Hypocrisy among politicians is nothing new, but Greg Blankenship, president of the Illinois Policy Institute, rips into Gov. Rod Blagojevich in a recent e-mail to friends:

This week, Governor Blagojevich gave a whole new meaning to "putting the fox in charge of the henhouse" when his point man on gambling, Chris Kelly, was indicted for federal tax fraud related to hiding his own gambling debts. The Kelly indictment was the big news around the state this week, but I doubt it was the most important.

The news of the re-indictment of Nicholas Hurtgen, related to a kickback scheme on the Health Facilities Planning Board, will probably have a far wider impact on the Governor. Unlike the original indictment, this time we learned that Hurtgen was involved in a scheme in which Plainfield Hospital was seeking to add beds for the acutely mentally ill and underserved women and their children. The hospital expansion has been blocked since 2003 by a group of competing general hospitals that didn't like having their oligopoly challenged by market competition. According to news reports, however, the Plainfield hospital would get board backing if they hired a particular contractor to do the work. According to the indictment this was all about getting campaign cash to Public Official A's war chest. Can we guess who that is?

Denying patients access to quality care for political reasons or interfering with the process for personal gain while claiming to be a champion of universal health care is just one example of how Gov. Blagojevich is a total hypocrite -- and I don't use the term lightly -- on the issue of health care. At the whim of his veto pen earlier this session, he axed funding for a number of health programs for AIDS research, veterans and other less politically important groups in an effort to expand Medicaid to families making $82,000 a year -- a larger pool of voters.

Right now, mentioning health care to a Republican legislator is akin to showing Dracula a crucifix. They run from the issue. They shouldn't. Blagojevich and national single-payer advocacy groups claim he is champion of health care. He isn't. We learned from John Kerry in 2004 that your biggest strength can be turned into your biggest weakness if there is no substance to support your claim. Let me suggest that on the issue of health care, the governor is more vulnerable than conventional wisdom -- and the Republicans -- would lead us to believe. We'll find out more in 2008.

There's plenty of "market space" left for politicians who can appeal to voters using the themes of markets and personal rather than bureaucratic control, and of course do something to bring that about.