Hoyas as Poster Child

Is it me or does everything about the Chip Hoyas check scheme story make him the perfect poster child for Rhode Island political corruption? Sure, the most damaging corruption in the state is entirely legal, but Hoyas's shadow amply covers that, as well: The obese political insider, pathetically sunken into a gambling addiction by those stupid slot machines, saw the mountain of state dough lying around and concluded, from his perch as deputy chief of staff for the Senate president, that nobody would notice if thousands of dollars went missing.

Sharper players maneuver fancy dives into positions as magistrates or rewards for public "service," or they figure out ways to make their larceny legal. Hoyas slipped off the wire and, by his splash, exposed the whole system. Those who'll argue that he's just an individual, cutting a sad figure in the state's political class, are entirely correct. But we all know, don't we, that if he weren't so pitiful, he'd have done more fundamental harm and, perhaps, been more typical?

I hope Mr. Hoyas finds his way out of the dull hell through which he appears to have been living for quite some time. I hope the same for Rhode Island.