Governor Blagojevich returned to "business as usual" today, which for him is the administrative equivalent of spraying a tommy gun inside the capital rotunda hollering "Made it, Ma! Top of the world!" Meanwhile, most state officials are making serious noises about meeting to develop a framework to draft a resolution calling for the study of possibly impeaching our modern day Baby Face Nelson. Our remaining U.S. Senator, Dick Durbin, pulled a blindingly stupid PR stunt on Tuesday when he immediately called for a special election to fill Obama's vacant Senate seat. Dumb idea: the next Congress will have been in session for months by the time a special election is set up and concluded. Nobody even knows how one would be administered in Illinois under current circumstances. And a special election would open the seat to being won by any Republican skilled enough to play the backlash card of downstate resentment of corrupt city slickers. Anybody who thinks that couldn't happen is a fool: the Land of Lincoln is not as "blue" as celebrity journalists seem to think. If I were Obama, I'd be tempted to have Durbin skinned with poultry shears for throwing a special election on the table. Bonehead.
And Armageddon must be near: I agree with a Republican. Former governor Jim Edgar said on public radio Wednesday morning that he thinks a special election is a bad idea because it would get partisanship all stirred up at a time when we need two U.S. Senators in Washington. He also suggested that Blagojevich's successor appoint a panel to help select the new senate nominee. That could work, but I don't think it's necessary: the appointment power lies with whomever is governor or acting governor.
I figured that the legislature could have Blagojevich impeached by Christmas if there was a will to do it, but serious observers seem to think that impeachment requires hard evidence of criminality and a reasonable-doubt standard for guilt. I doubt it. They don't have to impeach Blagojevich for bribery: lawyers can figure it out. For example, if Blagojevich were insane enough to appoint someone to the seat, I believe he would be violating at least the spirit of Illinois state ethics laws in the conflict-of-interest arena. [Allow me to interject that anyone accepting a Senate appointment by Blagojevich now would be an imbecile... unless Blago pulled the supreme jiu jutsu move of appointing an Republican to the seat. Think about it. You heard it here first.]
The Attorney General, Lisa Madigan, can appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court to remove a governor who is incapable of performing his duties. Madigan has indicated that she is smart enough to wait for awhile, though, necessarily letting state government twist in the wind long enough so even a mischevous Republican justice might think twice about voting against a removal petition. (The Supreme Court decision must be unanimous.) Normally, I would have thought Madigan would have been a slam-dunk appointment to the Senate seat. But under these circumstances, and given her likely role as Blagojevich's putative executioner, the Lieutenant Governor might find it awkward to be seen as "rewarding" her for the kill.
I know that people smarter than me don't believe this is a serious danger, but he longer chaos persists in Illinois government, the better it is for Republicans here. At the state level, Illinois Republicans are pathetic: divided, devoid of viable leaders, and they stand for nothing except fueling resentment against Chicago. But nothing unites Republicans like chaos.
And it's also better for the national Republican Party: without a Democrat in Obama's seat by January, the new President has one less vote to beat down the twin menace of Mitch McConnell and "Diaper" Dave Vitter.
Editor's note: the illustration of James Cagney from White Heat is used above solely for nonprofit education and research purposes, and this fair use is believed not to diminish the commercial value of the image to the copyright holder.
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