Archive for January 29th, 2009
January 29th, 2009
Incredibly, although I don’t know why it surprises me, Rod Blagojevich allowed a New York Times crew to be with him during his last day as governor. He left office still blaming his troubles on everyone else and justifying everything he did. He even said he wasn’t greedy enough! This is from the Times piece:
“We should have been more selfish, not selfless,” he said. “It sounds probably perverse for me to say that based on what some people are saying about me. But it’s true. My family, we didn’t take advantage of all these things that people do. My successor has done a whole bunch as the lieutenant governor — taken all kinds of trips all over the world and trade missions — like he’s got anything to do with anything as lieutenant governor.”
Here’s the whole story on nytimes.com
January 29th, 2009
Scott Richert of Chronicles Magazine informs me that Pat Quinn wrote an op-ed piece for the magazine back in 1994 in which he advocated term limits. I did not remember that, but it would be interesting to know whether Quinn still backs term limits.
Quinn, while in law school in 1980, was the author of the legislative cutback amendment which reduced the size of the state House. He has also been a longtime proponent of giving voters the power to recall their elected officials, from alderman up to governor.
He did reiterate that recall position Thursday night, when asked about it at his first presser.
One thing that will change: The governor will meet regularly with the other four, statewide elected officials. Indeed, he said he’s already been doing that. Blago was famous for not talking to his fellow officials.
Quinn also said that while he supports a capital projects plan, he doesn’t want a traditional “1956″ plan. Rather, he wants to use infrastructure money to build “green” projects, including eco and tech -friendly roads that feature greenways on the margins where fibre optic cables can be buried.
January 29th, 2009
Wikipedia entry on Rod R Blagojvech reflects his removal from office. See it here:
January 29th, 2009
The state of Illinois’ website is now scrubbed of Blagojevich! See it here
January 29th, 2009
What a circus! I came into the Capitol Building Thursday morning at 8:30 and Rod Blagojevich was governor. I left around 6:30 p.m. and Pat Quinn was governor. What a state!
Seriously, Thursday’s wrap-up of the impeachment trial was an exercise in good government. As State Sen. James MEeks of Chicago pointed out, in this country we don’t form armed militias and throw bombs to remove rotten leaders, we use the constitutional process. Or, as he more colorfully put it, “We’ve got this thing, impeachment, and it’s worth bleeping gold.”
Senators looked at the evidence carefully, and they were frustrated that Blagojevich ignored the process until the last day, when he waltzed into the building via a side door, then gave an in-your-face lecture to senators, telling them they wouldn’t let him present witnesses, like Harry Reid, Rahm Emmanuel, Dick Durbin. He clearly could have brought witnesses while complying with U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s restrictions. As one senator pointed out later, if he didn’t do anything wrong, as he contended, why not bring his brother Robert into the chamber, where he could rebut his own words and those of the ex-gov, captured on FBI tape?
Clearly, the 59-0 vote sent a strong message that Illinois is fed up with Rod Blagjojevich.
“I wish him well in his criminal trial,” said Senate President John Cullerton.
