This Friday Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich was impeached by a vote of 114-1 in the Illinois House. This vote has come only after about of month of Blagojevich being arrested on charges of trying to sell our now President Barack Obama's senate seat. Blagojevich has simply stated that he was a victim and that he will continue "to fight on every step of the way". He is the first governor that has ever been impeached in Illinois and he is now waiting for the Senate trial which will take place on Jan. 26th. Representatives from the Illinois House have already stated that they are shamed to have elected him just for him to disgrace them. Furthermore, Blagojevich had not even tried to defend himself for the issues of his arrest, therefore, causing for the representatives to feel even more shame in him. After the news conference was over Blagojevich defied the entire political establishment by appointing former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to the senate seat. However, due to Sen. Dic Durban's words the Senate will not accept Burris without the signature necessary.
With the vote of impeachment being so overpowering I believe that this clearly states that Blagojevich is guilty of crimes. While Blagojevich claims that his actions were to fight for the families, I believe that the families that he is supposedly fighting for would disagree. Even if he has not committed a crime he has already let down all those who have elected him into that office. Thus i think he should do the right thing of resigning from his job before he is further humiliated however, nothing will be for sure until the vote from the senate and I am interested to see what the end result turns out to be.
1 comment:
I've been thinking quite a bit about this lately. Though I agree that Blagojevich has embarrassed our state on a national (and perhaps international) scale, I don't think he is the only one to blame. If the accusations are true about him and go as far back as his first year in office and if they involve several different parties, many people had to know about them. Among those who knew must have included Springfield elected officials. Why did they keep this quiet...until it was revealed by Fitzgerald, the US Attorney? Were they reluctant to accuse one of their fellow Democrats and risk losing power? Is that less reprehensible that what Blagojevich is accused of doing? I hope this aspect of the story is scrutinized someday too. What do you think the chances of that are?
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