Politics As Usual No More

I hope today signals that the era of politics as usual has ended.

• In Illinois, not a single member of the Illinois state senate voted against removing Gov. Rod Blagojevich from office — even though Blagojevich made a lengthy speech defending himself.
  
  Moments later, the state senate took it a step further, voting unanimously to prevent Blagojevich from ever holding political office in Illinois again. If he's going to practice his smarmy style of politics in the future, it will have to be in another state.
  
  Well, he can't say he wasn't warned. Seth Meyers told Blagojevich in a "Saturday Night Live" skit last month, "Illinois politicians are saying you should resign. And when Illinois politicians think you're too corrupt ... YOU'RE TOO CORRUPT!"
  
  Blagojevich could have saved the taxpayers of his state a lot of anxiety and money if he had followed Meyers' advice — instead of pursuing his vain hope of staying in office.
  
  Well, if it's any consolation to the folks in Illinois, Blagojevich is history now.


• President Obama scolded Wall Street bankers for giving themselves billions in bonuses. Obama called it "the height of irresponsibility" — as well he should.
  
  The tally for the bonuses exceeds $18 billion. Talk about a golden parachute.
  
  And now, finally ...


• In the U.S. Senate, Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky lamented the fact that the GOP is becoming irrelevant.
  
  "We're all concerned about the fact that the very wealthy and the very poor, the most and least educated, and a majority of minority voters, seem to have more or less stopped paying attention to us," McConnell said. "And we should be concerned that, as a result of all this, the Republican Party seems to be slipping into a position of being more of a regional party than a national one."
  
  Well, Mitch, it might not have come to this if you folks had done your jobs. But you might still be able to salvage at least a shred of respect if you'll step up to the plate and support the stimulus package when it comes to the Senate.
  
  Yeah, right. Like that's going to happen.

Burris Takes Senate Oath

Roland Burris was sworn in as Barack Obama's replacement in the U.S. Senate today.

Of course, the fact that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's pick has been seated does not mean the governor is out of the woods yet. The stage is still set for his Illinois Senate trial later this month.

I guess that leaves only the Minnesota Senate seat to be accounted for.

The latest I've heard on that is that the dispute will extend well into next month if Sen. Norm Coleman's proposal for his lawsuit to be conducted in stages is accepted.

Al Franken was supposed to submit his timeline today. As of this writing, I've seen no indication that he has done so.

Illinois House Votes to Impeach Blagojevich

I guess it's appropriate that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was impeached by the Illinois House today. The vote was nearly unanimous — 114-1.

Rep. Milt Patterson of Chicago was the only member of the House to vote against the resolution.

Today happens to be the 96th anniversary of the birth of Richard Nixon — who managed to avoid impeachment and conviction by resigning the presidency in 1974.

Blagojevich's trial will be one of the items of business the Illinois Senate will take up after it convenes next week. There are 59 members of the Illinois Senate. Forty are needed to convict the governor and remove him from office.

In spite of a lengthy history of corrupt politics, Illinois has never impeached a governor before.

Meanwhile, many Americans can't be blamed if they're more concerned about their own job prospects than Blagojevich's. The latest job report says 2.6 million jobs were lost in 2008, making it the worst year for jobs since the end of World War II.

The unemployment rate is 7.2%. That's the highest rate since January 1993, which is when George H.W. Bush was replaced as president by Bill Clinton.

Perhaps Blagojevich will join the ranks of the unemployed before long.

Give Him a Chance

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"Allies describe Burris — the first black politician to win statewide office in Illinois — as a careful leader whose banking background made him more comfortable crunching numbers than delivering charismatic speeches from a lectern."

USA Today

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In spite of the problems he's been having lately, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich went ahead and named his choice to replace Barack Obama in the Senate — attorney Roland Burris, the first black to win statewide office in Illinois.

But Burris may be denied the seat, according to Politico.com, which is reporting that Majority Leader Harry Reid will not seat Burris.

According to a statement from Reid, "There is much work to do and a lot at stake. It is thus critical that Illinois and every other state have two seated Senators without delay."

But Reid suggests that the fastest way for Illinois to fill the vacancy to everyone's satisfaction is for Blagojevich to resign and permit "his successor [to] appoint someone who we will seat."

Blagojevich has indicated repeatedly that he will not resign. And impeachment can take a long time. Blagojevich and his attorneys seem determined to settle in for a protracted battle, to fight every charge and contest every witness.

If Illinois has to wait until the matter is resolved before the Senate seat is filled, the voters might as well be prepared to wait until after the next election before they have two senators again.

There are only two years left on the term. Whoever occupies the seat, the voters will have their say in 2010.

Give him a chance.

Is Blago Gonna Go?

Illinois officials, including the state's attorney general, are saying today that Gov. Rod Blagojevich is going to make an announcement on Monday, and some are speculating that he will step down — or at least "step aside."

That's how Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan put it on "Meet the Press."

"I don't know if that means he will resign or take another option that is provided under the Illinois constitution," she said, explaining that the governor could "voluntarily recognize that there is a serious impediment to his ability to carry out his duties, and therefore temporarily remove himself."

It doesn't seem to me that a "temporary" solution is what Illinois officials want — never mind what Blagojevich wants.

While they've been trying to sort out that mess in Illinois, apparently the writers at "Saturday Night Live" have already figured it out.

I must admit that I didn't watch the show last night. But it apparently opened with a scathingly funny parody of the Blagojeviches and a "Weekend Update" routine called "Really!" — in which Amy Poehler, in what was apparently her final show, and Seth Meyers took the governor to task on everything.

"You should resign," Meyers said. "Even Illinois politicians are saying you should resign, and when Illinois politicians think you're too corrupt, you're too corrupt."

As Phil Rosenthal observes in the Chicago Tribune, "Now we know how they feel in Wasilla, Alaska."

I guess the next step would be to empathize with Whittier, Calif.

Senate Seat for Sale

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"Who will buy this wonderful morning?
Such a sky you never did see!
Who will tie it up with a ribbon
And put it in a box for me?

"So I could see it at my leisure
Whenever things go wrong
And I would keep it as a treasure
To last my whole life long."

"Oliver!"
Lyrics by Lionel Bart

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Illinois' Rod Blagojevich isn't the only governor faced with a Senate vacancy to fill following the elections and the majority of the Cabinet appointments.

But he's the only one who's put a price tag on one.

The Blagojevich story becomes more sordid with each new telling. From coast to coast, everyone, it seems, is weighing in on the matter — and no one has anything good to say about it.

"If the world was roused by the sight from Chicago barely one month ago, hundreds of thousands of people streaming into Grant Park to celebrate the triumph of possibility over tainted history," writes Timothy Egan in the New York Times, "the arrest of Governor Blagojevich on a dark and drizzly Chicago dawn was quite the opposite image."

Egan's column carried the cryptic headline of "Roll Over, Abe Lincoln."

In a San Francisco Chronicle blog, Caille Millner wrote about an (unidentified) Illinois resident who "created a fake eBay account for the governor and put Obama's seat up for sale." Millner observed that the post was quickly removed by some alert eBay staffer but noted that "the stunt was the best response I've seen so far to this tawdry, crazy story."

I guess you have to keep a sense of humor. I don't know how the unemployed in Illinois are reacting to all this, but the Chicago newspapers are not amused.

"The governor must resign immediately," writes the conservative Chicago Tribune, whose parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday. "If he doesn't, the Illinois House should begin proceedings to impeach him, and to ask the Senate to try him."

The Chicago Sun-Times concurs. "Even if the governor were found not guilty of every accusation against him — and given the apparent weight of the evidence against him, we’re not taking any bets — the criminal charges would cripple his already limited ability to lead Illinois."

Therefore, the newspaper says, "If Gov. Blagojevich does not resign immediately, impeach him."

Just make sure, as Bob Barker (who turns 85 on Friday) would say, that the price is right.