerous precedent."

He has always had a certain way with politics, too. The state board of elections found that Giles frequently violated campaign finance disclosure laws. "It is so much paperwork," Giles once complained to the Tribune. "Sometimes you get so busy with so many other things. But that's the state law, and I support it."

Support it? His campaign paid $25,000 in fines for violating the state's campaign disclosure laws, but it still owes a little more than $80,000 according to the elections board.

So Giles has stiffed the state -- and Gov. Rod Blagojevich has rewarded him with a nice, cushy job. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Giles has been hired to oversee 250 employees in nine offices for the Illinois Department of Employment Security.

"The thing with Calvin is just about as inexcusable as inexcusable gets. It was willful disobedience," said Cindi Canary, head of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.

And yet, the Blagojevich administration hired him.

But then, it is good to be a Giles in Illinois.

Well, yes, former 37th Ward Ald. Percy Giles was convicted in 1999 of bribery and extortion to block the city's efforts to shut an illegal dump in his ward. Percy did his time in prison and has tried to get back on the City Council, but the voters have rejected him.

But his son Cedric Giles got a great promotion about a year ago, thanks to Cook County Board President Todd Stroger. Cedric was a $62,000-a-year accountant at Stroger Hospital when Stroger made him the county's assistant comptroller, at $103,000 a year.

And now Cedric's cousin Calvin has his nice job with the Blagojevich administration.

Governor, your new hire makes $85,000 a year and owes the state more than $80,000. Can you at least make him pay up?