impeach Blago

(en route to Georgia for the holidays) The effort to impeach Gov. Blagojevich seems to have stalled, on the ground that the legislature cannot find him guilty of corruption without a lengthy trial–complete with an elaborate defense–that might undermine the federal prosecution.

I’d make this simpler. I’d move to impeach and remove Gov. Blagojevich without presuming or showing that he’s guilty of the charges in the indictment. I’d impeach him because he’s been indicted and he cannot perform the state’s business in that condition. A governor could be falsely indicted–he could be completely innocent. However, if the indictment concerns a felony that relates to his position, he should probably resign to concentrate on fighting the charges and to save the state from being led by a criminal defendant. That might not be the best decision in every conceivable situation–for instance, a prosecutor might bring transparently baseless felony charges just to force a resignation. But it seems within the competence of the legislature to decide that this particular indictment is plausible and that Blagejovich cannot serve. That sounds like grounds for impeachment to me, and it should take just a couple of hours to do the deed.

Two obvious objections arise. (1) The impeachment could deprive an innocent man of his rights. I reply: No one has a right to be governor. That is a privilege. One should only hold the office if doing so is good for the people of the state. Even if Blagojevich is innocent, it is not good for Illinois for him to serve. (2) A politically motivated legislature could remove a governor simply because they didn’t like him. I reply: that would be wrong, and the people should punish such a legislature at the next election. But it’s not the situation here. The legislature deeply disliked Blagojevich months ago, but they didn’t think about impeaching him. They should impeach him now because any person indicted for felonies that directly relate to his public duties cannot credibly perform those duties. It’s time to get this over with.

(By the way, Kenneth Starr never indicted Bill Clinton.)

One thought on “impeach Blago

  1. steve@TouchySubjects

    It has been argued to me that the Guv. has not been indicted for trying to sell the Senate seat. The only issues that Fitzgerald mentioned in his indictment has been related to the Wrigley Field deal and something else, I remember not.

    I am suspicious of the case made against the Guv. It seems more of it has been a PR campaign than what is right.

    I am not aware of the details as well as I should be or could be to comment on this issue. But, it seems the Ill. legislature will have a hard time impeaching him because they have no real evidence that he has done a serious crime.

    I suspect that, as it has been suggested, the Guv. was set up so he would back off on the actions he was doing to support a worker’s strike, as he was potentially causing the Bank of America serious money losses, and possibly, just to start tarnishing Obama’s political pedigree a bit more.

    Like you, if the Guv. has been accused of some feloney related to the performance of his duties, then it would be best if he resigned. However, if his problems are not related to something that he has done criminally, then, he should fight it out as he has said he will be doing.

    I do not think that politicians should fold up their tents when someone is able to mount a nasty PR campaign about them. He should not give up if only they’ve caused him to have a bad name.

    You said this,

    “Even if Blagojevich is innocent, it is not good for Illinois for him to serve.”

    Is it not good for Ill. because we shouldn’t have Guvs that few people like? Or is the appearence of impropriety enough for impeachment? Are you saying all we really need to get rid of a politician is smoke. We really don’t need any fire?

    I have to disagree with what you are saying if you mean that smoke in the air is enough.

    Do you know why the legislature did not like this Guv? I am not aware of what those issues were. I have understood that his public popularity has been low for months too, not just with other politicians.

    I have wondered whether the guy slept his way to where he’s at.

    However, even if he was elected by a fluke of luck, and he has been lazy about building his base, the mere appearence of smoke should not be enough.

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