[Rhodes22-list] Politics - Blago is Crazy?

[Brad Haslett]

Tomorrow will be interesting after Guv Hot Rod having spent four hours
today with a Mafia lawyer.  Blago isn't crazy, he's driving the
Chi-town pols nuts because he knows where the bodies are buried.  AG
Madigan's attempts to spare her father the trouble of impeaching him
is pretty weak.  I know it's hard to believe that nepotism is involved
here, and Illinois might not get the best and brightest as elected
officials.  A legal view attached.

Brad

-------------------------

Sunday, December 14, 2008
Beldar predicts that Blagojevich won't be impeached until convicted in court

This post may may make some people in Illinois mad at me. I'll have to risk it.

Prof. Ann Althouse is having fun ridiculing Illinois Attorney General
Lisa Madigan's efforts both before the press and before the Illinois
Supreme Court. Madigan is trying to persuade that court to effectively
remove Gov. Rod Blagojevich from office based on an argument that he's
"disabled" due to the allegations that have been made against him in
the pending federal indictment being prosecuted by U.S. Attorney
Patrick Fitzgerald. Earlier, Prof. Althouse wrote: "Given that
'conviction on impeachment' is one of the specified reasons for
inability to serve, using this procedure as an alternative to the
impeachment process looks like an abusive power grab." Prof. Glenn
Reynolds adds: "I agree with Ann Althouse. The way you get rid of a
crooked governor is via impeachment. Why play games here? If the case
is so obvious, that shouldn't take long."

I agree with both Prof. Althouse and Prof. Reynolds. Even though it
would remove the reins of power from the hands of a crook, using the
"disability" provision of the Illinois constitution in lieu of
impeachment would be legally, politically, and intellectually
illegitimate.

But picking up on Prof. Reynold's point about impeachment, the
question about whether Blagojevich is "obviously crooked" becomes
"obvious to whom?" and "under what standard of obviousness?"

That Blagojevich is a banal, petty crook has been "obvious" to anyone
who cared to see such things long before he was indicted and arrested.
Under a practical, common-sense standard, that should have been
obvious to the voters of Illinois who nevertheless elected and then
re-elected him.

But elections have consequences. Among them is the fact that once a
crook is elected, constitutional niceties must be observed to remedy
the situation.

With respect to Gov. Blagojevich's liberty, he's guaranteed all of the
process due under federal law to anyone accused of such crimes, and
Fitzgerald — who wants a conviction that will stand up against any
appeals — will ensure that he gets it. But another consequence of
Blogojevich's election is that the people of Illinois will have to be
punished with him as their governor until political pressure can
induce him to resign, or he's duly impeached and convicted by the
Illinois legislature.

The people of New York elected as their governor a habitual liar and
whore-monger, but he at least had the decency to resign when caught.
The people of Illinois elected someone far worse, and one of the
respects in which he is worse is that when confronted with his crime,
he hasn't had the decency to resign.

To impeach and remove Blagojevich from office, the Illinois
legislature would have to act without benefit of the actual proof of
these allegations which Fitzgerald will use, in due course, in court.
Legislators would have to display the political courage and common
sense to say, in so many words: "Even though these are so far only
alleged crimes rather than crimes proved in court to the satisfaction
of a jury backstopped by trial and appellate courts, we are going to
use the discretion granted us by the Illinois state constitution to
accept a lower, lesser burden of persuasion and proof than do the
federal courts in criminal matters, and we're going to hold Gov.
Blagojevich responsible for these alleged crimes now." They will have
to listen to Blagojevich's fervent, hypocritical pleas that he's
presumed innocent until proven guilty, and then they will have to say
boldly in response: "True, but that's in court, and this isn't a
court. We're already sufficiently convinced that you're guilty."

The political legitimacy of such an impeachment would be, and should
be, subject to close scrutiny — by the voters who will, in due course,
consider whether they wish to re-elect legislators who voted for such
an impeachment. For that is the procedural check on legislatures which
abuse their impeachment powers — a theoretical check, but one
sufficiently effective that their impeachment powers remain very
rarely used, and almost never abused. (That's the realpolitik reason,
and probably the only reason, why Nancy Pelosi hasn't tried to impeach
Dubya, even with Democratic majorities in both the House and the
Senate.)
*******

The ability to discern right and wrong is so uncertain among the
voting public of Illinois, however, that incumbent legislators can
safely figure that they won't be punished at the polls if they join
Blagojevich's pious pleas of "innocent until proven guilty." Indeed,
they may still more fear a backlash (either at the polls or, more
likely, from other corrupt Illinois politicians, of which there will
be no shortage even when Blagojevich is history) from doing the right
thing by voting for legislative impeachment and conviction.

Indeed, the harshest criticism that can be leveled at the people of
Illinois is the old truism that people generally get the government
they deserve. To get a government sufficiently principled that its
legislators will have the courage to impeach and remove an elected
governor who's not yet been convicted in court, the public must first
have voted for honest legislators who act according to principle. I
frankly doubt that enough of those have been elected in Illinois.

Thus, my prediction is that an insufficient number of Illinois state
legislators will have the courage necessary to impeach Blagojevich
before he's convicted in federal court. That's likely to be many
months from now. And that, too, is a consequence of awful electoral
decisions made by the people of Illinois. It's a pathetic, tragicomic
circus, worthy of the ridicule of decent people when viewed from
almost any angle.

Yes, it's terribly unfair to the minority of Illinois citizens who've
been outvoted by peers who preferred the likes of Blagojevich and the
ethically challenged legislators who won't yet impeach him. Those good
people — who number in the millions, but not sufficient millions —
have my sympathy and respect.

But everyone who voted for these clowns is going to be stuck with
them, and they richly deserve the government they've got. For them, I
have no sympathy and no respect.

Posted by Beldar at 03:21 PM in Current Affairs, Law (2008), Politics
(2008) | Permalink