* 9:33 pm - The House impeachment committee will publish its report to the full chamber at 9 o’clock tomorrow morning. The report will be the “introduced version,” and possibly subject to amendments. It’ll be on this web page.
* 6:04 pm - Roundup. First, the committee has issued another subpoena…
A panel of Illinois lawmakers considering the impeachment of Governor Rod Blagojevich ordered his campaign committee to turn over the names of every donor and the amount of money involved. […]
The subpoena requires Blagojevich’s campaign to disclose details about every contribution received from July 1 to Dec. 31
The governor’s lawyers are fighting the release of the surveillance tape snippets…
In a filing today, Gov. Blagojevich’s lawyers say they object to the release of the recordings to a house impeachment panel. The recordings are part of a federal investigation into the governor. Attorney Ed Genson said he will make his arguments against the release at a later date.
Attorney Edward Genson informed U.S. District Chief Judge James Holderman of his objection late Wednesday, whether they are redacted in any way or not, and indicated he would outline the objection in writing by Jan 20. […]
A lawyer for Monk, identified in the materials as an unindicted interceptee, said he would “preserve all potential objections,” and would like to see the documents that led to the taping. An attorney for Rob Blagojevich said he would likely be making a motion to suppress the statements, but also needs to see documents including the application for the intercepts to make a determination.
An attorney for Johnston filed a response indicating Johnston does not object to the tapes being released.
* 4:28 pm - I told subscribers about this potential move. But they can’t ask you questions if you don’t show up…
Illinois lawmakers are once again meeting to talk about impeaching Governor Rod Blagojevich, but the embattled governor’s lawyers are not.
Blagojevich’s legal team of Chicago attorneys Ed Genson and Sam Adam Jr. did not give a reason for skipping the start of the fourth week of impeachment proceedings against Blagojevich.
But some lawmakers say they wanted to ask Adam Jr. about his now revealed role as a go-between for the governor and U.S. Senate appointee Roland Burris.
* 3:54 pm - Former IG Z Scott’s report is now posted on the impeachment committee’s page at the General Assembly’s website. You can find it by clicking here.
* 2:45 PM - Listen or watch here. Not sure if CNN is gonna have the feed, but the Tribune has often carried it live. The hearing begins at 3, and as noted below, it should be interesting. I’ll be in attendance for at least a while, so I’m not sure how much I’ll be live-blogging. It’ll be up to you.
The response makes it clear that the Secretary of State has done everything he is legally required to do regarding the Burris appointment. […]
Instead, what is at issue here is a form that is not required by law, but is merely “recommended” by a Rule of the U.S. Senate. Moreover, a U.S. Senate Rule cannot impose a legal obligation on the Illinois Secretary of State.
Standing Rule II of the U.S. Senate provides, “The Secretary of the Senate shall send copies of the following recommended forms to the governor and secretary of state of each State wherein an election is about to take place or an appointment is to be made so that they may use such forms if they see fit.” (Emphasis added.)
In contrast, when the U.S. Senate creates a mandatory requirement for a Secretary of State’s signature and seal, they enact a law, and they have not done so in this case.
For example, under federal law, when a U.S. Senator is elected, the State must certify the election under state seal, and the law explicitly requires that the certification of election “shall be countersigned by the secretary of state of the State.” 2 U.S.C. §§ 1(a), (b).
There is no law requiring the Secretary of State to sign a “recommended” form of the U.S. Senate.
The decision to treat the U.S. Senate’s “recommended” form as a legal requirement is a decision of the U.S. Senate. It remains up to the U.S. Senate to seat Mr. Burris.
By the way, Reid said at his press conference that the Senate rule in question has never been waived in the history of the US Senate.
Also, keep in mind that the IL Supreme Court hasn’t uttered a word one way or the other as of yet. They could step in and force a resolution, or they could take the Madigan/White advice and declare there is no legal issue here and punt as well. The other option is just to stay low and hope the heat blows over before they have to make a decision. They’ve already ruled in favor of Blagojevich once (when they rejected AG Madigan’s petition to have him removed from office). You wonder how far they’ll go for the guy.
…Adding… As someone just pointed out to me, this will require Harry Reid to devise yet another way to cave in to Roland Burris. As mentioned above, Reid said the Senate rule has never been waived, but if the Supremes go along with White’s logic, then White will never have to sign the appointment form. Reid will then have to backpedal some more to get this issue off his back. And he’ll look even weaker and more duplicitous. We’ll have to wait and see what the Supremes do.
…Adding again… It appears Ben and I are anonymously crediting each other for the “Reid will have to find another excuse to cave in to Burris” line. lol
On Dec. 30, after Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich appointed Roland Burris to the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid and assistant leader Dick Durbin of Illinois said no, plain and simple.
They declared, “Anyone appointed by Gov. Blagojevich cannot be an effective representative of the people of Illinois and, as we have said, will not be seated by the Democratic caucus.”
After…
Said Durbin, after he and Reid smiled for photos with Burris at the Capitol: “I think it was important that the United States Senate say — and we did, as a Democratic caucus unanimously — that we were going to carefully scrutinize and review the process by which this Senate seat would be filled if Governor Blagojevich was involved, and that’s what happened.”
Blagojevich is from Chicago, and some say that city is a breeding ground for corruption. But Bill Daley, brother of Chicago’s current mayor and a former commerce secretary under Bill Clinton, says the real problem lies to the south in the state’s capital.
“It is more about Springfield and not about Chicago,” Daley told me. “Springfield is away from the big city, there is not a lot of press down there, it is incestuous — all one club — and can be a cesspool.”
* The Question: Is he right or wrong, or what? Explain fully.
On Monday night, on WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight,” State Rep. Patti Bellock, a Republican from Woodridge and a member of the House Impeachment Inquiry, put a spotlight on it. Bellock said that while Blagojevich fiddles with the feds, a state of crisis is building in this state when it comes to critical health care and health providers.
Bellock said a doctor called her office six weeks ago. “She was in tears” saying the state was $200,000 behind in Medicaid payments to her family clinic and that soon they may have to close their doors.
When that call came in, Bellock said, she called Blagojevich’s office. “It was two days before the governor was arrested,” Bellock recalled later. “I talked to one of his aides” but the aide quickly quit or took a leave of absence after his boss was taken into FBI custody. Just one of too many examples of how state government has been frozen by this scandal. “The chain of communication is broken,” she said.
Another of Bellock’s regular calls comes from the COACH Care Center in Naperville. COACH stands for Coordinating Action for Children’s Health.
“We take care of medically fragile children,” CEO Debbie Grisko said by phone Tuesday. “Children with trachs, ventilators, feeding tubes.”
Seventy-eight percent of Grisko’s clients live at or below the poverty level — families from Champaign to the Wisconsin border, who can’t keep their kids in hospitals forever and who need help learning how to care for them at home.
“Our bills are five months behind in being paid,” Grisko said. And the irony, she points out, is that her agency estimates it actually saved the state $4.6 million in the last year by helping children transition into home care and out of more expensive facilities.
And it’s gonna get much, much worse.
The state is simply running out of money. It may not even be able to make payroll in a couple of months, from what I’m getting.
I think if I was Rod Blagojevich I’d resign even if I hadn’t been arrested. The calamaties ahead will be severe and there will be no way on God’s Earth to simply cut our way out of this problem.
* The best thing the Obama administration could do on its stimulus plan is to eliminate the state and local match for capital projects. Illinois doesn’t have the money to capture the $9 billion already out there, let alone the new projects.
A proposal to increase the motor fuel tax by a modest 8 cents a gallon for transporation projects only has drawn howls of derision in southern Illinois, the home of the bill’s sponsor, Democratic state Rep. John Bradley…
Sure, gas is selling today for less than $1.70 per gallon in many locations across Southern Illinois, but does anyone really believe that will last for an appreciable length of time? The production cuts now being made by our “friends” in OPEC and the other oil-rich nations are destined to drive the barrel price of oil upward - which will affect the price at the gas pump.
What in the world was Bradley thinking? The impact of another 80 cents for a 10-gallon purchase may be inconsequential for upper-income motorists, but it would impose an unfair burden on the people who need wheels to travel between the several part-time and minimum-wage jobs that sustain a growing number of struggling, hard-working people.
“I think the whole pricing system is a sham,” Goines said. “I totally disagree with a new gas tax.”
The Reagan/Blagojevich/Bush/Etc. way has been to tell people that they can get lots of neato stuff for nothing. Well, them days is over. Somebody has to pay.
And the motor fuel tax is just the beginning.
Welcome to the governor’s office, Pat Quinn. Have a nice day.
The focus turns back to Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Wednesday as a House committee weighing his political fate delves into alleged hiring irregularities and prepares for a crucial stretch that may culminate in his impeachment by week’s end. […]
At the heart of the impeachment committee’s look at hiring irregularities is a confidential 2004 report by the governor’s handpicked executive inspector general, said House Majority Leader Barbara Currie (D-Chicago), the panel’s chairwoman.
The report, which the Tribune disclosed as Blagojevich ran for re-election in 2006, concluded that his patronage office was the “real machine driving hiring” in a state agency for jobs that were supposed to be free of political influence.
“This effort reflects not merely an ignorance of the law, but complete and utter contempt for the law,” according to the report written by Zaldwaynaka Scott, who was Blagojevich’s first executive inspector general.
The hearing begins today at 3 o’clock. Don’t miss it.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s official calendar shows he met with a top union official in his Chicago office the day before Barack Obama was elected president — just as federal prosecutors say the governor was scheming to trade Obama’s Senate seat, possibly for a cushy union job.
The meeting with Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, also was attended by Tom Balanoff, president of the Illinois chapter of the union, which has been Blagojevich’s largest campaign contributor. […]
Prosecutors allege one of Blagojevich’s plans was to use his power to appoint a Senate replacement for Obama to get a high-paying job with “Change to Win,” an SEIU-affiliated political action group.
That’s actually only part of the story. The criminal complaint reveals snippets of recordings that show the governor was allegedly trying to cut a “three-way” deal with Obama and SEIU, but only two parts of the three were ever revealed.
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was preparing to issue an executive order prior to his arrest last week that would have allowed union organizing of home-care workers that could have benefited a labor union with close ties to the governor. […]
The executive order would have enabled the SEIU or another union to organize about 1,200 workers in the state who care for developmentally disabled people in their homes and would have augmented one signed by the governor in 2003, said Michelle Ringuette, an SEIU spokeswoman. […]
Ms. Ringuette said the SEIU was aware of the executive order but didn’t know what role, if any, the union played in developing it. She said other unions would have been able to organize the workers as well. But a rival union said it was unaware of the order, while SEIU staffers and outside experts say the SEIU had already begun actively seeking the support of workers. […]
Charlotte Cronin, executive director of Family Support Network of Illinois, a Peoria-based advocacy group for the developmentally disabled, confirmed that union organizers knocked on doors this past summer, and that some relatives of the disabled found them “overly persistent.” She said the union, which she believed to be SEIU, was able to get home addresses because they are a matter of public record.
Curious.
Keep in mind, however, that SEIU flatly denies any deals were ever made. This could’ve just been all in the governor’s head, for all we know.
*** 12:20 PM *** I suppose now would be a good time to point out how wrong I was about the US Senate Democrats. I thought they might have more backbone. Wrong. I also thought that the national media wouldn’t be such a bunch of easily manipulated goofs who would fall for Rod Blagojevich’s blatant racial play. Wrong again. In fact, they seemed to enjoy reveling in the goofiness.
*** 11:36 AM *** I missed much of the presser because I had no cable, but this seems like a good enough summary from the Washington Post…
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.), following a meeting with Burris this morning, praised Burris as “candid” and “forthright” and seemed to lay out a two-pronged path by which the former state attorney general could end up in the Senate.
The first is for the Illinois state Supreme Court to rule on whether or not Burris can be seated without Secretary of State Jesse White signing the certification of his appointment. (White, for his part, appears to be distancing himself from his decision not to sign the certificate — arguing he was never opposed to Burris.)
The second is that Burris appear before the state legislature to answer questions about any and all of his ties to embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich who appointed Burris to the post. Burris is scheduled to do so tomorrow.
“Once that’s done, we will be in a different position,” said Reid.
The Democrats have been desperate to make Roland Burris’s Senate appointment about Rod Blagojevich and not about Burris, himself. If this is about Burris, then the Dems will appear to be picking on an elderly African-American. Not good.
Still, those of us who know him best have an obligation to point out that Burris isn’t quite the elder statesman that the Democrats anbd the national media are making him out to be. For instance, here’s Mark Brown…
[Burris is] proud and pigheaded and wants this one last star on his chest so badly that he is similarly delusional.
“By accepting the appointment, you are supporting the governor,” said Jay Stewart, director of the watchdog Better Government Association. “You are allowing him to exercise his authority and show up the rest of the world.”
In our view, anyone who would accept anything from Blagojevich at this point automatically exhibits a serious lack of judgment. Burris’ acceptance of this appointment in particular — knowing it was opposed by the Senate, virtually everyone in Illinois and even the man whose historic election created the vacancy — exemplifies such a lack of judgment. […]
If Burris didn’t know when he accepted Blagojevich’s offer that all of this would happen, then he lacks the minimal foresight we expect from any competent public official. If he knew this would happen and accepted anyway, all the worse.
[Mary] Kenney, an attorney for the Cook County Public Guardian, said Tuesday that Burris’ acceptance of Gov. Blagojevich’s appointment “brings to mind how, in the Cruz case, Mr. Burris failed to realize the ethical obligations of a criminal prosecutor and how, now he again fails to recognize the difference between right and wrong. . . . There is a cloud over his appointment. He should have declined it.”
Ultimately, Cruz was acquitted. By then, DNA evidence linked Brian Dugan to the murder. Dugan, who is serving a life sentence for two other similar murders, is now awaiting trial in that case. […]
Attorney Lawrence Marshall, one of the lawyers who helped obtain Cruz’s acquittal in 1995 and who is now a professor at Stanford Law School, said in a separate interview, “Then and now, this is really the same person and the same behavior, which is that — although I don’t think Roland Burris is an evil man — I do think his career has been about one thing and one only — the advancement of Roland Burris.”
Marshall said that in the Cruz case, Burris “lied to the public . . . and refused to take responsibility one way or another. He came up with a bogus story that it wasn’t his job to decide whether to prosecute the appeal. Now, he is acting consistently — he is saying, ‘I don’t care. I’m not going to worry about what’s right. I’m going to worry about what’s best for Roland Burris.’”
* And Brown had this stark warning for African-Americans who are backing Burris’ bid…
For those who see this as a matter of racial pride for the African-American community, let me point out that in taking the seat for the next two years, Roland Burris is destroying any chance of an African American holding it during the following decade.
In the first place, he’s not going to get elected. Most Illinois voters wanted nothing more to do with him before this, and now he’s finished. But he’s going to run anyway because his ego is so big, and in the process, he’ll keep any another African American from getting through the 2010 primary.
That’s the certain math of racial politics in Illinois, the only state in modern history to elect two African Americans to the Senate and certainly capable of making it three with the right candidate.
Since the 17th Amendment established procedures for filling vacancies in 1913, only 60 of the 180 men and women appointed to the Senate — an even one-third ratio — have won the next election in their own right, according to records kept by the Senate.
Of the remaining 120, 63 did not run, 56 ran and lost, and one, South Carolina’s Alva Moore Lumpkin, died two weeks after his appointment in 1941.
While a slim majority of appointed senators who sought election did win, their success rate pales in comparison to the overall incumbent-retention record in the Senate, with a low of 64 percent and a high of 96.9 percent in the 25 elections dating back to 1960.
The Illinois General Assembly must act this month to restore $9.25 million in restricted funds “swept” to pay state bills or risk losing millions in federal dollars for fish and wildlife management.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sent Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s office a letter Dec. 19 stating that any transfer of hunting and fishing license fees to pay other state expenses would be violate federal law.
With Gov. Blagojevich facing impeachment, Mayor Daley is trying to engineer a political end-run around Springfield when it comes to Chicago’s share of the $800 billion economic stimulus plan being crafted by President-elect Barack Obama.
Representatives and an attorney for the union representing Republic employees said that they hope the NLRB will order Gillman to return the machinery to the Chicago plant, facilitating the potential reopening of the factory under a new owner. Members of Gillman’s family formed a new company, Echo Windows, which bought a windows-manufacturing plant in Red Oak, Iowa, shortly before the Chicago plant closed.
“The union is asking the board to demand, among other things, the return of the machinery, the clients and the jobs to Chicago,” said Laurie Burgess, the attorney filing the charges. “The workers at Republic are standing up for their rights and demanding a stake in their future.”
The head of Chicago’s Federation of Labor is bracing for the possibility of more layoffs in city government. That’s after Mayor Richard Daley Tuesday opened the door to additional job cuts as the economy continues to sour.
Since October, Chicago-area homeless shelters have reported increases of anywhere from 5 percent to 39 percent in people needing immediate housing, compared with the same time the previous year. The number of homeless students enrolled by Chicago Public Schools in November was 9,132—up 28 percent compared with November 2007, a spokeswoman said.
The father of a Chicago alderman wept moments before he was sentenced to 4 years in prison Tuesday for his role in a fake ID ring operating from inside his Little Village photo studio.
“If I did something wrong, I’m sorry; forgive me,” Elias Munoz, father of Ald. Ricardo Munoz (22nd), said in a mixture of Spanish and English.
Prosecutors alleged that the elder Munoz took in at least $180,000 a year for about 13 years snapping pictures for phony driver’s licenses and other documents.
Last winter, Cook County Highway Department maintenance employees called in sick, took vacation or paid time off on the same days they earned overtime compensation, a Chicago Sun-Times review of payroll records shows.
On February 1, for instance, three employees at the LaGrange Park garage worked seven hours overtime and also were paid sick or vacation time for their regular shift. Each of those workers were compensated for 18.5 hours that day.
The bleached-white streets of Chicago over the last few decades would seem to indicate Mayor Daley heeded the lesson former Mayor Michael Bilandic learned the hard way in 1979: Chicagoans want their streets salted and plowed immediately after the snow falls.
