{"id":213,"date":"2009-01-29T18:40:07","date_gmt":"2009-01-29T18:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2009\/01\/blago-gone-impeachment-is-blee.html"},"modified":"2009-01-29T18:40:07","modified_gmt":"2009-01-29T18:40:07","slug":"blago-gone-impeachment-is-blee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/01\/blago-gone-impeachment-is-blee.html","title":{"rendered":"Blago gone: impeachment is “bleeping golden”"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is official – by unanimous vote<\/a>, Rod Blagojevich is no longer the Governor of Illinois. In fact he has been barred from seeking public office in the State of Illinois forever. <\/p>\n

The Chicago Tribune has a fantastic live-blog of the day’s impeachment proceedings<\/a> that provide a wonderful example of government in action. I think one state Senator put it best:<\/p>\n

Sen. Iris Martinez (D-Chicago) said she went through
\ntoday’s proceedings with a heavy heart. But not all the legislators
\nfelt sad about the experience.<\/font>
 <\/font>
“I’m happy to have participated
\nin this process,” said Sen. James Meeks (D-Chicago). “Yeah, it’s
\nunprecedented, but future generations will know that we have this thing
\ncalled impeachment, and whenever any of our leaders, who are human
\nbeings like us, overstep the boundaries, the process is in place,”
\nMeeks said. “We have this thing called impeachment and it’s bleeping
\ngolden<\/b> and we’ve used it the right way.”<\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Brilliant. It stands to reason that a politician may be corrupt; but the impeachment shows that the system is not. <\/p>\n

I will be driving home to Chicago this weekend; I plan to see whether Blago’s name is still on all the open-road toll plazas. <\/p>\n

UPDATE: Svend asks whether the impeachment trial gave Blago his due process<\/a>. It’s important to note that the impeachment is a political trial, not a criminal one – Blago does face criminal charges from federal prosecutors, and in that trial he will assuredly get his witnesses and whatnot. But also keep in mind that Blago missed the deadlines to file for subpoenas<\/a> and then complained of due process after the fact. The prosecutor for the House was working under the same rules as Blago’s defense and did not miss those deadlines. The simple truth is that Illinois has a solid constitutional basis for impeachment<\/a> and the power to impeach is not an arbitrary one that can be wielded as a political cudgel; Blago’s case really did meet the (quite high) standard. For more on the issue of due process, see this post by Cornell law professor Michael Dorf<\/a>. I also want to note that Blago’s trial got international attention – including Al Jazeera<\/a> – so it again showed the world how in America, rule of law is paramount. The value of impeaching Blago thus has national benefit as well as for the state of Illinois.<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is official – by unanimous vote, Rod Blagojevich is no longer the Governor of Illinois. In fact he has been barred from seeking public office in the State of Illinois forever. The Chicago Tribune has a fantastic live-blog of the day’s impeachment proceedings that provide a wonderful example of government in action. 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City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}