The Illinois House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to impeach Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich on Friday morning for abusing his power as the state’s chief executive , making him the first governor in Illinois’s history to be impeached and sending his case to the state Senate for trial.
The House deliberated less than an hour and a half before voting 114-1 to oust Governor Blagojevich just one day after a 21-member House investigative committee unanimously recommended impeachment. The only member to vote against impeachment was Milton Patterson, a Democrat from Chicago.
The last governor to be impeached was Evan Meacham of Arizona, who was removed from office in 1988 after serving just 15 months.
That the Governor of Illinois is accused of corruption does not surprise me. That the Illinois Legislature actually did something about it does.
Re #1
Archer,
I was just about to write substantially the same thing. This is uncharted waters for Illinois. I wonder how long it will take them to prepare rules for the trial of the Governor and so on? My guess is that he will be gone by the end of Feb. But that’s only a guess.
A good day for Illinois. ¡Hasta la vista, Blago!
[i] I wonder how long it will take them to prepare rules for the trial of the Governor and so on? [/i]
The trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 26. You could assemble an adequate set of rules in a few days of staff work, drawing on the rules used for impeachment trials in the U.S. Senate and state legislatures. The relevant committee could work through the rules in a day or so and, if the committee did its work right, the Illinois Senate could adopt them after an hour or so of debate.
The big task of the next two weeks will, I suspect, entail getting evidence and legal arguments ready for the trial. The federal prosecutor objects to having his witnesses testify before the legislature now. He has sought court permission to provide redacted wiretap transcripts, but the transcripts standing alone—without testimony to provide context and resolve ambiguities—might not satisfy the burden of proof.
So the impeachment prosecutors must flesh out their additional legal theories: e.g., that Blagojevich unlawfully politicized hiring. For Illinois to remove a governor for politicized hiring will be noteworthy indeed.
Hair today, (legal) gown tomorrow.
or as they might say across the water, will he try to blag his way out of this?
(‘blag’ : British slang for ‘to obtain goods, favor etc by persuasive talk’)
[i] Hair today, (legal) gown tomorrow [/i]
And especially gown when Blago gets new digs and a new suit.
#3. Dear Irenaeus,
In the case of “Blago”, that needs to be: ” ! Hasta luego, Blago ! ” !
Egypt? Let the rest of us know when you get the secession movement going. 🙂
[i] ¡Hasta luego, Blago! [/i] —#8
That does have a better sound.
“¡Hasta la vista, Blago!” [#3] had sought to evoke a line from [i]The Terminator[/i]: “Hasta la vista, baby!”
According to the articles I’ve read, Blagojevich said one of the reasons the House voted to impeach him because he wanted to expand health care benefits to Illinois residents. In that case, is that impeachable offense??? The people of Illinois could use some respite, be it with payday loans for a financial crisis or a new example of political integrity. Controversial governor, Rod Blagojevich, has just been impeached by the Illinois House of Representatives, by a 114 – 1 vote. The Illinois House requires 60 votes in order to successfully impeach an official – a clear majority, also known as quorum – and it is the first time that a governor of the state has been impeached, and one of the few governors of any state to be impeached. The dramatic count against him indicates he couldn’t get approved for anything, even payday loans, at this point. Blagojevich was arrested on suspicion of trying to sell the vacant Senate seat that belonged to Barack Obama. The price he seemed to demand for other political favors is an amount so huge, no amount of payday loans could buy it. If you want to find out more about payday loans, then your judgment is unimpeachable.