Rod Blagojevich is the latest member of a not-very-exclusive club.

The terminally naive are interpreting last week's corruption conviction of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich as proof that the people of Illinois have rejected our state's sleazy politics and sent an unmistakable message to self-interested elected officials.

But, as Illinois' long list of corrupt public officials demonstrates, ordinary people sitting on juries have never had trouble identifying criminal conduct or returning guilty verdicts. They've sent plenty of messages; the politicians ignored them.

No one can say specifically what the future holds. But there's another Blagojevich in waiting, just as there was another George Ryan in waiting, just as ... well, you get the picture.

Nonetheless, Blagojevich's conviction on 17 of 20 corruption charges comes as good news to those who care about honesty in government and were outraged by Blago's antics as the case played out. Unfortunately, advocates of the corrupt status quo remain in charge.

Here are two distressing examples.

Gov. Pat Quinn, the guy who claimed the mantle of reformer before he became governor, promised big changes when he took office in January 2009 after Blogojevich's removal from office. He even created the Illinois Reform Commission to study the structure and practices of state government and suggest changes that would discourage the kind of self-dealing that has enriched generations of Illinois politicians.

Headed by former federal prosecutor Patrick Collins, the commission held hearings all over Illinois and proposed significant changes.

What was the result? Legislators from both parties were not just outraged by the commissioners' work but dismissive of the effort to change the status quo. Who did these commissioners think they were, legislators asked indignantly?

It wasn't long before Quinn abandoned his own commission. Its final report is on a shelf somewhere gathering dust, another testimonial to the resilience of the powers that be.

Anyone remember Peter Fitzgerald? A Republican reformer, he was unpopular with his colleagues in the Illinois Senate. He became even more unpopular with the political class when he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000 and arranged the appointment out of an out-of-state federal prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, as the new U.S. attorney in Chicago.

The new Fitzgerald (no relation) was brought to clean up the political sewer that is government in Chicago and the state of Illinois.

Prosecutor Fitzgerald has done a great job, overseeing scores of corruption prosecutions that include convictions of two governors and a boatload of their cronies.

But the politician Fitzgerald is now a former U.S. senator who runs a bank in Virginia. He was run out of Illinois politics by his fellow Republicans who were incensed by his effort to clean up the bipartisan corruption.

Meanwhile, insiders have tried repeatedly and failed to get prosecutor Fitzgerald out of town. They eventually will be successful.

Nothing is so strong as culture, and Illinois' political culture is rotten to the core. Whether our elected officials are gerrymandering legislative districts to guarantee specific electoral results, making appointments to high-paid posts in exchange for legislative votes or trading public resources for campaign donations, too many of them feel a sense of entitlement — that this is how business is done.

That's why Blagojevich is headed for prison, a personal tragedy for himself and his family. And that's part of the reason why Illinois is in such deep trouble, another tragedy of sorts for the people who live here.