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One Month Estimate By Quinn

ArchPundit December 15, 2008 No Comments

Obviously impeachment is a delicate matter for the legislative branch and I think Quinn should be cautious on this issue, but one month is more than enough time when we have situation like this present.

Via Rich

And those who think he might step down?  Sure, it could happen because none of us know the inner ‘workings’ of Rod Blagojevich’s mind. However, it’s always worked well to choose the most preposterous course of action and assume he’ll do that.  You’ll be wrong some of the time, but not most of the time.

And Your Bad Timing Award Goes To

ArchPundit December 15, 2008 No Comments

George Ryan.  What is he thinking?

Sociopath

ArchPundit December 15, 2008 No Comments

NYT:

In 1996, John Fritchey, a Democrat who shared a campaign office with Mr. Blagojevich, was told that his stepfather had suffered a serious stroke. He walked over to Mr. Blagojevich, who was making fund-raising calls, and shared the news.

“He proceeded to tell me that he was sorry, and then, in the next breath, he asked me if I could talk to my family about contributing money to his campaign,” recalled Mr. Fritchey, now a state representative and a critic of the governor. “To do that, and in such a nonchalant manner, didn’t strike me as something a normal person would do.”

Deep Thought

ArchPundit December 15, 2008 No Comments

Because nobody has seemed to say it yet.

Is he rocking the system or what?

McCarron on Blagojevich

ArchPundit December 15, 2008 No Comments

Brings up the napalm bit:

Consider two paragraphs from a column I wrote in 2002:

“After winning his congressional seat in 1996, Blagojevich needed an issue hot enough to burn though the obscurity that envelops freshmen of the minority party. As fast as you could say ‘napalm,’ Blagojevich staged a press conference on an overpass above a South Side rail yard, where he warned that the U.S. Navy was about to ship surplus quantities of the jellied gasoline through Chicago to an Indiana disposal company.

“You would have thought the stuff was unshielded plutonium, not a compound so stable it has to be simultaneously sprayed and ignited to do its ghastly thing. Cooler heads pointed out that far more dangerous substances traverse Chicago daily by rail and semitrailer. But never mind. The Navy canceled the shipments, and Blago looked like a hero.”

The guy went on to pull phony stunt after phony stunt. There was his “no-new-taxes” pledge as the state budget plunged deeper into the red; his nonsense declarations about selling off state office buildings and the state lottery; his loudly declared, but largely unfunded, new health-insurance programs and day-care services for kids; and, of course, his free CTA rides for seniors. Whoopee!

Napalm is safer to transport than gasoline–it’s jellied gasoline so if it does spill, it is far more contained.  This was the first big public event to suggest Rod wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer.  That said, many thought if he surrounded himself with reasonably intelligent folks, he’d be fine. We’ve seen how that works out nationally and locally though give it to Bush, he’s not as dumb as Blagojevich.

How This Is Different

ArchPundit December 15, 2008 No Comments

We are in a situation where we are leaving state government business in the hands of a man who has caught on tape talking about extorting the Tribune and a hospital for donations to receive state benefits. This isn’t a case of an event in the past, but ongoing efforts to provide bribes for personal benefit.  The Senate seat is an issue, but frankly it’s a far weaker case.

There is an immediate reason to impeach and convict the man because he is in a desperate position and may well continue to auction off state benefits. Hell, he’s even showing up to work every day now–who knows what kind of damage he can do with a full day on his hands.

The response by the Lege is similar to a response one would have with a specific incident that may be impeachable, but is not imminent.  In this particular case, further damages to the State of Illinois are very real possibilities.

Impeachment is Political Not Legal

ArchPundit December 15, 2008 No Comments

The most frustrating thing about the entire discussion over whether Blagojevich can be impeached is the mistaken notion by many that impeachment has some legal standards attached to it like criminial law.  However, the very document giving the power of impeachment to the Legislature points out that impeachment cannot punish anyone beyond removal from office and barring someone from office in the future. That’s it.

Other than that, the requirements are just as President Ford said,

“The only honest answer is that an impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers to be at a given moment in history; conviction results from whatever offense or offenses two-thirds of the other body [the Senate] considers to be sufficiently serious to require removal of the accused from office.”

And the Illinois language is looser than the federal language.

To fully understand the idea of impeachment, one has to understand the Constitution in it’s original form. Vice-Presidents weren’t elected with the President as a team, they were the runner-up essentially to the winner.  Thus, impeachment was a far more political process to the founders.  As Vasyl pointed out the other day:

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.

The Lege can finish this up by tomorrow if they want. If they want to be deliberative, take the whole week.  But get it done.

I’m Trying to Avoid the I Told You Sos

ArchPundit December 12, 2008 No Comments

But the Tribune’s Editorial calling for Blagojevich’s impeachment is one year late.  Certainly John McCormick deserves credit and support for his withering attacks on Blagojevich as does Bruce Dold and the rest of the crew.  That said, they went for the false promise of a recall election that even if passed could not take place for another 9 – 12 months realistically.

There’s a point to impeachment and that is when the executive abuses it’s power, the legislature, being the voice of the people, may remove the executive at it’s will.  It’s not a legal process as I’ve made the point repeatedly, it’s a political process.  If the Lege Members remove an executive wrongly, they pay the electoral consequences.  However, the sovereignty of the State of Illinois lies in the Legislature and they have the very power that the Trib Editorial Board crusaded for without any changes to the Constitution. The cause for impeachment was met when Blagojevich repeatedly ignored the separation of power for the umpteenth time, but the enthusiasm did not occur until Tuesday when the level of the Governor’s corruption was made clear by Patrick Fitzgerald and his team and the FBI.

That we had to wait for Fitzgerald to move only shows the timidity of our press and our politicians, however.  A man who will disregard the Constitution of the State of Illinois will certainly disregard the law–in fact, by definition that politician already has.  It’s not something to ignore when politicians do that, it’s something to act upon and not simply with a call for a ‘reform,’ but with an action of removal that the Constitution already provides.

While I criticize the Trib’s late arrival at the conclusion impeachment should occur and occur fast, the House of Representatives isn’t even at that point yet.  Every day that man stays in power doesn’t tell is anything else about him, but it says a hell of a lot about of government.

Fritchey On Maddow

ArchPundit December 12, 2008 No Comments

If you caught the earlier part of the show, Maddow really summed up in a quite funny fashion the history of Rod Blagojevich. Maddow found it sad. I found it funny because the sadness of it lost any affect so many years ago.

All that said, other than a fading voice, Fritchey is doing the state proud in a very bad time.

That Only One Guy Is Saying It Is Part of the Problem Why Impeachment Is So Slow

ArchPundit December 12, 2008 No Comments

Way to go Kwame:

In a rare firsthand account of how Mr. Blagojevich, a two-term Democrat, went about the selection process, an Illinois state senator said in an interview that he had felt pressured to respond to the governor’s interest in him with a quid pro quo agreement and has withdrawn his name because of increasing wariness about the process.

The state senator, Kwame Raoul, who represents the South Side of Chicago, offered few details of his interaction with the governor’s office but said he received a call about a month ago confirming that he was under consideration. Soon afterward, however, Mr. Raoul said he ran head-on into another message: that the governor was looking for a candidate who offered something of tangible value to him.

“It was open knowledge among people in and around Springfield,” Mr. Raoul said. “Legislators and lobbyists alike openly talked about the fact that the governor would want to appoint somebody who would benefit him. I can firmly say that I’ve had these conversations, that I’ve spoken with both legislators and lobbyists who felt that that would be the consideration in his appointment.”

Mr. Raoul would not specifically say what the content of the conversations were, or whom they were with, except that the initial inquiry from the governor’s office was made by Victor Roberson, deputy director for intergovernmental affairs. Interest in his candidacy died on both sides, Mr. Raoul said, adding, “Obviously, the perception was that I didn’t have anything to give other than my service.”

I don’t think most of us were cynical enought to realize how craven Blagojevich was is, but these discussions were taking place about his way of operating in late 2005 and early 2006.  Kwame only took office in 2005.  He’s just delivering the message many of us thought we were delivering then.  Maybe we weren’t clear enough–I certainly thought I was at the time and I know others were.  The degree is surprising now that we see the transcripts, but state legislators, press, and even lobbyists have pointed out what was happening.

UPDATE:  Rich has more and I apparently read the article incorrectly in state of coughing fits.  But essentially Kwame is saying that everyone knew Blagojevich wanted political benefit and that was commonly known.