A trucker keys the mike of his CB, "comin around you in the Monfort lane!", he calls out as he pulls around a slower truck. The driver of the overtaken rig good naturedly keys his mike and hollars back, "Ya missed me". The big rigs continue on down the great American road.
What is the monfort lane? Well, it's the left lane, and any trucker will tell you that this is a sarcastic reference to "the bought and paid for lane" making reference to a huge boxed beef outfit out of Greeley, Colorado. Monfort was said to have bribed certain State officials to let their trucks roll. This may be all apocryphal and never happened, but to this day the truckers refer to the left lane as the "Monfort" lane.
Have you ever taken a road trip on a rural interstate in Illinois? I have made several such trips, and have noticed interesting things along the way. There is a slower speed limit for trucks than for cars in Illinois. So, if you are in the right lane you are going slower due to this lane being clogged with trucks following this lower limit. It is pretty apparent that this slower speed limit is enfored as 90% of the trucks are in the right lane and sticking to the limit.
Now, you are in a car and are not bound by that limit so you pull into the left lane, right? You soon find you are quickly being overtaken by a truck doing 10-15 over, and pissed off you are in his way. You have two choices, be a total scoflaw and run with them, risking a ticket, or you can duck back into the slow lane. You will note that the small percentage of trucks in the "Monfort" lane that whizz by you, usually have the same logo and not a care in the world about getting a ticket. Please note that Illinois is a long state, streaching from Lake Michigan almost down to the old South, and very hard to drive around. It's very tempting to think "maybe" the limit on trucks is no accident. I can't figure out how the "grease" gets clear down to the enforcement level, however somthing seems to be going on here, maybe not.
Certain states are known as places "you can do business", notably Illinois, Arkansas, Louisiana and more. This is code for, "you can bribe the nice politicians". This might explain the antics of Blago, it's obvious to me this guy really does not think he did anything wrong, he really thinks this is all business as usual.
I tell you all this to point out that our nation has pulled into the left lane, and as Cook County politics moves to Washington DC, let us all hope that we are not moving into "The Monfort Lane"
