Governor Didn't Know

More pension shenanigans, more drain on taxpayers, as Illinois can't meet its existing obligations. A Blagojevich and Obama ally cashes in. Sun Times:

Gov. Blagojevich had no idea one of his top allies, retired state Sen. Carol Ronen, stood to add $38,000 a year to her government pension when he gave her a job she held for eight weeks.

"I didn't know about it until I read it in the paper," Blagojevich said Tuesday, referring to a Chicago Sun-Times story about Ronen in Saturday's editions.

Ronen, a 63-year-old Democrat from Chicago, is Blagojevich's onetime Senate floor leader. The governor hired her as a $120,000-a-year senior adviser on March 1, but she left on April 30 to become a volunteer for presidential hopeful Barack Obama. The job Blagojevich gave her allowed her to increase her pension from $64,005 to $102,000 annually.

Governor Didn't Know. What is it with these Illinois Dem pols, hmm?