The arrest and indictment of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is becoming a tragic farce, with the transcripts of the wiretaps that are in the indictment showing a man completely unaware that there was anything wrong with his obviously corrupt behavior. But despite the fact that he has been indicted, Blagojevich will still be Governor and still, under Illinois Law, can appoint Obama’s successor. Blagojevich’s self-serving vanity means that despite the storm over his head, he may still try to appoint someone to the Senate seat that Barack Obama vacated. So there are various ideas about what can be done to prevent Blagojevich from filling this vacancy:

• The General Assembly should start impeachment proceedings against Blagojevich, but this will obviously take time even on a fast track process. Blagojevich is despised by both Democrats and Republicans in the General Assembly, so the impeachment should be able to go through quickly. However, one of Blagojevich’s few Springfield allies is State Senate President Emil Jones, who will hold the office through the end of the year. While it may be stupid to prevent the impeachment from moving forward, Jones could do that as he is at the end of his political career and would have hoped to be one of the potential Senators that Blagojevich could have appointed.
• The sole sitting Illinois Senator, Dick Durbin, suggested at a news conference today that the Illinois General Assembly immediately meet and pass a law requiring Senate vacancies to be filled by Special Election rather than Gubernatorial appointment. Since there will already be a Special Election for Rahm Emmanuel’s seat sometime in March, it would mean ramping up the process statewide. The problem with this solution is  that it would cost millions to hold a statewide election and Blagojevich could veto the bill, meaning it better pass by a veto-proof margin.
• But even if the general Assembly does take action, the result will still take time and Blagojevich could still appoint someone over the next few days. In such circumstances, does the Senate have any power? The U.S. Senate can have the power to expel a member from its membership, but they may not be able to refuse to seat someone who is nominated by a Governor to fill a vacancy. in the Supreme Court case Powell v. McCormick, 395 U.S. 486 (1969) it was determined that the chambers of Congress could refuse to seat an incoming member only if they do not meet the requirements set forth by the constitution: age, citizenship and residency. Now theoretically they could seat and then immediately expel a new member, but that would be dangerous precedent.

The  Lieutenant Governor of Illinois, Pat Quinn, has stated that Blagojevich should temporarily give up his powers of Governor until the situation is settled. That would, of course, give Quinn the power to make the Senate appointment, but Quinn is generally considered to be somewhat of a reformer, and is a good environmentalist, so he might make a decent choice. He and Blagojevich do not have a good relationship, so it is doubtful this option would be executed. The best path would seem to be for the General Assembly to meet immediately and expedite impeachment proceedings with the hope that Blagojevich does not appoint anyone beforehand. But with his sense of entitlement my guess is he will try to wield as much power as possible every last second he can — all the way to prison.

UPDATE: Illinois Senate President Emil Jones has announced that he will call the legislature back into session as soon as possible to change the law so that the Senate seat could be filled via a Special Election rather than gubernatorial appointment. However that may mean waiting until Monday, and a law not being passed until around next Wednesday, and then the bill gets sent to the Governor who not only can veto it, but take his time to veto it. In other words we still have about two weeks that Blagojevich can use to appoint someone. Of course no self-respecting person would accept and appointment from the Gov now — though there are probably a lot of shameless folks in Illinois who may still want the job.

WHAT'S NEXT?

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