Call It A Comeback
But the Governor going into work bright and early in the morning is a pretty big change in behavior. The national press treats it as odd because it seems to them to be an every day occurrence. Not so much–it’s a pretty rare occurrence. No jogging, no golf….
From SEIU
Washington, DC—In a letter sent today by all 50 members of the Senate Democratic Caucus, Senate Democrats called on Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to step down as Governor of Illinois and under no circumstance make an appointment to fill the vacant Illinois Senate seat. Below is the full text of the letter (PDF):
December 10, 2008
Dear Governor Blagojevich:
We write to insist that you step down as Governor of Illinois and under no circumstance make an appointment to fill the vacant Illinois Senate seat. In light of your arrest yesterday on alleged federal corruption charges related to that Senate seat, any appointment by you would raise serious questions.
It is within the authority of the Illinois legislature to remove your power to make this appointment by providing for a special election. But a decision by you to resign or to step aside under Article V of the Illinois Constitution would be the most expeditious way for a new Senator to be chosen and seated in a manner that would earn the confidence of the people of Illinois and all Americans. We consider it imperative that a new senator be seated as soon as possible so that Illinois is fully represented in the Senate as the important work of the 111th Congress moves forward.
Please understand that should you decide to ignore the request of the Senate Democratic Caucus and make an appointment we would be forced to exercise our Constitutional authority under Article I, Section 5, to determine whether such a person should be seated.
We do not prejudge the outcome of the criminal charges against you or question your constitutional right to contest those charges. But for the good of the Senate and our nation, we implore you to refrain from making an appointment to the Senate.
Sincerely,
Sen. Reid
Sen. Durbin
Sen. Schumer
Sen. Murray
Sen. Akaka
Sen. Baucus
Sen. Bayh
Sen. Biden
Sen. Bingaman
Sen. Boxer
Sen. Brown
Sen. Byrd
Sen. Cantwell
Sen. Cardin
Sen. Carper
Sen. Casey
Sen. Clinton
Sen. Dodd
Sen. Dorgan
Sen. Feingold
Sen. Feinstein
Sen. Harkin
Sen. Inouye
Sen. Johnson
Sen. Kennedy
Sen. Kerry
Sen. Klobuchar
Sen. Kohl
Sen. Landrieu
Sen. Lautenberg
Sen. Leahy
Sen. Levin
Sen. Lieberman
Sen. Lincoln
Sen. McCaskill
Sen. Menendez
Sen. Mikulski
Sen. Bill Nelson
Sen. Pryor
Sen. Reed
Sen. Rockefeller
Sen. Salazar
Sen. Sanders
Sen. Stabenow
Sen. Tester
Sen. Whitehouse
Sen. Wyden
Under legislative rules and the Illinois Constitution, the House can convene in a committee of the whole and move to a fairly fast vote, or first hold a separate committee hearing, Mr. Fritchey said. If a majority of the House votes to impeach, the matter then moves to the Senate, which could remove the governor if a supermajority of at least 37 of the 59 senators so vote.
Convene. Quorum call if necessary. Move to a Committee of the Whole (this may be redundant–not sure on the rule for convening such a session). Second. Vote. Move to introduce criminal complaint as fact. Second. Vote.
Move to impeach the Governor for malfeasance as specified in the complaint. Second. Vote.
Adjourn.
His Facebook updates are hysterical with constant updates about the most recent interviews–Rich has this:
* Democratic Rep. John Fritchey is trying to take the lead…
A leading member of the Illinois General Assembly says he’ll begin immediate impeachment proceedings against Rod Blagojevich if the governor doesn’t quit first. […]
Mr. Fritchey said he already has phoned House Speaker Michael Madigan about moving an impeachment bill.
Trouble is, Madigan hasn’t returned Fritchey’s call, which Fritchey said he made yesterday morning. What the heck?
Illinois has, according to Fitzgerald, been subjected to a “political corruption crime spree.”
It’s time for that crime spree to end.
The Illinois House needs to convene as soon as possible and begin impeachment proceedings. Fitzgerald’s criminal complaint has basically given the General Assembly a 78-page road map.
We’re not talking a lot of hearsay. Much of Fitzgerald’s criminal complaint is composed of the governor’s own words caught on federal surveillance tapes.
All the House has to do is stipulate that Blagojevich’s words caught on tape are facts and then vote on whether that should be an impeachable offense.
For instance, the governor is quoted as saying this about Obama’s people refusing to go along with a quid pro quo for the Senate seat appointment: “They’re not willing to give me anything except appreciation. F – – – them.”
Here’s our governor talking about using the Senate appointment for financial gain: “[T]he immediate challenge [is] how do we take some of the financial pressure off of our family.”
The governor sure has a way with words: “I’ve got this thing and it’s f – – – – – – golden and, uh, uh, I’m just not giving it up for f – – – – – -nothing. I’m not gonna do it.”
Blagojevich also was caught talking about using $8 million in state pediatric funding to extract a $50,000 campaign contribution from Children’s Memorial Hospital: “I’m going to do $8 million for them. I want to get [Hospital Executive 1] for 50.”
There’s more, but you’ve probably already read most of the quotes yourself.
The Illinois Constitution’s guidelines for impeachment are pretty bare-bones. Impeachment requires just a majority vote in the House. There’s no “high crimes and misdemeanors” language as in the U.S. Constitution.
After the House votes to impeach, a two-thirds vote in the Senate is all that’s needed to remove Blagojevich from office.
And then he’d be gone. Forever.
I’ve been calling for his impeachment for over one year. I get why the delay was made, but we now have direct evidence of Rod Blagojevich having a firesale for the State of Illinois and it’s resources. Two big votes, with a few procedural votes setting them up and this is all over with.
There’s an additional factor to consider. Historically, impeachment was used by Parliament as a way to curb the abuses of the king’s appointed officials. The entire idea was that abuses of power should be curbed by a body not accountable to the king, but also one that is not hamstrung in its ability to curb abuse by the niceties of criminal law. In this case, we have a public official who is clearly ready to abuse his power in a very vile manner — if the tapes are accurate and not wildly out of context, Blagojevich was ready to sell the office of US Senator. The legislature has the duty, I would argue, to step in and stop this abuse of power from happening. That means, as Archpundit has argued in several posts, that they must put speed above all. Every moment they delay, they risk the Governor abusing his appointment power. Blagojevich will get all the due process to which he is entitled during the criminal trial. But we the people need protection now, even if that means that Blagojevich loses his job. Impeach him, and do it now.
Look, he’s trying to sell the damn state off piece by piece for himself. Allowing this to drag out only gives him more chances. Trying to deal with this because of some precedent it might start ignores that the reason we need to do it is because this assclown has broken all precedents of corruption. In wiretaps that existed for one and one-half month he has been caught trying to sell just about anything the State of Illinois can offer anyone.
Not surprising, but let’s see if it is confirmed.
The discussion was disturbing on Rod’s end, but we don’t know of how the discussion took place with the Jackson camp so we have no idea if they in fact proposed pay to play or just made the usual horse trading sort of wink and nod. Either way, Jackson, while safe in his seat, won’t be a viable candidate for a special election.
ArchPundit