Doonesbury Say What?

[thewayne]

"I did a lot of things that were mostly right."
-- Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, making a last-minute plea to senators before being removed from office

Now, I'm not defending His Hairness, but he made one very salient point yesterday in his speech: he has not been convicted of a crime. But it must be added, in capital letters, YET. At this point he is still only accused of multiple felony counts, he has not yet been tried in a court of law. Likewise, in the case of Ken Lay, the former CEO of Enron, who was convicted of multiple counts but died of a heart attack before the appeals process could be carried out, had the conviction vacated after his death and thus technically was not found guilty of what he did.

Presumption of innocence is a very important component of our country. Sadly, even for slimeballs like Blago and Lay.

Comments

[vaudy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I agree with him on one thing: that this was rushed through. And there are probably a few different reasons, but personally, I think they wanted to Make an Example of him.

Some journalist yesterday mentioned that the IL Dems want to make a show of cutting out the bad element, so to speak. He also said that Blagojevich was right that pretty much as soon as our new governor is installed, they're gonna raise our taxes.

I was somewhat surprised to hear at one point during the coverage of the impeachment trial that the evidence is relatively meaningless, and the senators don't really have to take it into consideration when they vote for impeachment. Basically, once it gets to this point, it doesn't matter if he's actually guilty of anything or not, they can impeach him just because they want to, which, well, they did. I don't know if that's a part of the impeachment process all over, or if there are elements like this that differ from state to state.

[deborak]

I can certainly understand why Blagojevich thinks he hasn't crossed any lines. He's only engaged in "business as usual" that has characterized Chicago politics for 75 years. And in the police state we live in, it hardly matters if you are guilty or innocent as the goal is to convict. Plus, fairness hardly feeds the media circus.

[silveradept]

It's a bit of a standing tradition in politics that when you get accused of something, you either step down or get impeached. Especially when we're talking multiple felonies. Governor F-Word didn't step down, so he got impeached. And while the court will decide his ultimate fate, Illinois would become a laughingstock for letting someone accused of what he has been stay in office.

Even Richard Nixon stepped down, knowing that the impeachment couldn't be diverted.