Moves are being made on several fronts in Illinois to remove Rod Blagojevich from office.
First, several legislators are now openly calling for the Governor’s impeachment:
Four Illinois Democratic State representatives sent a letter Thursday afternoon to fellow party members in the statehouse seeking to gauge their desire to impeach Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was arrested Tuesday on corruption charges that include attempting to sell the Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.
Rep. John Fritchey, a co-author of the letter, said he expects near-unanimous support; the letter-writers have asked for responses by noon on Friday.
The four make the case that impeachment is the best option for dealing with the open Senate seat. If Blagojevich isn’t impeached but is stripped of his power to appoint a successor to Obama, a special election could take four to five months and cost up to $50 million.
At the same time, there are two separate moves to remove Blagojevich from power through judicial means by the Attorney General:
CHICAGO — The Illinois attorney general petitioned the State Supreme Court on Friday to remove Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich from office, challenging his fitness to serve after his arrest Tuesday on corruption charges.
Mr. Blagojevich was arrested on charges of conspiracy and soliciting bribes in a case that involved, among other things, accusations that he had sought to put President-elect Barack Obama’s seat in the Senate up for sale.
“I recognize that this is an extraordinary request but these are extraordinary circumstances,” the state attorney general, Lisa Madigan, said at a news conference after filing the petition. At the same time, she urged the State Legislature to move forward with impeachment proceedings.
And another suit on the same grounds by a group of private citizens:
SPRINGFIELD — Frustrated by the lack of direct action on the part of state legislative leadership, two private Illinois citizens said Friday they will be filing a petition before the Illinois Supreme Court to temporarily remove Governor Rod Blagojevich from office.
“Attorney General Lisa Madigan has been bringing up the possibility of removing the governor from office based on Illinois Supreme Court’s Rule 382, which allows the court to move quicker than any other recourse,” petitioner John Bambenek of Champaign told Illinois Review today. “Illinois can’t wait for months for the Governor to step down, we have too many crucial issues before us to wait.”
“The standards for incapacity are very broad. We’re saying he’s unable to fulfill his duty to appoint someone to fill the U.S. Senate seat, since Senate Majority leader Harry Reid refuses to accept his appointment,” Bambenek said. “He’s also unable to function politically, because he’s been caught on tape compromising his office. We’re also stating in the petition that Attorney General Madigan has a potential conflict of interest, as she has stated her own interest in running for governor in the future.”
Copies of the pleadings in the private-citizen suit can be found here.
The vultures are circling.
December 14th, 2008 at 10:05 am
[...] Ann Althouse takes a look at Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s performance before the Supreme Court during the oral argument of her petition to remove Rod Blagojevich from the Governor’s Office. [...]