Corrupt N.C. Legislator Stands Up Straight And Pleads Guilty
Not to make this into Crazy State Legislature day at Wonkette, but ... OK, we're already pretty much there. Anyway, Jim Black, who a few days ago was the speaker of North Carolina's House of Representatives, pled guilty yesterday to taking bribes. Fromchiropractors.Seriously.
As a sad illustration of how penny-ante state-level politics are, the bribes amounted to all of $29,000 over two years, which is less than a third of what William Jefferson keeps in his freezer at any given time. The sinister chiropractors' aims were similarly modest, requesting only that North Carolina law set their insurance co-pays to be equal to those of real doctors. If they had coughed up more money, they maybe could have gotten thrice-weekly adjustments made mandatory for public school kids, or a new state office of the Chiropractor General, complete with a ludicrous, epaulet-festooned paramilitary uniform, established.
Black is probably going to go to jail and stuff, or at least get fined a lot more than he ever got in bribes. It's worth noting that North Carolina is one of those states where being a legislator is like a hobby and you have to have a real job too; Black is an optometrist, raising the specter of an Axis Of People Who Didn't Go To Med School But Still Get To Call Themselves "Doctor".
Black admits to felony in federal court [Fayette Observer]