-By Warner Todd Huston
This is the kind of nonsense that we get with political influence peddling and corruption. A painting that now hangs in the new Lincoln library and museum in our state capitol has a ridiculous tie to long-time Springfield corruption king Bill Cellini, who was just last week convicted on charges of extortion and bribery.
Standing behind Lincoln whispering in his ear is a person that looks suspiciously like the corrupt Cellini.
According to The Southern, Bill isn’t the only Cellini memorialized in paint at the museum. His wife, Julie, is also in a scene depiction Civil War era Washington D.C. Mrs. Cellini is a key benefactor of the museum.
The museum says it has no intention of removing or altering the painting and insists it isn’t really sure Bill Cellini appears in the painting at all.
“The artist and the exhibit designer never divulged the models they used for those paintings. Some people see a likeness there. Some people don’t,” said museum spokesman David Blanchette. “Regardless, the paintings will stay. They will not be altered.”
Come on. Sure the museum says that it cannot confirm if the portrait of Lincoln features Cellini whispering in his ear, but who cannot see Cellini’s likeness there?
This is the sort of corruption we see in Springfield, though. Our tax money, even our history is a plaything for the well-connected, it’s all open for backroom deals and corrupt bargains. And now they’ve even smeared Lincoln with it.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
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