That’s Right Nate

Pat Quinn is now free to begin work on his own scandals.

Today, in a unanimous vote along party lines, Illinois’ Senate voted to impeach Governor Rod Blagojevich and wasted no time swearing in Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn to start his own scandal plagued tenure as the state’s governor.  While no date has been scheduled for Quinn’s own impeachment hearings, the odds of an Illinois Governor enjoying a quiet retirement are basically the same as those of a Philadelphia crime boss.  Blagojevich still has a lengthy legal process to look forward to followed by possible prison time trying to avoid getting shivved by former Illinois Governor George Ryan who looked poised for a Bush pardon before Blagojevich brought the governorship back into the news.

The real tragedy is the end of Blagojevich’s once promising political career.  Like South Africa’s Nelson Mandella and India’s Mo Ghandi, Blago was a man of vision.  Blagojevich made an impassioned plea to the senate to ” “Think about the dangerous precedent of removing me without any proof of wrongdoing,” but the senators appeared to have their minds made up possibly by all the recordings of him Blagojevich demanding bribes from children’s hospitals and the like.

Blagojevich was also singled out for some odd statement he made such as naming Oprah Winfrey to fill Obama’s senate seat, a seat that she would be as qualified for as a bus driver would be to run a school system.  Chicago’s own Mayor Daley called Blagojevich crazy for that one.

“The ordeal is over,” Quinn said. “The citizens of Illinois can be extremely proud of our elected representatives … who carried out their responsibility with serious purpose.  I have not engaged in any illegal activity and I welcome any investigation of corruption during my time as governor.  I am looking forward to the facts finally coming out.”

It is kind of ironic that I post today in support of a Liberal Democrat  Governor considering I’m obviously a Conservative Republican.  Frankly, though Rob Blagojevich has never struck me as a real liberal.  Sure, he made life very difficult for businesses doing business in the state by imposing unreasonable taxes that made a lot of businesses leave the state, but he really hadn’t accomplished much as a governor–certainly no liberal agenda.  It wasn’t unusual for the Democrat controlled state senate to vote against Blago unanimously.  They did it over budgets and in September they did it when the governor opposed ethics legislation because he thought “it wasn’t tough enough.”  One of his first political enemies as governor was his own father-in-law alderman Dick Mell.

Blagojevich is above all a capitalist.  He was in a position to name Barrack Obama’s vacant Senate seat and he tried to sell that seat for a better job or for a big wad of cash.  This isn’t really any difference than coming into possession of a rare baseball card and putting it for sale on Ebay.  Of course he wanted top dollar.  Who wouldn’t?   I just wish he had advertised a bit more.  I think I could have raised a half million dollars myself which appeared to be the going rate.  I think I would make a great Senator.

Blagojevich was also accused of shaking down Children’s Memorial Hospital by witholding $8,000,000 when they were late on a campaign contribution.  I’m sorry, I support children’s hospitals as much as the next person, but you’ve got to pay to play.  He’s also accused of holding up a deal that would have given the Chicago Tribune $100,000,000 for Wrigley Field unless they fired a large part of their electorial board.

Blago is the fifth Illinois governor to face criminal charges following in the footsteps of George Ryan, Otto Kerner, Dan Walker, and Len Small which just goes to show you how rough our state is on corrupt politicians.   The real shame though is that Blago hoped to use this to rehabilitate his image in Illinois for a 2016 White House run.  Those hopes seem seriously damaged by this latest revelation.   Even with time off for good behavior you have to figure the 2016 campaign will be starting by 2014 and he likely will be in prison then.

I must say any optimism I had for Obama was crushed by the allegations that have come out of these charges.  I had hoped that coming out of Chicago, Obama knew how to play ball.  He did apparently make his personal choice for his replacement known, but Blagojevich said though he knew that the President-elect wanted Senate Candidate 1 for the open seat but “they’re not willing to give me anything except appreciation. [Expletive] them.”  That kind of attitude will not serve Obama very well in Washington.