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Blagojevich Under Pressure From Ill. Attorney General Madigan
The plot thickened Friday in the Rod Blagojevich Senate Seat Sale and corruption scandal as the Illinois' Attorney General Lisa Madigan appealed to the state Supeme Court to remove the disgraced Governor from power. The move by Attorney General Madigan is unprecedented and uses a obscure Illinois rule intended to allow the courts to remove a Governor for health reasons
In the midst of it all, the state headed toward an extraordinary constitutional showdown. Attorney General Lisa Madigan asked the Supreme Court to declare Blagojevich unfit to serve, likening his corruption scandal to a debilitating illness as she ramped up pressure on the governor to resign. The move seeks to hand power over to the lieutenant governor.
"I recognize that this is an extraordinary request, but these are extraordinary circumstances," Madigan said.
It is the first time in Illinois history that such an action was taken. The attorney general is applying a rule that was intended to cover cases in which a governor is incapacitated for health reasons.
The startling announcement came after news, earlier in the day, that Blagojevich's co-accused Chief-of-Staff John Harris would be stepping down. The Senate Seat Scandal has dragged other prominent Democrats in to the mess including Jessse Jackson and Obama's chosen White House Chief-of-Staff Rahm Emmanuel.
The fallout over the scandal resumed Friday as John Harris, the governor's chief of staff, resigned. He was arrested with his boss on corruption charges. Harris attorney Jim Sotos said his client resigned "because it was the right thing to do, and that's all I'm going to say."
The taint of the scandal followed Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. for a third straight day. A report in the Chicago Tribune said businessmen with ties to the governor and the congressmen discussed raising $1 million for Blagojevich to get him to appoint Jackson to Obama's seat.
Jackson flatly denied any wrongdoing. "It is unfortunate that every appearance the governor makes and meeting he has taints everyone in attendance," Jackson said.
In Washington, people who have been briefed on the Illinois governor corruption investigation said Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is not a target of the probe.
Emanuel has refused to answer questions about whether he's the "president-elect adviser" referred to in the criminal complaint that accuses Blagojevich of putting Obama's Senate seat up for sale. The complaint does not say that Blagojevich ever spoke to the unidentified Obama adviser about the Senate seat.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (1)
at 08:57 on December 13th, 2008
I think Madigan has completely overstepped her bounds and is engaged in an abuse of power for purely political reasons. My four paragraph rationale can be found at www.itsbetterleftsaid.blogspot.com.