Ex Governor Blagojevich Convicted (Impeachment Is Bleeping Golden)
Former Governor Rod Blagojevich (how nice does that sound) has been convicted and removed from office by the Illinois legislature. In an political environment marked by partisan divisions, Blago managed to bring all parties together as the Senate voted 59-0 to convict, following up on a House vote of 114-1-1 to impeach.
The one member who voted no on impeachment said he thought Blago was probably guility but wanted more time for the process, the one who voted present had lost re-election so didn’t want to vote on those grounds.
This means the overall vote was 173-1 with 1 not voting (or 99.4% against the ex-Guv and just 0.6% in favor).Even Richard Nixon was expected to get maybe 10-15% of the vote had his case gone through the impeachment process. The last Governor impeached was Arizona Governor Evan Mecham in 1987 and he managed to get about 20-25% of the votes.
The Senate has now also voted 59-0 to disqualify him from ever holding office in Illinois again, so there goes his comeback bid.
Lt Governor Quinn is sworn in as his successor (the 2nd succession in less than year thanks to corruption).
An amazing bit of political theater comes to an end.
Thanks to State Senator James Meeks for the signature line of the process
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2 Responses to “Ex Governor Blagojevich Convicted (Impeachment Is Bleeping Golden)”
I'm not saying he didn't richly deserve what he got, and I'm not saying that I wasn't sick of seeing his face plastered all over the media, but I do believe that he is an extreme example of the “Pay to Play” political culture that is only too pervasive in our nation's governing bodies. He was trying to tell us that as he was run out on a rail, and unfortunately,
I've become cynical enough to believe that almost any politician can be brought down once they are targeted by our justice system.
[...] Ex Governor Blagojevich Convicted (Impeachment Is Bleeping Golden) (themoderatevoice.com) – January 29, 2009Former Governor Rod Blagojevich (how nice does that sound) has been convicted and removed from office by the Illinois legislature. In an political environment marked by partisan divisions, Blago manag… [...]