Earth to Tribune: There is a Recourse
Blagojevich’s reign follows the certifiably corrupt term of George Ryan. Whenever such failed leaders don’t have the personal dignity to stop pocketing a paycheck from citizens, those citizens shouldn’t have to wait for the next election to declare, “You are serving your interests, not ours. You are dismissed.”
If a Governor is violating the Illinois Constitution or engaged in illegal conduct, there is a such a thing called impeachment. It should be used.
That said, the voters knew virtually everything they do now about the man and reelected him in 2006. We can bemoan that choice, but it was the voters’ choice.
April 1st, 2008 at
Larry,
Give the Trib a little more credit here. Earlier in the editorial they specifically say:
“Illinois should join the 18 states that give frustrated voters—as opposed to lawmakers acting in impeachment proceedings—the power to remove inept politicians from office”
‘Recall’ isn’t about removing the governor for “violating the Illinois Constitution or engaging in illegal conduct.” It’s about removing a governor who, as the Trib puts it, who “can’t, or won’t, do his job.”
Governing by press release, antagonizing the legislature, and obsessively pursuing the same proposals even after they are repeatedly rejected, to the neglect of other critical issues – none of this is illegal. But it is darned good justification for removing someone from office. And, as it stands now, when someone (i.e. Blago) is recklessly stalemating the government like this, voters have no choice but to wait for the next election.
April 1st, 2008 at
Actually, I’d argue that his attempts to subvert the legislator are illegal and impeachable–in fact, I have and suggested the Lege do just that. Obviously, Jones wouldn’t go along.
I’m not a fan of recalls in general because I’m not a fan of using special elections to overturn general elections. Specials are far more easy to manipulate. Impeachment has the added benefit that he couldn’t run again either.
April 1st, 2008 at
Fair enough. My point was simply that, contrary to what your post implies, the Tribune editorial board is aware and undestands the concept of impeachment. Their position is the one that I outlined above: that there needs to be a recourse beyond impeachment to cover instances of gross incompetence that doesn’t include actual law breaking. Bottom line: I’m not exactly the world’s biggest Tribune fan, either, but let’s limit our criticism of them to actual failings, not contrived ones.
In response to your position: why should the Governor be able to get away with either incompetence or corruption just because the one legislator that actually likes him is the President of the Senate? Shouldn’t there be some form of direct accountability to the voters?
April 1st, 2008 at
I’m not a fan of direct accountability mid-term. It tends to divert work from creating some sort of compromise and often results in nothing better.
There are a bunch of reasons, but if we were going to do something like that why wouldn’t we call for all new elections. The situation happens in the reverse a lot in Latin America and where the President can dissolve the assembly. What happens though is that with one branch sticking around, usually the same problems crop up.
I would go for a situation where we call early elections for both the Legislature and the Executive. Keeping an ally like Jones in place while replacing the Governor might not change anything. Calling for all new elections would be far more effective and create a better likelihood someone could govern.
Ultimately though, we are a liberal Democrat and conservative Republican arguing over how to get rid of Rod Blagojevich which is amusing in itself.
April 1st, 2008 at
All good points. How about this idea: if they can’t agree on a budget by May 31, a gubernatorial elections will be held that fall and 4 tops are permanently removed from their leadership posts.
April 1st, 2008 at
I’m pretty good with that. If nothing else they can just override the clown and move on.
April 3rd, 2008 at
Totally agree with Larry. This would be nothing but a recipe for permanent electoral chaos.
People in favor of this always imagine it’s only going to be used against the guys they don’t like. Soon enough they find it’ll be used against the guys they like as well.
Frankly, I’d rather take my lessons in democracy from some other source than the Editorial Board of the Chicago Tribune.
April 3rd, 2008 at
P.S. And while I’m one the subject, this kind of process truly undermines democracy.
It makes in effect the process of holding office a permanent election where those with the means can boot you out at any dip in your popularity.
Politics in Illinois is bad enough. I can’t imagine why we would want to go for the California model.
April 6th, 2008 at
Recall plays into cowardly oppositional funded attempts and to weaselly astroturf every issue that they can gain traction on. I do not want to be approached by an endless line clipboard waving zelots, turning politics into an never ending season. I’m too busy trying to earn a living.
Impeachment brings an established framework with it. So let’s see who’s got the goods and the votes and clean enough in their own lives to bring up impeachment.
April 6th, 2008 at
It’s ‘Temper-tantrum’ democracy. Not good for the long term.
Ugh, Quinn came out for it.