Blagojevich post I found

Peoria Pundit found the blog of a law professor called Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion that has a post that offers a series of go-to links on the whole Blagojevich scandal. Too bad that my Scandal/Impeachment items over at the Sixth Ward wasn't included.

Anyway I saw this other post from Bill Dennis, the blogmaster at Peoria Pundit, who wrote this nice entry back in September of this year. If only we knew back then what would happen almost three or so month later with this governor. That post indicated that an indictment was coming in the near future and sure enough it did although I'm not sure the governor was indicted but he certainly was stopped by Federal authorities. Here's an excerpt:

It’s one thing to be a popular politician facing indictment. It’s quite another to be as reviled as Blogo. There’s no one who’se going to be fighting behind the scenes for leniency or mercy because he did “some good” while in office. George Ryan could point to the death penalty moratorium. What will Balgo point to? All Kids, the health program that he created with a memo and no cash?

Remember though, folks, that there’s little we know about Blago’s ethics and leadership style that we didn’t know two years ago when virtually every Democrat — including those who obviously hated his guts — lined up behind him on election day.

The electorate knew he was a crook with no leadership skills. But a majority of us felt compelled to vote for him because his commercials so successfully portrayed the far more competant and far less corrupt Judy Baar Topinka as a bobble-headed buffoon. That, and he promised us a bigger cut than she did.

A damning indictment of us the voters. I didn't vote for the Governor because I can't be said he offered anything that would be of any use to me. Still it's funny how things turned out since he's been re-elected Governor. He couldn't get along well with those who helped him get re-elected especially Speaker Michael Madigan who chaired the Governor's re-election campaign.

You know this morning I watched this show on Cable Access. Boyse Edwards and Kofi Malik and another familiar face to those of us who might have followed the career of Congressman Jackson, Harold Davis Jr. Recently Mr. Davis has engaged in demonstrations against Rep. Jackson especially in light of his connection in the recent Blagojevich scandal.

Anyway I'm sure that there have been many ideas thrown about as to what happened with this Governor. I rarely have heard anything positive until this morning. The panel especially Malik had said that they believe there was an attempt to pull Blagojevich from power because he simply was uncontrollable and he deviated from standard rules and practices of those who helped him get elected. The effectively believed that he was seeking to get things done not for the elites of Illinois, but for the people.

I can certainly agree that the Governor has proven himself uncontrollable. He turned against those who helped him get elected, especially his own father-in-law for who this turn was exceptionally painful and even worse might have paved away for the moment when the Governor would really find himself on the wrong side of the law. Still in "getting things done" for the people he didn't let committees, legislative defeats or anything else get in the way and of course it's largely proved nothing.

So the question is for bucking what is considered proper business in Illinois, what has the governor actually accomplished. The atmosphere is poison right now and it doesn't look like it will clean up anytime soon until we either the next election or the current Governor resigns.

Also I wonder if law students are enjoying this impeachment intrigue. Both law students, political scientists, or political junkies. It was mentioned on this program I saw that Ed Genson, he represents Gov. Blagojevich, was able to delay for years on continuances the trial of R. Kelly. He could single handedly hold up the impeachment of Governor Blagojevich and surely one can't blow that prospect off-hand. Especially when he has a history.

Until that comes up the impeachment hearings of the Special Investigative Committee is close to wrapping up. They offer their recommendations to a full IL House of Representatives and at that time they can vote to effectively "indict" the Governor on whatever charges they may bring against him. These charges might be regarding his conduct as Governor in addition to what got him arrested earlier this month. "Indicting" the Governor in the House will commence a "trial" in the IL Senate where if the Governor is "convicted" that is when he will be removed from office