I ran across this article earlier today about the (seemingly) soon-to-be seated Senator from Illinois, Roland Burris.  During then Attorney General Burris’ tenure in Illinois, a large percentage of lucrative, no bid contracts were awarded to outside legal counsel (who also happened to be generous donors to his campaign coffers) to represent the state in a variety of legal battles. 


The shocking reality is, this practice is employed by state attorneys general across the country.  Take, for example, the case of West Virginia, where AG Darrell McGraw is elected again and again, despite playing a large part in the abysmal economy that state suffers under.  The problem is it scares companies off from doing business in these states; no company wants to be next in the sites of these plaintiff’s firms trying to force huge settlements with the power of the state government to back them up.