From J.G. Thayer at Commentary:
This is, in a way, reminiscent of the 2002 Senate race in New Jersey. In the waning days of September, it became clear that the Democratic nominee, Robert Torricelli, was going down in the flames of a campaign finance scandal. Unfortunately, it was past the deadline for changes in the ballot, so the Democrats were pretty much stuck with him.
Or maybe not. The Democrats went to the state Supreme Court and argued that Torricelli was “disabled†by the scandal. Under those circumstances, the Democrats sought to withdraw his name and substitute a new candidate.
The Republicans protested. They said that Torricelli’s “disability†was purely political. Torricelli was the legal nominee, the deadline had passed, and they had already invested heavily in competing against him. Allowing this last-minute switch would grant the Democrats a completely unfair and unjustifiable advantage in the campaign.
The Supreme Court was untouched by these arguments, and decided that “having one’s corruption exposed†qualified as a disability under the law. They removed Torricelli from the ballot and allowed the Democrats to substitute former senator Frank Lautenberg, who handily reversed the poll trends and defeated Republican challenger Doug Forrester.
It was wrong when New Jersey stretched “disability†to include corruption, and it would be wrong for Illinois to follow that example. As noted, there are existing mechanisms for curtailing the governor’s powers and removing him from office, and those should be used.
Further, should Ms. Madigan’s plan succeed, a very, very dangerous precedent will be set: the Supreme Court, with the collusion of at least one official from the Executive Branch, will have the power to remove the Governor from office. This is a clear violation of the system of checks and balances, which reserves that right for the legislature.
The unspoken motivation behind this is, of course, the “need†to keep the Blagojevich scandal from causing too much damage to his fellow Democrats. The longer he’s in office, the more people will associate his misdeeds with his party. Moreover, if he does exert his authority and appoints Obama’s successor in the Senate, that candidate will be thoroughly tainted and almost guaranteed a defeat in the next election. And if a special election is held in the shadow of the scandal, the Republicans’ chances of winning the seat will be the best they’ve had in years.
Here’s a radical thought: let’s follow the rules in Illinois.
Wouldn’t it also violate due process?
To let him dangle on the national stage for a while longer, as an example of typical Chicagoland-Democrat corruption, and as a reflective surface shining negative light on fellow Chicago politico Obama? ..yes, that’s sensible. Keep him in there until his trial and conviction. Let him appoint the next junior Illinois senator.
Hopefully Blago will attend to the Messiah’s inauguration, standing there next to Bill Ayers and the right Rev. Wright..
Did Obama really name the Chicago schools guy for Sec of Ed?
Well, Chicago schools aren’t in LAST place, right?
The Chicago Way.
Look, these are Democrats. If a Republican does it, the press castrates him, the Party disembowels him, and a Democrat is elected into his place. Since it is a Democrat, the press will powder his genitals gently, strike him mildly upon the hand, and then seek a swift solution to minimize damage to the Party. The MSM will pressure the courts to do what they really cannot do to keep the particular office in Democrat hands.
It is the American Way.
Heh. Funny Geezer. True too.
Did Obama really name the Chicago schools guy for Sec of Ed?
Yes, he did.
And the guy is involved in the “Small Schools” movement, along with our old friends Klonsky and Ayers.
And the guy is involved in the “Small Schools†movement, along with our old friends Klonsky and Ayers.
I’ll be goddammed
Better look fast.
Ariel Community Academy is Duncan’s project.
Leadership for Quality Education is run by John Ayers, Bill’s brother.
A little Googling will turn up more connections.
Here’s a more radical thought: Let’s follow the rules everywhere. It’ll keep kids from growing up to be cynics like me.
Disabled? Well, in all fairness, Torricelli did have a habit of wearing a dead badger on his head…
This should be good news for any and all facing charges for any violation of law in New Jersey. They can all now have handicap license plates.
That assumes that “The Law” actually means anything to the courts of N.J. Like other Democrat strongholds they have two versions of “The Law”. The regular one that applies to all us peons.
Then there is the special “Monkey Model” version of “The Law” which is used
againstfor the powerful political friends and associates of the ruling Democrats and the Democrats themselves. Purposefully degraded so as to rarely cause harm to the elite. See Chicago for further downgrades and disabling.“Did Obama really name the Chicago schools guy for Sec of Ed?”
If it had been Paul Vallas, I would have been happy, but he left for Philly (yikes!)…
And the Chicago schools Superintendent said:
B-B-But Dan,
For the Lefties, “following the rules” simply means winning, by whatever means necessary!
That’s part of the whole jockeyeing that’s occurring now. In addition to getting everybody’s story straight, they’re doing a cost-benefit analysis regarding how long ’til they have the trigger pulled on Blagojevich-both figuratively and literally!
Callin’ some old favors on the, *ahem*, Italian side of town…