The Illinois House has voted to impeach Governor Rod Blagojevich almost unanimously (one vote contrary).
The actions of the House--approving an article of impeachment maintaining Blagojevich had committed abuses of power--represents the equivalent of an indictment.The impeachment resolution covering Blagojevich's actions "show a public servant who has betrayed his oath of office, who has betrayed the public trust, who is not fit to govern the state of Illinois,” said Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, the Chicago Democrat who headed a special panel that recommended Blagojevich’s impeachment a day earlier.
Next week, when the Senate convenes, it will begin the process of setting up a trial of the governor in which each of the 59 state senators act as judge and jurors.
A total of 40 senators are needed to convict Blagojevich which would remove the governor from office and make Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn the state’s new chief executive. A trial is expected to take at least three weeks.
I have the distinct impression that a lot of Illinois pols are setting themselves up for an unceremonious end to their own political careers by engaging in this hypocrisy, although frankly, they probably had little choice. Call it the Rev. Ted Haggerty paradigm--if you preach sanctimoniously against homosexuality, you better not get caught fraternizing with gay call boys. I couldn't hazard a guess as too how many of these assembly-persons have been guilty of similar pay-to-play transactions in their careers, but Chicago politics didn't suddenly get its reputation for corruption in the past month. The "everybody is doing it" defense just went out the window with Blago's impeachment.
Illinois Republican Chairman Andy Bennett probably sums up the hypocrisy the most succinctly.
"After six years of enabling and endorsing Rod Blagojevich, the Democrats who run this state waited until Illinois faced national embarrassment to act and are now voting to impeach a governor they worked to re-elect only two years ago," McKenna said in a statement. "To make matters worse, these same Democrats have fed this crisis by refusing to strip the governor of his appointment powers, and are helping to seat Blagojevich's hand-picked and tainted choice for United States Senator."
The impeachment is supposed to be a gun to Blagojevich's head, but its not a threat made without cost. If the Illinois Senate impeaches him without clear evidence or a court conviction, they are setting a dangerous precedent and creating a constitutional problem for themselves. The governor is popularly elected, and the Senate would effectively be overruling the people of Illinois for political self-interest.
There is also the question of whether Blagojevich really fears being removed from office enough to resign--what's the upside for him?
That's an interesting question because there would have to be inducements to make that an attractive alternative--the very thing that the Illinois House was so affronted by. Wouldn't it be hilarious to have Blagojevich resign and then have it later revealed that there was a deal in place to make it happen? Illinois could find itself on a treadmill of recalls and impeachments.
Of course, if the Senate doesn't vote to remove him from office, they would then have fired their last shot into the air.
Well, there is always the memory hole. Perhaps in two years, everyone will have forgotten about all this...
