TH Hugley said that Blago was railroaded. What is your opinion?

[WillieW]

[ananda]

1. LMAO

That's my opinion. ;-)

[NashVegas]

2. Railroaded

For not being subtle, like Paterson.

[physioex]

3. I feel more sorry for the guy.....

He needs help. I don't think of him as the classic "corrupt politician".

[WillieW]

7. In fairness, he should have had an opportunity to defend himself

[4lbs]

8. He did have the opportunity, but chose to go on nearly two dozen talk shows instead.

n/t

[MichiganVote]

21. He did not file proper paperwork in time alotted. Why? He blew off his attorney, that's why.

[Critters2]

26. He had the opportunity. He didn't use it. nt

[Raskolnik]

40. You're right. He should have.

And he did. He chose not to do so.

[Taverner]

4. He broke the law, he got caught

The Dems, keeping with the whole "Clean Gene" image, cut him loose

[BlooInBloo]

6. Has he been indicted yet?

[JeanGrey]

20. Yup.

[Critters2]

27. No, actually. He hasn't been indicted.

But the law doesn't require for him to have been indicted by the judicial branch in order to be impeached by the legislature.

[JeanGrey]

33. Yes he has.

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/posted/archive/2008/12/09/the-shakedown-juicy-bits-from-the-blagojevich-indictment.aspx]

The 51-year-old Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, were charged in a 78-page federal indictment with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and solicitation of bribery. Both were taken into custody at their homes in Chicago.

[Raskolnik]

41. No, a criminal complaint isn't the same thing as an indictment.

Fitzgerald sought & received an extension of his deadline to get an indictment.

[JeanGrey]

43. Hey I just went by the article. They said he had.

He will be if Fitz pulled it back.

[itsrobert]

5. He did get railroaded

Probably Freight. He can't get that Hair pass airport security and on to a plane.

[4 t 4]

9. The way the whole

thing went down stunk to high heaven from the way Fritz held his presser (then asking for 90 more days WTF ? ) to the impeachment. railroaded big time

[Raskolnik]

39. Let me take a wild guess--you're not from Illinois, and the first time you ever

heard of Blago was when all this kerfluffle got started.

[mucifer]

10. seems to be the consensus on black talk radio in Chicago. www.wvon.com

I'm not so sure myself. I have mixed feelings. blago sure did screw the state when he put in all these populist programs and then refused to fund them. It's kinda like bush and "no child left behind". The state can't pay it's bills. Quinn is going to have to raise taxes and blago can pretend he is great because he didn't raise taxes. Meanwhile some nonprofits go under because public aid isn't paying their bills.

[truedelphi]

16. The weak side of me thinks we on the left mised a grand opportunity

For just a million bucks, we activists could have bought a non nuke, pro solar, keep utilities regulated, force the big banks with BailOut funds to lend to companies employing union workers
kind of governor.

[libodem]

11. I certainly don't have all the facts

to make an informed judgment but I think he was targeted and wired because there is an imaginary line from Rham Emanuel and the President and the RNC wants you to fill in the dots. This is the same kind of dirty politics that had Ken Starr investigating White Water for two years, and when nothing was found, nothing was said. It's about the appearance of impropriety, and the fact that you can't unring the bell. The RNC or whom ever it is want to try and taint Obama by the 'company' he keeps. Remember what happened to the McDougall's, especially to Susan McDougall, she was imprisoned under very harsh conditions, to try and make her, lie against Bill Clinton. Did any of you read the article about Coleman being investigated by the FBI. Of course not his under the table dirty dealing are flying way under the Republican media machine.

[Critters2]

28. I know just from reading this that you're not from Illinois.

Don't even need to glance at your profile. There's a lot you don't know about the corruption that is Blago.

[kentuck]

12. It was in the interest of both Parties that he go...

So fairness had nothing to do with it.

[B Calm]

13. The truth. . . I don't think he's any different than any republican politician!

His trouble was, he was a democrat governing like a republican!

[Still Sensible]

14. That is only half true...

The "it's unfair I can't call witnesses" was a bullshit straw man. None of them would have helped his case, but he would have had a crack at them in a public forum before the Federal trial.

I could have had some sympathy for him had he spent any time on his media tour or in his appearance before the senate if he would have addressed the charges.

He could have explained the context under which his desire to choke off hospital funds because he hadn't yet received money could be viewed differently. He didn't, he just railed about the process.

He could have explained how Fitzgerald, the media and the public misread his desire to get something for filling Barack Obama's open senate seat. He didn't, he just railed about the process.

Had he even tried to do that I would be able to consider the idea that he has been railroaded. But since he didn't, I'm pretty sure they made sure he caught the right train... out of town.

[suston96]

15. Impeachments of elected officials are always pure rail-roadings. Hear the train whistle?

Impeachments should be reserved for tife-tenured politically appointed officials.

Oh, wait. That's always political too. Never mind.

[laylah]

17. I live in Illinois,

I have had first-hand experience with Blago's administration and I am glad, glad, GLAD the corrupt little bastard is gone :woohoo:! (and I voted for him...twice:blush: )

[MichiganVote]

18. If he was railroaded so be it. He had the opportunity to offer testimoney and declined. Jerk.

[JeanGrey]

19. Hardly. He got caught.

[WillowTree]

22. Yup. And he was the engineer on that train, too.

[stillcool]

23. I have a hard time passing judgment..

these days. While Blago may have stepped over the line, he did it with one foot. I doubt there is any person of power in a political office that doesn't step on that line every day. What with Governor Spitzer and Governor Siegleman, etc., I believe that our Justice Department is not motivated by the rule of law.

[Orsino]

24. Impeachment is designed to be a railroading...

...over in hours or days, once it gets started. Blago seems to have lucked out by not facing criminal charges years earlier, but in the meantime forgot not to become an embarrassment to his party and state.

However much he was corrupted, his behavior said that he wanted this.

[madrchsod]

25. "thank god and greyhound he`s gone...."

[Critters2]

29. Notice how it's only Illinoisans in this thread expressing that opinion?

Apparently his national media blitz worked. People in other states think he's a freaking martyr. It's too bad he didn't show the same kind of commitment to running this state that he did to his own PR.

[madrchsod]

31. i`ve been saying this since it started....

[PVnRT]

42. ...resident of Kentucky (formerly Indiana)

Agrees with your sentiment 100%.

[juno jones]

30. As someone who grew up in IL

and spent most of the '90's in Springfield, I am personally quite relieved to see Blago out and Quinn in.

I could be wrong in my perceptions, but Quinn always seemed like a relatively honest person with head screwed on straight.

[cobalt1999]

32. If he was railroaded, then it's only because he built the train and laid the tracks.

Guilty, guilty, guilty.

[geiger]

34. TH Hugley is a simpleton. eom.

[TheUnspeakable]

35. he was railroaded

No matter what you think of the guy, he WAS railroaded. For years, I've been trying to figure out why the press has treated him so badly-while at the same time, everything I heard that he was doing were things I agreed with and totally supported.(health care, senior transportation, etc.) Yet, if EVERYONE hated him so much, he must be bad. And believe me, here in IL, everyone hates him. it's been puzzling. Saturday, I listened to our local progressive station and the host (Dick Kay-extremely respected local political reporter for 38 years.) He had a 14 page talking points memo from June 2008 from long time (decades) Speaker of the House in Il., Mike Madigan. The gist of it was we must impeach him. (for trivialities really) This memo went out to all Democrats running for the house in the upcoming election. He told them if they were asked , "Did Mike madigan have anything to do with this?" they were instructed to say " No, I just think the Gov. has to be impeached for the good of Il" and if they were asked "Does this have anything to do with Lisa Madigan (Mike's daughter) running for Gov, they were to say "Oh no, it's for the good of Il."
OK, so we have an all powerful Dem. speaker of the house who controls all the Ill. Dems and he wants his daughter to be Gov. At the same time never forget that our entire justice system has been totally corrupted to slant against Dems and our corrupt Mayor Daley (all powerful-when we have Mayoral elections no one hardly tries to run against him-I can't even recall when the last one was.)
Daley hates him too. Lastly, don't forget the taint this puts on our new President Obama. Something's not right. One more thing-who can really be happy with their Gov in any state when the Fed government has been starving the states for 8 years and 47 out of 50 states are bankrupt?

[Critters2]

36. Three of my parishioners were laid off because of this crook.

His moving of prisoners out of Pontiac and closing state parks really fucked some downstate communities, and they were just power plays on his part. And then there's the cost of flying his sorry ass between Springfield and Chicago because he and his equally corrupt wife believed they were too good to live in the state capital. Someone should've told this asshole he was governor of the whole state.

I get that there are Chicagoans who love him...the ones who also don't understand the concept of THE STATE OF ILLINOIS. He can keep on buying your votes for local offices in Chicago, for all I care. But he needed to be impeached from the role of governor.

[Raskolnik]

37. Blago is lucky that public horse-whipping isn't on the table

because the people of Illinois, the ones who will be cleaning up the mess from his wildly corrupt and wildly ineffective administration, would vote for a public flogging of that asshole in a heartbeat.

[azmouse]

38. Who is Hugley and why should I give a shit what he says about anything?