Also Via Rich

That whole abuse of power thingy

As you may already know, last month JCAR blocked a rule change proposed by Governor Blagojevich that would have allowed him to immediately expand the eligibility for government-funded health-insurance programs. Health insurance is the governor’s top priority, and he had previously claimed the right to veto spending from one part of the state budget and spend it on expanding health care, which would be unconstitutional, but that’s another story.

After the committee blocked the rules, Blagojevich ordered his agency directors to proceed as though JCAR actually approved the rule.

The governor then sent his press office out to tell reporters that JCAR was unconstitutional and didn’t have the authority to block his new idea – even though Blagojevich signed that aforementioned law that allowed JCAR to do just that.

The governor’s move caused quite an uproar. His tendency to ignore the Constitution, his stubborn refusal to take “no” for an answer from large bipartisan majorities in the General Assembly, his blatant abuse of his powers to call special legislative sessions (he’s called more than all modern governors combined), and his hypocritical lawsuits against the House speaker over, of all things, constitutional issues, had already rankled legislators to no end.

Blagojevich is Illinois’s Bush. Impeach him, impeach him now.