Is this a case of normal turnover in a government bureaucracy or rats fleeing a sinking ship?

Out in Chicago, one gets the sense that Kim Foxx and the rest of the State’s Attorney’s office are still laying low and hoping the whole Jussie Smollett thing will blow over and the press will move on to the next scandal of the day. (And being Chicago, it’s a fair bet that it shouldn’t take long.) But there still seem to be problems in her office. After a series of people resigned in the wake of the scandal, yet another has headed out the door. Her Director of External Affairs has now moved on to seek new opportunities. (CBS 2 Chicago)

While Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx is still dealing with the Jussie Smollett case aftermath, another one of her staffers has left. Kiera Ellis, who directed external affairs and handled press inquiries for the state’s attorney’s office, is the latest to leave. Her resignation comes just a day after CBS 2 broke the story that several high -level employees have recently left Foxx’s office.

The departure of Ellis comes on the heels of Foxx losing her First Assistant, the boss of the Special Prosecutions Bureau, her Chief Policy Officer, one Senior Advisor, and a Deputy Policy Advisor. It’s almost as if nobody wants to be standing too close to her when a knock comes on the door or something.

As was previously reported, everyone from the Mayor to the police unions has called on Foxx to resign. Unfortunately, as an elected official, there is no legal method to remove her from office unless she’s convicted of a crime. (Fat chance of that in this case.) And she just keeps insisting that everyone has the story wrong and there’s no way she’s resigning.

This episode is becoming as hard to watch as the situation in the Baltimore Mayor’s office. She was caught with her hand in the cookie jar to the tune of nearly a million dollars, but the self-dealing scheme she cooked up wasn’t illegal. (The state has since passed laws to finally ban the practice, but that happened after the horse was already out of the barn.) She’s been off on paid leave for more than a month now while she “recovers” from what must be the worst bout of pneumonia in recorded history. And yet she insists she will be returning to work and has no intention of resigning.

It’s as if we’ve entered the era of elected officials who are immune to embarrassment or shame. No matter how bad things look or how aghast everyone around them becomes, they silently and stubbornly stick to their guns and keep collecting their paychecks until someone figures out a way to force them out of office. I have to wonder if the people of Baltimore and Cook County would really return these two for another term if they ride these scandals out. If so, you’ll know who is really to blame, and it won’t be Kim Foxx or Catherine Pugh.