The Illinois Senate cheers as they vote 59-0 to remove Gov. Rod Blagojevich from office today. (Tribune photo by Abel Uribe)
by Mark Silva
Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
.
There's something soothing in the sound of the former -- when it's applied to someone who formerly had taken the public through a protracted and traumatic tragedy.
Suddenly, with the unanimous impeachment of the Illinois governor, the former charade of parades through television studios invoking the names of Gandhi, Mandela and King ends with the removal from office of a man accused of attempting to sell the former seat of the former junior senator from Illinois, who now happens to be president.
Just as former President Richard Nixon, who had the good sense to resign before facing certain impeachment, faded from public view, it is now Blagojevich's turn. Though he is not likely to pass quietly into that good night of retirement. Indeed, he has called himself "the anti-Nixon,'' the one who wants all of the incriminiating tapes played.
The former governor's problems will take another turn, should the federal prosecutor who accuses the former governor of pay to play schemes that boggled the imagination follow through with indictments.
Like another former political leader who found solace in the clemency of his successor, Blagojevich may even be looking for a pardon some day from Obama, the man whose seat was worth too much to simply give it away, as the tapes would have it.
PS Ruckman Jr., an expert on presidential pardons, has raised the question of when Obama might offer his first pardon. Will it take Obama, as it took Bush, two years to grant his first act of clemency? It took former President Gerald Ford 30 days, and his pardon will never be forgotten -- it was Nixon, the former president, who went free.
For now, all things former must pass, and the relief on the faces of the state legislators who cast their deciding votes today bespeaks how quickly they hope this saga becomes history.
Comments
Now we need the indictment!
The indictment?
Where is that, Pat?
Oh yeah, he asked for a delay.
OK.
I'm still with ya Pat, but what if there is no indictment?
Hey, wouldn't it be like really funny if we like all owed, you know, Blago an apology?
We'll see.
Posted by: C.Morris✈ | January 29, 2009 7:09 PM
I don't watch Blago on T.V.--I don't watch t.v.-it's too sensational. So I don't know what people see when they say he's 'crazy'--what I do know is this:
1. The action today do not vindicate the people who voted to impeach him from the same 'pay to play' political charge.
2. The action today do not implicate Blago in any wrongdoing that's been proven.
3. What has occurred is that the income for a person not yet charged with a criminal complaint has been yanked away from him.
It has a certain circle the wagons feel to it that does not seem like justice--kind of just the appearance of justice.
It seems like McCarthyism round 1002.
Posted by: why no trial of cheney and bush--why blame the bad economy on blago | January 29, 2009 7:14 PM
Wow! Now THAT'S what I call decisive. Blagojevich came down in a perfectly vertical trajectory.
Posted by: John W. | January 29, 2009 7:17 PM
So glad the vote was 59-0 on both matters (removal from office and seeking office in the future) so that B Rod, as I heard Chris Matthews call him, cannot claim even one "fan" in the Illinois legislature. Now my home state can move on and perhaps Blago will eventually end up in jail for his crimes. I do feel sorry for his innocent little girls. They have no role model parents to look up to and raise them properly since Patty has a potty mouth, too, and she seems just as capable as her husband of lying and manipulating for personal gain. There is no one without sin, but this couple does not seem to want to see the truth concerning what they have done, so we can only hope and pray that they eventually repent and seek forgiveness from both man and God.
Posted by: Born in Waukegan | January 29, 2009 7:54 PM
Illinois senate tells Rod Blagojevich to not let the door hit him in the butt on the way out
Personally, I am going to miss this guy. He epitomizes the worst of Democratic politics.
Posted by: The Intellectual Redneck | January 29, 2009 8:04 PM
"3. What has occurred is that the income for a person not yet charged with a criminal complaint has been yanked away from him."
But he was charged in a criminal complaint, though not yet an indictment, by Fitzgerald for offering the Senate seat for sale. Apparently you can impeach someone in Illinois without proving anything criminal.
Posted by: rupert | January 29, 2009 8:14 PM
GOOD riddance to BLAGO, the political THUG. Maybe, he can come to Kentucky and run for political office. He'll fit right in! OsiSpeaks.com
Posted by: KYJurisDoctor | January 29, 2009 8:50 PM
I'd like to thank the legislature of the state of Illinios for voting for the right thing. Blago had no intention that he was workig for anyone but himself. "No Confidence" is what I had for him.
Posted by: lochnessmonster | January 29, 2009 9:02 PM
"What has occurred is that the income for a person not yet charged with a criminal complaint has been yanked away from him.
Posted by: why no trial of cheney and bush--why blame the bad economy on blago
I think we all know a lot of people who have lost their income by being laid off without being accused of committing a crime. This is not McCarthyism; how can you even suggest that?
Posted by: Flo | January 29, 2009 9:26 PM
Glad his is gone. Maybe he will do the right thing, get angry, get even, and start talking about all the other crooks in the Chicago gang and Il. Democrats. Would be so cool. Some of them have to be worried. He was not alone is this major charade.
Posted by: Bubba Porter | January 29, 2009 10:22 PM
but, rupert, SHOULD you do so?
The repugnicans--and that includes fitz and his bosses---are the ones who need a jail cell.
Posted by: what a bogus distraction this is | January 29, 2009 10:31 PM
When's that bearded fellow in the long robe going to start doodling in the dust? Those stones starting to feel heavier ..... and hotter? If Paddy Fitz is such a whiz, what are Cheney, Rove, and Novak doing walking around free, and "Scooter" Libby with just a pinched toe?
Posted by: J.J. Moore | January 30, 2009 12:19 AM
Does anybody really believe that Blagojevich is somehow the "bad guy" in all this? That he's any "worse" than most politicians, appointed officials, and mainstream journalists?
I don't know whether Blagojevich is guilty of the charges brought against him. But this much is clear: he's an easy scapegoat for those who enjoy jumping on the bandwagon, kicking a guy while he's down, and using him as a patsy while pounding their own chests, proclaiming their self-righteousness, and diverting attention away from themselves and their own wrongdoings & shortcomings.
Yet another example of American hypocrisy and lack of accountability at their finest.
Posted by: fuzeme | January 30, 2009 12:56 AM
Notice that this crook got his law degree at Pepperdine University -- a fundamentalist Christian outfit, some of whose other graduates have been involved in the ongoing Dead Sea Scrolls scam. For details, see
http://my.nowpublic.com/culture/did-christian-agenda-lead-biased-dead-sea-scrolls-exhibit-san-diego
Posted by: View from Here | January 30, 2009 1:38 AM
Lesser bubba, So he should be the Jose Canseco of Chicago politics? Not likely.
Posted by: Bubba ✔ | January 30, 2009 1:52 AM
Flo---it was a witch-hunt. Has all the hallmarks. Maybe there will be stuff that sticks if there ever is an indictment! But a person arrested hours after telling Vietnam War financier Bank of America :
1. You got a 350 billion bailout and
2. if you continue locking out the glass workers all state money will be pulled from you.
AND ARRESTED WITH A PREJUDICING PRESS CONFERENCE BY THE PROSECUTOR (WAY OUTTA LINE) AND FBI BUT NO INDICTMENT!!! DO YOU KNOW HOW EASY IT IS TO GET AN INDICTMENT?
So, Flo--you're an Obama campaign worker, right?
Blago apparently ticked off a lot of people. Doesn't mean he's guilty. Shouldn't. Doesn't mean he's not. But this procedure should bother people.
No wonder we torture and commit genocide. Have we lost our minds?
Posted by: work for da machine much? | January 30, 2009 7:00 AM
Hypocrites applauding themselves.
Many of them do exactly the same sort of things RB allegedly did, just on a smaller scale (some on a comparable scale).
Posted by: newjackryan | January 30, 2009 7:54 AM
Couldn't happen to a more deserving guy. And by a unanimous vote at that. Good riddance.
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspirator | January 30, 2009 9:05 AM
Yes, clearly it was a conspiracy to get him. Every single Republican, and Every single Democrat in the State Senate got together in a massive conspiracy with Patrick Fitzgerald to get Blago. They all forced him to say those things on the tapes against his will. Blago is the pure white lamb. Sacrificed by every other single person in Illinois politics. It was the Bank of America, The Templars, the Illuminati, the Tri Lateral Commission, The Skull and Cross bone society and the aliens who live on the dark side of the moon who were calling the shots to get rid of Blago, the innocent, holy, champion of the little people.
Posted by: The fix was in I tell Ya | January 30, 2009 9:18 AM
Still sad because Rod had a lot of talent and political skills.
But he was what the right wingers accused Barack of being: the product of the Chicago old time machine.
Every comparison of Obama with some other politician evokes that play by Pushkin,
"Mozart and Salieri".
You know which one Rod lines up with.
Posted by: ornery | January 30, 2009 9:22 PM