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* The Tribune neatly rebutted the governor’s whining yesterday…
• The rules that govern the Illinois Senate trial essentially are those that applied to President Bill Clinton in his impeachment case. The Illinois House moved carefully to impeach the governor. If some senator now suggests lynching him—”Under these rules, I’m not even getting a fair trial—they’re just hangin’ me,” he said Friday—we expect Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Fitzgerald to restore sobriety.
• Yes, there are restrictions on which witnesses can be called to testify before the Senate. Those restrictions apply to the prosecution and the defense. Which raises this question:
• If the governor thinks the rules of evidence are unfair, why didn’t he bother to challenge them weeks ago? It’s absurd for him to now claim he can’t get the fair trial he didn’t formally seek, without testimony from the witnesses he didn’t attempt to call. Talk about reaching a verdict without supporting evidence.
• Nothing prohibits the governor from testifying as his own best witness. He could explain to the people of Illinois his version of “the truth.” He’s been invoking “the truth” for years now—”When the whole truth comes out,” he said again Friday—without articulating it. Presented now with the opportunity to do so, he’s a noisy no-show.
• The Senate trial concerns the fitness of one man to serve as governor. So you’re free to ignore that man when he complains, as he did Friday, “Whatever happened to the presumption of innocence?” Guilt and innocence, words freighted with sacred meaning in criminal court, aren’t the point of this trial. Fitness to serve, to lead, to govern, is.
* And Rep. Franks said about what I’ve been saying privately…
” I think we’ll probably be done by Thursday. I think the governor will be impeached by Thursday, probably the latest Friday,” said Democratic state Rep. Jack Franks of Woodstock.
* Oof…
“He’s gone insane. He has decided that he’s only got a couple of days left in office and he’s gonna go out in a blaze of misguided glory,” said Republican Rep. Mark Kirk of Chicago’s north suburbs.
* More along those lines…
By hiring the public-relations firm that represents former Bolingbrook Police Sgt. Drew Peterson, the impeached governor of Illinois has accomplished two things.
He has given the green light to those of us who felt timid about drawing comparisons between his brash behavior and Peterson’s. And he has cemented our state’s new marketing slogan as: “Come to Illinois. Chock full o’ crazy.”
* We can only hope…
Setting the stage for a momentous act of political repudiation, the state Senate prepared to open the first impeachment trial of a governor in Illinois history at noon Monday, and disgraced Gov. Rod Blagojevich said his days in office were numbered.
* And as I wrote in the Sun-Times a few weeks ago, his statements on NBC indicate that he may try to take some down with him…
“And for me to just quit because some cackling politicians want to get me out of the way because there’s a whole bunch of things they don’t want known about them and conversations they may have had with me . . . would be to disgrace my children when I know I’ve done nothing wrong,” Blagojevich said in a transcript of the interview.
Blagojevich also maintained that some of the state senators who will decide his political fate don’t want him to present defense witnesses.
“There are some of those that are sitting in judgment of me on Monday in the state Senate that were on telephone calls with me” when his calls were taped, he said.
* Related…
* Who’s who in the impeachment trial of Gov. Blagojevich
* THE WITNESS LIST for blago’s trial
* Jones: Blago trial will go on
* Impeachment trial to proceed without Blagojevich
* Gov’s impeachment trial kicks off today
* Governor’s impeachment trial a first for Illinois
* Gov’s impeachment trial kicks off today
* Governor’s impeachment trial a first for Illinois
* Elected as reformer, Blagojevich now facing Senate trial
* Impeachment - Now it is up to the Senate
* Valley senators prepare for Blagojevich trial
* Blagojevich’s Attorney Calls It Quits
* Governor takes his fight to airwaves
* Blagojevich asks newspapers for help with trial
* Blagojevich sought editorials; these won’t please him.
* Blago’s final attack will end like Battle of the Bulge did.
* The gov and Gandhi
* Blago likens himself to King, Ghandi
* Blago celebrates Martyr’s Day
* Thanks, Governor
* Blagojevich’s talking points
* Gov’s media blitz: unadulterated poppycock
* Gov’s quite a character — several in fact
* Somehow, he left off Elvis, JFK, John Wayne
* ‘Try our seafood extravaganza’
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 9:46 am
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Has anybody heard the tapes yet?
Comment by casual observer Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 9:55 am
I kind of like “Land of Loons”.
Comment by soccermom Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 9:57 am
The Rockford Register Star articles say that the public can view the proceedings on the Senate’s web page at ilga.gov/senate , but that the site’s capacity is limited. When this site crashes, will there be any other way to see or listen? I would love to tivo this!
Comment by 32nd Ward Roscoe Village Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 9:57 am
32nd: Several Chicago TV stations, including ABC-7 and CLTV, plus the Chicago Tribune’s website, will stream it live. I’d wager several others will too. CNN. Rich may put up a list of links, but if not, I’d try any of those.
Comment by Concerned Observer Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 10:00 am
I trust Quinn is ready the moment he’s sworn in with a memo/executive order to all executive branch employees to preserve all records/hard drives/emails. No shredding parties, please.
I imagine he also has in mind, and maybe has already been in contact with Jesse White to have SOS personnel secure the governor’s public offices following conviction.
Then comes the audit.
Comment by wordslinger Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 10:00 am
9:59 CST: Blagojevich on elevator heading to The View set (source: The Publicity Agency).
Comment by The World is Watching Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 10:02 am
Blago’s self-characterizations — King, Mandela, Gandhi — seem to be following a clear progression.
Don’t be surprised if he’s wearing a crown of thorns on Larry King tonight.
Comment by wordslinger Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 10:03 am
Oprah responds:
http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2009/01/winfrey_responds_to_blagojevic.html
Comment by Anonymous Coward Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 10:04 am
Blagojevich’s behavior shouldn’t surprise anyone. What has been surprising however, is how long it has taken to remove him from office. He imploded December 9th. Thursday will be January 29th. There is a serious delay here. Even considering how we have never impeached a governor before, the 21st Century demands quicker response from a government than this when handling these extraordinary events.
Blagojevich really hasn’t lift a finger to delay his removal. He has had no one in the General Assembly to support him. Yet he has remained in office, appointed a United States Senator, clogged Illinois government, and turned all of us into inept idiots - well, his former supporters, that is.
Impeachment could have worked in a more timely manner back when carrier pidgeons were employed, fur wasn’t a status symbol, and Abraham Lincoln split rails. But we are discovering that in 2008, with a government one of the largest organizations in a once-free market, impeachment takes too long.
We need to rethink this so that we can remove a governor quicker while balancing all concerns.
Comment by VanillaMan Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 10:12 am
I agree Vanillaman, I think however it happened at the worst possible time, right around the holidays and right as a new GA was to be sworn in.
Comment by he gone Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 10:22 am
I disagree, VanillaMan. Blago should be gone by Feb 9th. That’s two months to remove a statewide elected official. I think that this is a quick pace, for such an extraordinary action.
Julie Hamos is considering what statutes should be passed to implement the impeachment section of the state constitution. Perhaps she should consider including an automatic leave of office after the House impeaches, with the Lt. Gov as acting governor, but anything prior to that truly is a rush to judgement. Even this measure would not have prevented the Burris appointment…
Comment by Capitol View Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 10:25 am
VanillaMan, agree completely, execpt that the reality is that in a society that can take years to convict a serial killer, it is probably too much to expect any faster action to impeach someone. Realize that the one action is criminal, and the other is political, but still…
Comment by Downstate Commissioner Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 10:28 am
Too bad the guv is in NY rather then working on his defense. Besides pointing out that many in the Senate now voting to convict him were his co-conspirators by going along with many of his programs and taking his ill-gotten booty, I suspect if he looked hard enough he could find some of these people being critical of these rules when Clinton was being tried. As I recall, not a lot of Democrats wanted that trial to go forward in the Senate. I’d like to know what the Senators in Il were saying back then.
Comment by the Patriot Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 10:33 am
CNN had a reporter in Springfield a little while ago…forget her name, but she also nailed him on the “I can’t call witnesses” lie.
Comment by rrt Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 11:02 am
I hope the Blago does talk and bring down people with him. Bring down as many of the self serving people as possible who were willing to play ball with this guy.
Comment by Bring em down Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 12:49 pm
I still can not decide if the Gov truly beleives what he is saying, or thinks this is a crafty way to manipulate a future jury pool.
Either the Gov is cuckoo, or he thinks we the people are.
Comment by Ghost Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 1:46 pm
Let’s tape everyone in office and see who’s clean?
This goes on all the time - wake up! I am so sick of this while our country is in a mess!
Comment by SAM Tuesday, Jan 27, 09 @ 1:59 pm