Jan 08 2009
Impeach Him Already, Or Let it Die
The committee of the Illinois house which is considering the impeachment of Gov. Rod Blagojevich seems more obsessed with hearing what evidence federal prosecutors have in regards to allegations of federal corruption, then in determining how the governor may have acted in malfeasance of his duties as a representative of the state of Illinois.
While I am certain, that the effort of lawmakers is to it ascertain every possible charge that can be made against the governor before referring the matter to the full House to vote on impeachment, the people of Illinois and the United States are becoming weary of the process, which seems to be dragging on and on.
Though there is no doubt, lawmakers would prefer to charge the governor with every thing he is guilty of. There is no question that there is sufficient evidence based on court decisions already made to show that the governor has acted contrary to the will of the general assembly and the laws of the state of Illinois.
While many Illinois and look forward to the day. When Patrick Fitzgerald will charge and convict the governor on the federal corruption charges, many of us simply would like to see the man removed from office before he can do any additional damage to the state of Illinois. At a time when Illinois should be proud, and in the national spotlight as the home of the President-elect, we are instead embroiled in the mess with this man who cannot understand that be elected governor does not mean he makes the law in Illinois exclusively.
Even for a political junkie, tireless semantics of the Illinois General Assembly have gotten old. The simple truth is that Illinois politicians are still trying to make political hay out of the federal investigation rather than taking the bold step of actually charging the man with his failure to serve the people of Illinois. I’m certain part of this failure lies in the fact that the governor is an old-boy, Chicago politician.
Clearly, his failure to conduct state business in the state capital is at best questionable and borderline illegal. His insistence on creating a new form of welfare state, via state subsidized health care insurance for all the kids, despite the program’s lack of funding has already been deemed by an Illinois court to be illegal. If the General Assembly and federal investigators cannot agree to allow federal investigations to be part of the impeachment proceedings, it seems that the governor’s actions with the All Kids Program ought to be enough on its own merit to call for the impeachment.
Last week, I was promised by the news media and anonymous sources on the committee that the House would vote for impeachment by Thursday. Now it’s Thursday, and the sources say it might happen before the end of the week.
The simple truth is, we the people of Illinois are tired of waiting. Impeach him or not, but in the crudest parlance available it truly is time for the General Assembly to shit or get off the pot.
Could it be that both the Impeachment process and the Federal Investigation were both done a little hasty?
The Feds may have pulled the plug on the investigation a little too soon. The Feds should have let Blago continue to play his hand, right down to accepting a bribe for the appointment. The Feds could have waited until the suitcase full of cash showed up with Blago, and also could have waited until Blago made the subsequent appointment as the return favor-payoff. Then they would have gotten a two for one type deal. The Feds would have landed a crooked governor and a crooked politician. Now we are left to wonder about who may have been more than willing to pay for the Senate seat. All these wild accusations would have been founded by the evidence and Blago for his part would have been caught red-handed and without a defense.
Blago would have been stripped immediately in the face of insurmountable evidence. Remember when Mayor Barry got caught smoking crack with the prostitute? He was left without a defense, much in the same way Blago would have been.
Imagine CNN playing the tape over and over again showing Blago with the suitcase full of money. What would he have said then?