* 2:46 pm - House Speaker Michael Madigan just informed the chamber that the House will vote again on impeachment tomorrow, which would mean that the planned session will last “much longer” than previously anticipated. The voting will take place at the University of Illinois/Springfield after the scheduled swearing-in ceremony for the new General Assembly. The impeachment committee will also be re-established tomorrow.
By the way, David Ellis has been appointed the House’s prosecutor during the Senate trial. More here.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich won’t make a grand, drawn-out entrance Wednesday to swear in the new Illinois Senate.
Cindy Davidsmeyer, spokeswoman for outgoing Senate President Emil Jones, confirmed today that the governor will enter the Senate through the president’s anteroom, which is right behind the president’s lectern.
That will mean Blagojevich will avoid taking a long walk from the main chamber entrance down the center aisle to the lectern. […]
She noted that Blagojevich has come in for the official swearing-in ceremony before through the anteroom, although he traditionally enters the House chamber through the main door for his budget and state of the state speeches.
* 3:13 pm - The Senate has approved a supplemental appropriations bill that will restore funding to some constitutional officers’ budgets and various conservation programs. The House passed the bill yesterday. Gov. Blagojevich has previously vetoed out the appropriations, so it’s not clear what he’ll do this time around. The full text of the amended SB1132 can be found at this link.
* Preckwinkle has been quietly doing the groundwork for this bid over the past several days, checking in with various top politicos and getting things in order…
In an interview at City Hall, Chicago Alderman Toni Preckwinkle (4th) confirmed buzz that she intends to run and will kick her campaign into high gear shortly after returning from Mr. Obama’s inauguration next week. […]
“I like Todd Stroger as a person, but I think this is not the job for him,” the alderman said, showing no signs of backing off despite what insiders say is pressure from Mr. Stroger not to run. “The kindest thing you can say is, he’s inept.” […]
The political question is how Ms. Preckwinkle would do if another Stroger foe, County Commissioner Forrest Claypool, runs again, this time in the February 2010 Democratic primary. Mr. Claypool has said he’ll decide this summer.
While Ms. Preckwinkle and Mr. Stroger presumably would split the black vote, she and Mr. Claypool both have an appeal to lakefront liberals and other progressive groups. Ms. Preckwinkle noted that she’s already started talking to groups like the Metropolitan Planning Council and Metropolis 2020 about making Cook County government into a regional leader.
* Sen. Rickey Hendon (D-Chicago) on the upcoming Senate impeachment trial of Gov. Rod Blagojevich…
“We’re going to give the governor an honest and fair trial as called for by the Constitution. We’re going to be fair and open-minded.
“But that noise you hear in the back, that hammering? This is like Texas justice with the guy sitting in the cell saying ‘What’s all that racket?’ and you hear all that hammering in the back. Well, that’s the gallows being prepared… So, it’s obvious what’s going to happen to the governor.”
For whatever reason, lots of people have predicted that African-American Senators would vote with Blagojevich. That’s not going to happen en masse. I’m not sure whether it’s racism or just laziness of thought, but to confidently predict that Sen. Hendon [and all black Senators] will be a “No” vote on removal doesn’t comport with reality.
* The month since Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s arrest has been somewhat of a blur to me, and perhaps others as well. What is the single event of the past several weeks that sticks out in your mind the most? Why?
* Dick Durbin has been the heart of this Burris problem all along…
The day Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested on charges of allegedly trying to sell an appointment to the Senate for personal gain, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin called for a special election to fill the seat. […]
The next day, he backed off calls for a special election and penned a letter to the governor saying any future appointee would be rejected.
When Blagojevich defiantly appointed Roland Burris on Dec. 30, Durbin then said the former statewide officeholder wouldn’t be seated. […]
And over the ensuing weeks, the flip flops have only continued.
He pushed the special election before considering the impact on his own party. He brashly baited the governor by declaring the Senate would never seat anyone the governor appointed - never apparently taking into consideration that the governor is far more brash than Durbin is. Once Blagojevich appointed Burris, Durbin tried to make Secretary of State Jesse White the fall-guy by pointing to White’s refusal to sign the appointment proclamation instead of taking the heat himself. And then he even backed off that when White signed a separate piece of paper.
Go back to November when Durbin said he wanted to see George Ryan’s sentence commuted and you’ll see that the senior Senator from Illinois has been on a roll. And not a good roll, either.
Durbin needs to keep his mouth shut for a while. He needs to realize that he’s done more damage to his party and to his state’s reputation than anyone except Rod Blagojevich and, perhaps, Roland Burris.
If Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid actually thought his fellow Democrat would take the hint and refrain from appointing anyone, he’s been spending too much time in the genteel legislative culture of Washington.
The problem with that logic is Durbin has been the one calling the (wrong) shots. Reid’s misktake was that he listened to his top deputy’s strategy for dealing with a problem in his home state. Reid now looks weak, and Durbin has undoubtedly lost a lot of respect for his abilities.
* Years ago, when George Ryan was still governor and under constant siege by the media and the US Attorney’s office, I ran into Ryan at a Greektown restaurant. Ryan sat at my table for a bit and chatted with my ever-polite guests, even though none of them voted for him and all of them thought he was an embarrassment to the state. Other restaurant patrons approached Ryan while he sat with us and asked for photos and autographs.
As to signs that Mr. Blagojevich has overwhelmingly lost support in this state of more than 12 million, and that, in the words of the lieutenant governor, “nobody will get within 10 feet of him,” Mr. Guerrero looked to other indicators. He said that the governor had received 400 letters of support since his arrest on Dec. 9, and that there were perhaps less tangible glimmers of hope, too, like thumbs-up signs from passers-by at places like Starbucks.
Rod Blagojevich is a notorious celebrity. Of course he’s receiving “fan” mail and the occasional thumbs-up. George Ryan got that all the time.
In fact, Ryan was convinced that the support and friendliness he experienced almost wherever he went meant that the public opinion polls which showed his job approval rating in the low 20s were flat-out wrong.
Some lawmakers had predicted Blagojevich might try to play games with the senators [during Wednesday’s swearing-in ceremony], such as refusing to seat the new Senate and thereby stalling his impeachment trial.
But Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero said Monday there’s “no chance” the governor would refuse to seat the Senate.
The governor has claimed two things: 1) He did nothing wrong; and 2) He expects to receive much fairer treatment in the Senate. By abdicating his Constitutional responsibilities Wednesday, he would disprove the first item and endanger the second.
I think Blagojevich will exceed expectations and behave himself. Then again, he is Rod Blagojevich.
Senators will be “cordial,” according to GateHouse…
“I’ll be cordial; that’s my plan, that’s the statesman-like thing to do,” said Larry Bomke, R-Springfield. “I suspect all other senators will be cordial. Not necessarily friendly, but cordial.” […]
At most Senate inaugurations, governors are greeted with strong, standing ovations as they are escorted by a group of senators from both parties down the center aisle on the way up to the podium, shaking hands with legislators as they go.
But this time, incoming Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno said she’s had few takers for the escort role and thinks Blagojevich may instead come in more quietly through a back entrance. Applause will be muted, she predicted.
Embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich has at least one friend left in Illinois. […]
State lawmakers who impeached him last week have long said that policy was irresponsible, but the group, National Taxpayers United of Illinois, said Blagojevich has been “a friend to taxpayers.”
“(Blagojevich) has done some goofy things, but oh well,” said James Tobin, the group’s president. “At least he’s kept his promise” and not raised the income tax, he said.
Tobin hearts Blagojevich. You can’t make this stuff up.
* And speaking of Blagojevich friends, Senate President Emil Jones urged the Senate to proceed with caution in its upcoming impeachment trial…
“Maybe all the evidence may point in one direction, but it may be the wrong person,” Jones said. “We don’t have all the facts.'’
The wrong person? Does Jones mean somebody else is on those surveillance tapes and Rod Blagojevich was framed? Please.
Jones said he had no apologies for often siding with a governor who has been impeached and is charged with federal corruption. ‘’Through it all, I have few regrets,'’ Jones said.
And that’s his biggest problem. He has no regrets for blowing chance after chance to better the state. Instead, he opted for political payback and family gain.
Recruiting skilled financiers, top-notch agency directors and public policy experts, may be more than a bit problematic for a new governor, whose term ends in fewer than two years.
So it’s likely legislative leaders will step into the void and use their staff to draft state budgets, form comprehensive public policies and do the heavy lifting on issues like raising taxes and cutting spending.
That may well be Blagojevich’s most lasting legacy: less respect, reduced power and fewer duties for the office he leaves behind.
State Reps. John Fritchey and Sara Feigenholtz were among four Chicago Democrats who formally joined the race Monday to replace Rahm Emanuel in Congress.
Dozens of local politicians have expressed interest in the opening created when President-elect Barack Obama chose Emanuel as his White House chief of staff.
Monday was the first day of the weeklong filing period for the March 3 special primary in the 5th Congressional District.
The others who filed Monday were University of Chicago lecturer Charles Wheelan and Justin Oberman, son of former Ald. Marty Oberman (43rd).
Chicago taxpayers have no legal recourse to recoup a $10 million subsidy awarded to Republic Windows & Doors because a requirement that the company create 549 jobs and retain them for eight years has expired, Corporation Counsel Mara Georges told aldermen Monday.
The Federal Aviation Administration’s approval of the privatization of Midway Airport has been delayed because the new operator still is negotiating some financial agreements.
The FAA had expected to sign off on the $2.5-billion transaction by now, but the consortium led by Vancouver-based YVR Airport Services Ltd., told the federal agency it was still working on some financial agreements. That work isn’t expected to be complete until April, the consortium said.
Under legislation Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed into law Monday, the state will provide $18 million for studies that would lay the groundwork for the plant, proposed for a site near Downstate Taylorville.
The plant, to be built by Tenaska Inc. and MDL Holding Co. about 25 miles southeast of Springfield, would be the nation’s first large-scale test of technology that captures heat-trapping carbon dioxide. Half of its emissions would either be injected deep underground or piped to oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico.
The latest discovery of financial abuse in Cook County comes from the highway department, where employees are accumulating so many overtime compensation hours that they can take months off at a crack and are getting paid doubletime on days in which they are sick or on vacation.
Senate Democratic leaders today cleared the way for Roland Burris to be seated as a senator from Illinois, after more than a weeklong spectacle surrounding the state’s corruption scandal and the questioning of Mr. Burris’s credentials.
After Mr. Burris’s lawyers hand-carried an additional document bearing a state seal, a statement attesting to the appointment and a mass-produced signature of the secretary of State, Jesse White, along with the governor’s original papers, Senate leaders Harry Reid and Dick Durbin bestowed the senator-designate title on him in a joint release:
The Secretary of the Senate has determined that the new credentials presented today on behalf of Mr. Burris now satisfy Senate Rules and validate his appointment to the vacant Illinois Senate seat. In addition, as we requested, Mr. Burris has provided sworn testimony before the Illinois House Committee on Impeachment regarding the circumstances of his appointment.
“We have spoken to Mr. Burris to let him know that he is now the Senator-designate from Illinois and as such, will be accorded all the rights and privileges of a Senator-elect.
“Accordingly, barring objections from Senate Republicans, we expect Senator-designee Burris to be sworn in and formally seated later this week. We are working with him and the office of the Vice President to determine the date and time of the swearing-in.
“As we had outlined to Mr. Burris, a path needed to be followed that respects the rules of the Senate. We committed to Mr. Burris that once those requirements were satisfied, we would be able to proceed. We are pleased that everything is now in order, we congratulate Senator-designee Burris on his appointment and we look forward to working with him in the 111th Congress.”
* What is your biggest fear and your biggest hope about a likely Pat Quinn governorship? Explain fully, and please answer both parts of this question. Thanks.
* You had to figure this was gonna happen sooner or later. Turns out, it’s sooner…
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Sunday it was likely that former Illinois Atty. Gen. Roland Burris would be seated as the state’s newest senator this week after a legal review of new paperwork regarding the Senate appointment.
The review Monday by Senate legal counsel marks the latest twist in the on-again, off-again seating of Burris, who was appointed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich three weeks after the now-impeached Illinois governor was arrested on federal corruption charges that include allegations he attempted to sell the Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama. While it appeared the Senate was closer Sunday to seating Burris, there are potential hitches.
Senate Democrats spent about 30 minutes discussing Burris’ situation in a closed-door meeting Sunday that resulted in Obama’s chief economic adviser, Larry Summers, cooling his heels in a Senate hallway waiting to discuss the president-elect’s economic recovery package.
“This thing changes by the day,” Durbin said, explaining why he and his colleagues spent such a long time discussing the matter.
* This sort of thing won’t help Burris’ chances in 2010…
Just days after Gov. Rod Blagojevich accepted his party’s nod for re-election in 2006, a letter arrived at state Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka’s office seeking thousands of pages of documents Blagojevich could use as ammunition against her in their upcoming campaign.
The letter was signed by Roland Burris.
It was one of several requests Burris made to the treasurer’s office in 2006, a campaign practice known as opposition research in which candidates use public documents to question their opponents’ records.
* Did you happen to catch SNL? I didn’t, either, but here’s the Burris clip…
Gov. Rod Blagojevich was pure defiance last week after the House voted 114 to 1 to impeach him.
Blagojevich said he expected the impeachment because the House has been fighting him tooth and nail ever since he was re-elected in 2006. A statement his office released a day earlier predicted smoother sailing in the Senate.
“It was a foregone conclusion,” the governor said about the impeachment.
“When the case moves to the Senate, an actual judge will preside over the hearings, and the governor believes the outcome will be much different,” his office’s official statement read.
The outcome of last week’s impeachment vote was, indeed, a “foregone conclusion.” But not because the proceedings were based on a purely political war, as the governor claimed, but because of the depth and breadth of the governor’s own official malfeasance. This has been coming for a very long time, and the governor knows it. I’m not the only one who warned him what could happen if he didn’t straighten out his act.
And the man is delusional if he truly believes the outcome will be any different in the Senate. There will be an “actual judge” presiding during his trial, and he will have a few more rights than he did during the impeachment process. But if the governor really thinks he can find the 20 senators he’ll need to block his removal from office next month, then he should be locked in a rubber room.
Voting to spare Blagojevich from the fate he so richly deserves would be an inexcusable, unforgivable mega-sin with consequences that nobody ever could escape.
Blagojevich’s statements essentially were reruns of everything we’ve heard from him for the past six years. The House is to blame for all the world’s ills. The Senate will save him. He is an heroic figure who did nothing wrong.
The House was never the real problem. House Speaker Michael Madigan has battled with every governor he’s served with, but he always found a way to cut a deal at the end of the day - until Blagojevich came along. Madigan, in fact, appears awfully darn prescient now.
And governor, I’ve got news for you: Senate President Emil Jones is retiring this week. Your comrade in arms will not be around to save your neck when your Senate trial begins as he has done so many times in the past.
And that presiding judge? The Senate will be able to override all of his decisions. Plus, Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Fitzgerald was a criminal courts judge for decades. He knows a crook when he sees one.
You really have to wonder what the governor is thinking here. Come February when he’s removed from office, all those hoops the U.S. Attorney must navigate when attempting to investigate and indict a sitting governor will disappear. No longer will Patrick Fitzgerald have to check in with Washington, D.C., whenever he wants to make a move against Blagojevich because the governor will be a private citizen by then.
If Blagojevich thinks he’s being manhandled by Fitzgerald now, just wait until Fitz’s restraints are removed.
Also, when elected officials offer to plead guilty and resign their offices, the U.S. attorney has to take that into consideration.
Any leverage Blagojevich might have to reduce his sentence to a length that will allow him to serve at a halfway decent minimum security prison will undoubtedly vanish if he’s removed from office before he cops a plea.
Frankly, conviction is almost as certain as the governor’s removal. Former Gov. George Ryan is serving essentially a life sentence for some dinky little crimes in comparison to this governor’s alleged lawlessness. Plus, the feds didn’t have thousands of surveillance tapes on George like they do with Rod. As Hawk Harrelson would say: “He gone.”
Then there’s Patti Blagojevich, who is likely behind Fitzgerald’s “Door Number Two.” Offering to resign now and throwing himself at the mercy of the system might spare the governor’s wife from imprisonment.
Does Rod Blagojevich really want his much-hated father-in-law Dick Mell to raise his children?
Cut your best deal and resign, governor. Spare the state and your family from this tragicomic circus. Man up and go away.
One of the charges the governor faces involves his stalling $8 million in funding for children’s specialty doctors across the state. The reason for the delay, according to prosecutors: to try to squeeze a $50,000 contribution from Patrick Magoon, chief executive officer of Children’s Memorial Hospital, which led efforts to get that funding.
Now — even in the wake of his Dec. 9 arrest — Blagojevich hasn’t lifted the virtual brick he placed on the $8 million prosecutors say his administration dangled in front of Magoon to get him to give to the governor’s campaign fund. And the anger the governor is facing for that appears to be growing.
Michael Vondra — construction magnate and asphalt kingpin — is working on a new business deal with BP, the gasoline behemoth. And he wanted Gov. Blagojevich to help him out with state environmental regulators.
Vondra and the governor talked about the deal last Oct. 6 in the governor’s North Side campaign office — not knowing federal agents were eavesdropping.
Afterward, Blagojevich decided to hit Vondra up for money — $100,000 to be raised before the state’s new campaign-finance rules kicked in the first of this year.
These allegations are part of the criminal complaint against Blagojevich, but they’ve drawn little attention because federal authorities concealed Vondra’s identity in court records.
Senate planners hope that the trial will begin Jan. 26, and Cullerton pointed to the Clinton trial lasting three weeks as a potential length of Blagojevich’s day in political court. A source familiar with the situation said that might be too ambitious a start date. Blagojevich’s defense team may ask for weeks or months to prepare, and all of the prosecution and defense witnesses could stretch the trial out longer, the source said.
That’s just wrong. Subscribe to find out why.
* Related…
* Some state legislators and healthcare advocates have started pressing scandal-plagued Gov. Rod Blagojevich to immediately release $8 million in state reimbursements for children’s specialty doctors that he allegedly used to seek a campaign contribution.
* Blago on One of His Favorite Presidents: Richard Nixon
* Gov. Rod Blagojevich can even embarrass Cubs: If a huge Cubs fan holds the highest public office in the state, then there’s a decent chance it’s going to end in spectacularly bad fashion.
None of the five candidates seeking to succeed former Congressman Rahm Emanuel could muster a majority of support at a Democratic slating meeting [Saturday]. That meas the March 3 primary will be an open one with no party endorsed candidate. State Rep. John Fritchey (D-Chicago) came closest, but could not quite reach the 50 percent (plus one) benchmark.
Ald. Patrick O’Connor (40th), Mayor Daley’s unofficial floor leader, had said as late as Friday night that he had close to enough votes to wrap up the endorsement, and he had pleaded with his fellow committeemen not to “shirk their responsibility” by declaring an “open primary.” That’s what backers of State Rep. John Fritchey, D-Chicago, had sought .
Luckily for O’Connor, they did not grant his wish because when the votes came in, Fritchey got about three times as many as O’Connor, though not enough to hit the 50 percent-plus-1 mark. […]
Fritchey got 61,529 of the 62,883-plus-1 votes it would have taken to be slated. O’Connor got a mere 22,901. Committeemen backing an open primary cast another 41,341 votes. […]
Questions emerged after the slating about whether Mell offered to give Schulter increased say in Fritchey’s state house replacement if he would back Fritchey, whose district is partially in Schulter’s ward. Schulter denied cutting a deal to get another one of his guys a statehouse seat, saying he already has a good state rep, Greg Harris, who represents the other half of hs ward.
State Sen. James DeLeo (D-Chicago) quickly called for the endorsement session, ostensibly to try to winnow a growing field of candidates.
The endorsement session was called when it was because they wanted to do it before the candidate filing period began today. Some wanted to “winnow” the field, but others didn’t.
One thing I will say about (Lt. Gov.) Pat Quinn , from a distance, is, he’s a lousy campaign fundraiser. And that..gives me some sense of respect for him…..former U.S. Atty. Patrick Collins on “Chicago Tonight,” 1-7-09
Area lawmakers said the Illinois House vote to impeach Gov. Rod Blagojevich will have no effect on the state’s plans to move 150 traffic safety jobs to southern Illinois.
Mayor Daley is spitting mad. Furious over Chicago Sun-Times/NBC5 News reports on a clout-heavy deal to buy site of the venerable Chicago Christian Industrial League, relocate the charity’s homeless shelter and replace it with pricey condos. As a tragic consequence, a century-old mission may now go bankrupt at a time when its services are needed most.
I’d argue that taxpayers should be raining down wrath on City Hall instead, but you be the judge.
