Patterico's Pontifications

12/17/2008

Illinois Supreme Court Declines to Hear Blagojevich Challenge

Filed under: Politics — DRJ @ 12:37 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

The Illinois Supreme Court today refused to hear Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s challenge claiming Governor Blagojevich should be removed from office under a disability provision.

That means the action will likely move to the Illinois capital where an impeachment panel is gearing up. In an appearance today, Blagojevich’s attorney Ed Genson claimed members of the panel have already made up their minds and should be disqualified. Genson also asked that the State agree to pay any attorneys’ fees, claiming the Attorney General – who he said would typically represent the Governor – should be barred because she asked the Court to declare Blagojevich unfit to serve.

Finally, proving that Blagojevich’s bad luck isn’t over (or that his bad deeds are coming back to haunt him), a Chicago station reports an FBI informant has reiterated a story he told them years ago: That Blagojevich was a mob bookie in the late 1980’s.

Something tells me we won’t miss the Sopranos as long as we have Chicago politics.

— DRJ

28 Responses to “Illinois Supreme Court Declines to Hear Blagojevich Challenge”

  1. The court made the right call. Lisa Madigan had an obvious conflict, over-reached, and made herself look silly. Blogo should go, no question, but Madigan’s approach wasn’t right. She jumped to quickly and pushed a flimsy argument. As a result, she marginalized herself.

    Ropelight (5b609a)

  2. And don’t forget that madigan’s father is the Speaker of the House, he has no love loss for Blago, and is gearing up the committee to impeach him.

    As to who pays Blago’s lawyer, what did Clinton do when he was impeached? Was his defense paid for by taxpayers, or did he foot the bill himself. I really don’t know, but I thought he had to pay it himself and that’s supposedly why he was out hitting the Lecture/Speaking circuit for wads of cash after he left office.

    J. Raymond Wright (d83ab3)

  3. Blagojevich will not find an impartial jury because even his own party has been forced to admit that their guy is a common petty crook.

    JD (7f8e8c)

  4. JRW, Clinton is a selfish, greedy bastard. He got donations and set up MoveOn.org to get through the Impeachment.

    PCD (7fe637)

  5. Wow, I made this comment in the other thread, but what if the election of Dear Leader inadvertently brings down the Illinois Democrat Party? What delicious irony that would be!

    JVW (bff0a4)

  6. Genson also asked that the State agree to pay any attorneys’ fees, claiming the Attorney General – who he said would typically represent the Governor – should be barred because she asked the Court to declare Blagojevich unfit to serve

    I’m pretty sure he’s mistaken. I would think the AG would be incharge of PROSECUTING the impeachment, not defending it, since the AG is a seperate, elected position the Gov. has little control over. Maybe nk can set teh record straight on this account.

    Scott Jacobs (a1c284)

  7. The only thing “unimpeachable” about Blag is the case against him but Madigan’s petition was (at best) an extremly poorly reasoned political stunt, and one that would have set a dangerous precident had it succeeded. For Illinois’s sake, the AG office is hopefully the farthest she gets in Illinois politics.

    And another irony is this mess seems to be resurrecting former Senator Peter Fitzgerald’s reputation in a big way. Fitzgerald, of course, was the guy who appointed the OTHER Fitzgerald, who indicted several crooked Republicans along with crooked Democrats, which ticked off the Illinois GOP and (along with his unbending anti-pork and anti-bailout views) led to the party pushing him out in 2004 to make way for… Alan Keys. Which, of course, paved the way for Obama. And the Circle of Life continues.

    Sean P (e57269)

  8. Minor error, Fitzgerald didn’t appoint Fitzgerald, Bush did, but Fitz was the one who made the recommendation.

    Sean P (e57269)

  9. I think Genson is “mistaken”, too. The Attorney General is the chief legal officer of the state, not of the governor, and second in the line of succession (after the lieutenant governor) should the governor be removed.

    nk (bdc27b)

  10. Also, while they may provide “cousel” to The Gov, the AG also acts as legal cousel for the General Assembly.

    I really have to wondering just how good this lawyer is…

    Scott Jacobs (a1c284)

  11. I really have to wondering just how good this lawyer is…

    The Daley Machine knows that Blago is toast, so they aren’t going to spring for a top-notch (expensive) lawyer. Instead, they are retaining all of them to work on the fall-out cases that come from this.

    JVW (bff0a4)

  12. but what if the election of Dear Leader inadvertently brings down the Illinois Democrat Party? What delicious irony that would be!

    Sadly, I don’t believe this to be the case, unless the GOP by some miracle convinces Jim Edgar (former Governor) to come out of retirement (he won’t, because he’s too smart to take on that fiasco, along with his prior heart problems). The GOP has been in bed with the Dem party for decades at this point, there is no way to differentiate them from their opponents. They’ve completely obliterated their party, due to their enthusiastic participation in the vaunted Combine of IL (GOP/Dem bipartisanship/scumbag party).

    which ticked off the Illinois GOP and (along with his unbending anti-pork and anti-bailout views) led to the party pushing him out in 2004 to make way for…Alan Keys.”

    No, the GOP did get mightily ticked off at Fitzgerald, and gave him next to no support for his re – election chances, but after he decided to tell them to go F themselves (he was independently wealthy, he could’ve ran an effective campaign without their support if he so desired), Jack Ryan became the presumptive nominee. Ryan then was effectively torpedoed by the hard – hitting Axelrod syncophants at the Trib, which went to court to unseal his divorce papers, leading him to drop out of the race at a late stage in the campaign – which led to the nutbag Keyes.

    Dmac (e30284)

  13. A Democrat accused of connections with organized crime?! Why, that’s as hard to believe as a union boss being connected to organized crime!

    Rob Crawford (04f50f)

  14. I believe Illinois law allows Blago to pay for his legal fees for this and Fitzgerald’s charges out of campaign funds since they arise from his duties in office.

    He just needs to hold some more fund raisers!

    daleyrocks (5d22c0)

  15. Minor error, Fitzgerald didn’t appoint Fitzgerald, Bush did, but Fitz was the one who made the recommendation.

    Bush was heavily against the appointment of Fitzgerald, due to Rove and the Combine’s furious lobbying against Senator Fitzgerald’s preference. The Senator leaned hard on Bush despite internal opposition to such a move, and Bush finally relented to his wishes. While Bush deserves credit for the move, the GOP didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory over this appointment. Many members of both parties here strongly resisted the appointment, for fear of exactly what we’ve been witnessing recently (starting with Daley’s cronies going to the Federal pen, along with former Gov. Ryan).

    Dmac (e30284)

  16. Ed Genson is a very good (and expensive) lawyer. He defended Conrad Black and R. Kelley, among others. You know the saying, “It doesn’t hurt to ask”.

    nk (bdc27b)

  17. To the Illinois Dems, this is a feature, not a bug. They will still retain control of all of the levers of power, and they will get to hand pick who goes where, and whip the party faithful into line.

    JD (7f8e8c)

  18. Yep – there is no two – party state here.

    Dmac (e30284)

  19. I’m no legal genius, but I don’t think an “impartial jury” is a requirement for an impeachment panel. It’s a purely political action by the legislature, not a trial by a jury. They make their own rules.

    mojo (8096f2)

  20. Dang!! You’d think the people of Illinois would be asking themselves how quickly they can get a new AG, also. Sometimes I think lawschool sucks all the common sense out of a person’s head.

    spcastles (859067)

  21. This surprised me from AG Madigan. I am no fan of hers, but I always gave her the benefit of the doubt on basic competency.

    JD (7f8e8c)

  22. Lisa Madigan is cute but the brain quotient is pretty low. She is about as smart as her lookalike, Demi Moore.

    Notice that all talk (including by Obama who would have known better if he knew anything) about a special election is gone. They are afraid a Republican might win it.

    This is a fiasco and maybe, just maybe, Rezko is ready to take the whole operation down with him.

    Mike K (f89cb3)

  23. I shall remain in a “wait and see” mode.
    If Rezko is talking, we haven’t really seen any results from it yet.
    What we need from him is an accounting of his actions (and of others), by him, in open court.

    Another Drew (bc69ec)

  24. JD — to some extent I think you’re right. As long as Blag isn’t on the ballot, most Illinois Dems will be extremely inclined to give the party nominee the benefit of the doubt, even if similar, questionable conduct comes up during the campaign.

    Part of that, though, is due to the fact the Illinois GOP isn’t much better. It is saying something, after all, when you consider Blag was swept into office in 2002 with a promise to end the corruption of his (Republican) successor. That’s why Peter (not Patrick) Fitzgerald seems to be the best choice for the Republicans. He was a preachy goody good in the Senate but his anti-corruption and anti-machine credentials are unimpeachable. I suspect he would do extremely well with independants and even a few Democrats who would otherwise be leary of his so-con views. Of course he would have to move back to Illinois, and do so quickly, to qualify for the election.

    Sean P (e57269)

  25. There ain’t gonna be no special election. Blagojevich will either nominate someone just to piss everyone off, or will do so at the behest of Baracky and the Party. There is not a snowball’s chance in hell that they will give a Republican a chance to potentially turn a US Senate seat.

    JD (7f8e8c)

  26. Actually, I’d say that we have our own top-notch Illinois lawyer here, who should be hired by Governor Blagojevich!

    Not sure why the Attorney General had a conflict of interest here, since she wouldn’t become governor if the current governor were “legally incapacitated;” that responsibility would fall on Lieutenant Governor Quinn. And since Mr Blagojevich would still be the governor — even though not acting as such — the Attorney General doesn’t somehow “move up.”

    The Dana who drives an F-150 (556f76)

  27. “Not sure why the Attorney General had a conflict of interest here, since she wouldn’t become governor if the current governor were “legally incapacitated;””

    True, but I suspect a fair number of Illinois/Chicago pols would benefit greatly by a proceeding that gets Blago out of the governor’s chair quickly, and quietly, as opposed to a more drawn out impeachment, which could potentially bring more crooks with him.

    Sean P (e57269)

  28. You need to learn more about Ed Genson, Dana.

    nk (bdc27b)


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