The Blagojevich scandal has been — or maybe should be — a lot like a collective slap in the face. Yes, it is an example of the corruption we have come to consider typical in Illinois politics. But there’s something more at work here. The issue of conscience looms large — how important it is in politics for everyone, on all levels of participation, to act morally. And Blagojevich’s record on conscience issues involving reproduction makes the topic of conscience even riper for highlighting here. I used the opportunity of my latest syndicated column to say as much. It has me thinking, too, about a handy book I recently read on the topic, called Knowing Right from Wrong, by a theologian in Rome (Fr. Thomas D. Williams). The book can serve as a constructive exercise, never talking down or coming off self-helpish — though, in truth, it does have the potential to help the self.