As a lifelong Chicagoan, who has watched one politician after another march off to federal prison, I'm certainly disappointed in the accusations against the current governor. I'm concerned that he will be the latest to take that walk of shame. But of course, we don't know whether he will, do we? That will be decided by other people, in a different forum, on some day in the future.
Right now, I'm much more concerned about how we -- our political system, our party, and our community -- has responded to the charges against Gov. Blagojevich. Frankly, I think it's time that we all took a step back and took a breath. Otherwise we walk right into yet another republican-laid trap.
They've been investigating "G-Rod" for 3 years now, and all they've been able to come up is this "emergency" to arrest him, at the exact moment that he was about to name another democratic senator - at the moment that said democratic senator would be necessary to form a potential 60-seat democratic caucus.
He's been accused of a crime. The crime is wire fraud/mail fraud, with the fraud in question consisting of "defrauding the citizens of the state of Blagojevich's honest services." The evidence, to our knowledge, consists of a number of excerpts of tape recordings. We don't know the extent to which those excerpts have been published out of context. We do know that the prosecutor only released those portions of the tapes that were necessary to state the basis for the existence of a crime; the prosecutor need not, in a complaint, show anything that would mitigate against the existence of a crime.
Note also, Blagojevich is not accused of having accepted any bribe. So, we don't know how serious any of the conversations actually were regarding "selling the Senate seat." We are not privy to the entire investigation or any of the actual conversations. Only Blagojevich and Prosecutor Fitzgerald knows what is in the taped conversations.
What we do know, is that without even bothering to get a grand jury indictment, we have solely the word of a Republican US Attorney, appointed by the most corrupt Republican administration in the history of the Republic, that this democratic governor, who was about to appoint a democratic senator, should be stopped from doing so. And now that Fitzergald has made his initial splash, he has conspicuously decided to go back to taking his sweet time about pursuing the criminal case -- if in fact he ever will.
A month has passed. The state of Illinois could have done certain things. The state could have removed the governor from office. To its credit, the General Assembly has not acted rashly. Impeachment, to be sure, is a political act - not a legal one. Nonetheless, to remove a governor from office without evidence of wrongdoing sets a terrible precedent for the future. The pushback against the Clinton impeachment has chilled the waters against future impeachment for truly legitimate reasons (see, Bush, G.W.); a rush to impeach Blago in the heat of the moment, if not popularly opposed, would similarly allow future moves to go through against unpopular governors. The legislature could also have changed the vacancy procedure to require a special election. They did not do so.
The US Senate has now implied that they will take it upon themselves to do what the 177 elected state senators and state representatives of the people of the State of Illinois did not do; de facto remove Blagojevich from office and block his lawful appointment. Why? "Cloud of Suspicion." "Taint." Have we lost our minds?
Rod Blagojevich undeniably burned many political bridges in Illinois, to the point where he has no one left to defend him. "Don't let the door hit you on the way out" seems to be the attitude around here. But does this mean that, just because we don't like the guy, we forget what we stand for as Democrats? We allow ourselves to be pushed around by a republican prosecutor, we allow a democratic Senate seat to go unfilled, we change the rules to favor a possible election of a Republican (by having a special election, rather than gubernatorial appointment), all on the basis that the governor is acting under a so-called "cloud of suspicion?"
Can't we all see how this will be used against us in the future? Heck, can't we all see how it will be used against Al Franken or any other new senator? For that matter, can the republicans declare at any time in the next 4 years that Pres. Obama is under a cloud of suspicion and decide that any decision that he makes is tainted and not to be recognized by Congress?
Meanwhile, how many Senators and Congressmen continued to remain in office despite indictments -- and, most recently in the case of Ted Stevens, even convictions? Why the hypocracy with Blagojevich and the poor sap Burris who got appointed?
Remember, Blago even "graciously" waited a month and gave the legislature time to either remove him from office or to change the law to require a special election. They did neither. Enter Burris, a hapless, competent but uninspiring, retired pol who no one thinks will win a statewide primary in 2010. To have 59 senators supporting Obama's agenda, they must actually be in the Senate chamber, not just theoretical. Illinois is entitled to have both of its Senators. Someone has to put a second senator in Washington for Illinois, and I've yet to be shown any alternative to the sitting governor.
Blagojevich may yet be convicted. If he is, so be it. Let him serve his time. If the General Assembly finds evidence of wrongdoing on its own, they may remove him from office. But to freeze him in place and invalidate his actions solely on the basis of an accusation by a prosecutor is just plain unDemocratic and sets a horrible precedent that we will live to regret.