Well, justice was done in this state approximately 10 minutes ago. Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn taking over. He seems to be a much more decent and humble man. Now, he gets a 5 billion dollar budget deficit put in his lap that needs to be patched in the next 5 months. Maybe finally our legislature can get to work on some actual state business that we're paying taxes for?? Blago is now barred from holding any state office here in Illinois thankfully. But after listening to his testimony today, he should be able to find work at the Vatican, giving advice to the Pope. He gave his testimony at the Statehouse in Springfield at 11:00 to approx 12 p.m. today. Was back home in Chicago before 3 p.m. Must have taken the state jet for one last ride. They seriously removed a mad man from office today. One of the most dillusional politicians I've ever seen or heard. Never admitted guilt for anything despite countless wire taps. Only tried to defend what he did as something everyone in the room has done at one time or another to get re-elected. Really? Shaking down unions reps, horse tracks, newspapers, and children's hospitals? The former lawyer in him really came out today. He tried to tug on heart strings at the 11th hour but nobody fell for it. This guy makes the corruption of George Ryan's admin look like child's play. Federal trial in April.
BTW when you hear him trying to hide behind the statement about "the people of Illinois choosing and electing him to do the job for a second term" on national news tonight, please realize that he obtained 1.7 million votes out of 13 million people in this state in the last election. His opponent received 1.4 million. Lucky for him, nobody seems to care about voting or who the governor is in this state. Maybe they will now. Out of the 1.7 million, it would be a safe bet to say that less than 10% really knew what was going on, other than the fact he had a D by his name. Pretty sad. The last two years have been the worst of his reign. Keep in mind that he didn't need to be found guilty of any illegal activity at this Senate trial. All that needed to be decided was if he could be left in place and adequately and capably do the job of Governor of this state. From someone who pays close attention to what goes on at the state level here, that idea was lost several years ago. A unanimous vote was not the least bit surprising. The house vote was I believe 108-1 last week to get to this point. The lone dissenter being his sister-in-law.
I watched excerpts from his statement, he tried to portray himself as a choir boy, and all he was is a crook that got caught. I couldn't get over the irony of 59 of 59 voting for impeachment of the governor, for crimes that many of them have likely committed at one time or another in their political careers.
Good one Vess. I asked the question at work today (before the decision came) just what it takes for one to be elevated to sainthood. Blago was certainly campaigning. Methinks his head met the chopping block a lot sooner than he expected. Good and good riddance.
Yeah, but it goes beyond most of what you will see on the news. This state's government has become so dysfunctional over the last few years and he has been the root of the problem. There's so many little things that all add up. Most likely they were not and did not need to be discussed by the Senate today. The guy never lived in the governor's mansion in Springfield a single day of his 6 years in office. He chose to stay in Chicago rather than representing the state and having his where abouts known by being in Springfield where he could be reached and ready for work on a daily basis. He was the first governor in state history to not have a daily planner, so most days nobody knew where he even was at!! What were the chances he was actually doing state business? To this day, most people have no idea where he spent a 5 day work week in Chicago. Many say he was at home much of the time. People were left to speculate. He didn't feel the need to be accountable. Sometimes he was at Cubs games talking with the announcers on WGN. During working hours. That was the only time people knew. Then when it's time to go to Springfield, he needed to take the state jet back and forth which cost the tax payers additional, unneeded expense. When it's budget time, they go into gridlock. By state law, the budget should be ready June 1st so it can go into affect July 1st, the beginning of the fiscal year. Two years ago they were going to shut everything down because they hadn't even begun serious discussions by July. Nothing got passed till September. This year, nobody knows if a budget was ever even passed appropriately. It just faded away. Who knows? The Lt. Gov Pat Quinn hasn't even spoken to Blago in over a year! Blago doesn't get along with the House speaker either so they have rarely been on talking terms. When the budget talks were stalled two years ago, they sat right next to each other but had to use a go between person to talk to each other! I hadn't heard of that since kindergarten! He says on the radio today how he changed Central Management Systems so that things could be stream lined and it's saved the state 500 million dollars. That sounds good to the general public but it's total B.S. At best, the system saved us nothing. At worst and more likely, it has cost us millions. It's a legalized extorsion program. It bleeds state agencies dry by ripping them off by having CMS (just another state agency) charge them insane prices for services and leased equipment and then re-directing the money into the black hole of the general fund. He's cut state agencies, shut down numerous state parks, historical sites and programs. He robbed gas tax money for the general fund so we've missed out on millions (if not billions) of dollars of federal funding because we couldn't come up with 20%! Hell, even the Habitat stamp money for hunting licenses gets 100% re-directed away from money for habitat and blown on drug rehab centers. But almost nobody knows this. The majority of hunters pay for the stamp and still believe it goes to habitat! All pensions have been robbed for the sake of the General fund. Except the one for lawmakers of course. In many agencies, needed staff are cut or bought out and have been replaced by numerous more expensive, political appointees and consultants. Inept consulting firms cost the state millions thanks to his policies and nobody even knows it! lol So much for his campaign slogan, "No more business as usual." Pay to play's been alive and well. Then of course, there's the side note of the legal issues. Trying to sell Obama's empty seat, shaking down the Chicago Tribune (who started out as a staunch supporter), a horse track, union leaders, Children's hospital CEO, and anybody else who he thought he could rob money from. Including illegal hiring practices and trying to make a deal to get his wife a 150k job. And he and his fowl mouthed wife trying to strong arm the Tribune into firing columnists who were critical of him. LOL! I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see a movie come of this. It'll just be called, "Blago". He loves the attention so much, he'd probably play himself for the right price! Sad. Really sad.
Yeah, I agree. It blind sided him. He had simply gotten away with so much for so long he figured it was just business as usual and nobody could touch him. Then he got a surprise from the Feds early one morning and the house of cards came down. It's funny how he talked today about what a great priviledge it's been to be the governor. A Chicago station back in December reported that the Feds had him on a wiretap trying to shake somebody down for money and wanting to be nominated to a position with Obama in D.C.! His direct quote was, "He's tired of being stuck as governor." I hope more of the wire taps come out. I've heard some of them. People would never believe it until they hear them. He loves the F word.
Yes, he is a pompous idiot. Of course his love of the F word comes from growing up on such tough streets. This was his reasoning by the way. Gimme a break. He's not a product of Cabrini Green or the Robert Taylor homes. I doubt the little simp was ever near those places. I was and believe me the people there would chew him up and spit him out in about 2 minutes. Spoon fed and foul mouthed. That's a better description of Blago.
59 to 0 LOL well at least we know what his peers thought of him If and when there is a criminal trial I realy do hope that they make a real example of him and dont send him to one of the holliday resorts that a number of ex politicos and bankers seem to have ended up in over the years.
I last heard someone here screaming that Illonois was a cesspool of corruption. So how could Justice have been served? Kinda like thieves pointing thier fingers at a bigger thief, if you believe the whole state is crooked. Oh well another jagov bites the dust.
Can we not be happy over at least one of them (the ring leader), being removed? I would guess that few could rival what this guy has been doing, or not doing for that matter. I have no doubt that we could wipe the slate clean, start over from scratch and the leadership would probably be better by default. Most remain in place because of the 'D' by their name, completely uninformed voters and a lazy population that primarily stays home in November. Pat Quinn (D) should be a very good change for the state. If he gets things done and stays clean, there's a good chance I would vote for him when the time comes. He's earned a lot of points already.
