Illinois House Impeaches Blagojevich
In what comes as a surprise to exactly no one, the Illinois House impeached Governor Rod Blagojevich on Friday. The Senate will now decide whether to push the matter through; it is up to the Senate to decide whether Blagojevich will indeed be forced to step down. He became the first Illinois governor in history to be impeached, which tells us little about his predecessors’ corruption and more about their ability to protect themselves politically.
Only one member of the House voted against impeachment. The 114 other members voted for it. “It’s our duty to clean up the mess and stop the freak show that’s become Illinois government,” said Rep. Jack D. Franks, a Democrat.
The 59-member Senate will convene next week about the matter and is expected to establish the procedures for the trial again Blagojevich. 40 votes are required to convict.
Blagojevich himself made clear meanwhile that he does not plan to step down voluntarily ”Let me simply say I feel like the old Alan Sillitoe short story ‘The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner,’ ” he said. “And that’s what this is by the way, a long-distance run.”
There is little doubt about the final results; Blagojevich will almost certainly be convicted and forced to step down somewhere in February. It will be interesting to see, however, whether the governor will be able to convince some senators to support him and, if so, who. One also wonders whether Blago will talk to the Feds at the moment all his fellow Illinois politicians turn against him; considering the high level of corruption in Illinois, it is quite reasonable to expect him to have dirt on several others.
This website uses IntenseDebate comments, but they are not currently loaded because either your browser doesn't support JavaScript, or they didn't load fast enough.
Comments are closed.
PoliGazette Comments Policy
PoliGazette encourages comments from all viewpoints, especially those that disagree.
Comments submitted must, however, adhere to the following standards. Comments that violate
these standards may be edited or deleted without notice at the sole discretion of the editors.
Commenters who repeatedly or egregiously violate these standards or who attempt to argue
publicly with editors regarding the comments policy may be banned from commenting further.
(1) Comments should address the substantive content of the post. Comments that repeatedly
or blatantly misrepresent the content of the post or of others' comments are not welcome. Comments that
respond to something other than which the contributor or commenter may have said are irrelevant and should
not be posted.
(2) Comments should avoid vulgarity as well as racial, ethnic, religious, or sexual bigotry.
(3) Comments should not personally attack the character, personal integrity, or professional
reputation of any PoliGazette contributor or of other commenters.
(4) Comments should reflect the contributions of the commenters themselves and should not
include extensive cut-and-paste reproductions of others' words except insofar as necessary to supplement
the commenter's own arguments. Link spam, trackback spam, and propaganda spam will be instantly deleted.
(5) Public figures are considered open to all substantive criticism of their policies and statements.
Comments that present objectively false factual information about public figures (i.e. "Obama is a Muslim") or
that attack public figures by attacking their families are not welcome. Comments that merely repeat
slogans for or against a candidate without engaging in substantive comment are not welcome.
Questions or challenges to these policies or their application should be directed to the editors
by email only.
