Rod Blagojevich is small potatoes compared to George W. Bush

by Jay McDonough

The lowdown on Governor Rod Blagojevich is he's a typical crooked Illinois politician.  Politically ambitious in the worst way, not above elevating his personal gain ahead of the public trust, and with an unfamiliarity with those crazy, old fashioned ideals like justice and accountability. 

The news that the Illinois State Legislature voted last week to impeach the governor came as no surprise.  After all, the governor has some serious ethical and criminal charges leveled against him.  And the good folks of Illinois now hate the guy and can't wait to be rid of him.  He's an embarrassment to Illinois, after all.

Here's an account of the impeachment resolution filed against the governor:

The impeachment resolution cited abuses of power that included political hiring, using a clout-laden firm that was supposed to save the state money but ended up mishandling it, refusing public access to documents and authorizing the purchase of foreign flu vaccines that could not legally be imported.

It included the criminal charges against Blagojevich, which primarily involved allegations he sought to squeeze campaign dollars in exchange for official acts, such as signing a bill or providing reimbursement to a children's hospital. The federal charges contend he based the size of a tollway project on how much money he could wring from a highway construction firm and tried to tie an offer of assistance to the Tribune Co. for the sale of Wrigley Field to the firing of Chicago Tribune editorial writers. (Link)

Yikes.  Bad stuff, huh?  No wonder the Illinois legislature voted 114-1 to impeach the governor.

Now look at this partial list of charges against another American politician.

  -  George W. Bush has intentionally misled the Congress and the public regarding the threat from Iraq in order to justify a war against Iraq, intentionally conspired with others to defraud the United States in connection with the war against Iraq in violation of Title 18 United States Code, Section 371.

  -  George W. Bush has admitted to ordering the National Security Agency to conduct electronic surveillance of American civilians without seeking warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, duly constituted by Congress in 1978, in violation of Title 50 United States Code, Section 1805.

  -  George W. Bush has conspired to commit the torture of prisoners in violation of the "Federal Torture Act" Title 18 United States Code, Section 113C, the UN Torture convention and the Geneva Convention, which under Article VI of the Constitution are part of the "supreme Law of the Land;"

  -  George W. Bush has acted to strip Americans of their constitutional rights by ordering indefinite detention of citizens, without access to legal counsel, without charge and without opportunity to appear before a civil judicial officer to challenge the detention, based solely on the discretionary designation by the President of a U.S. citizen as an "enemy combatant", all in subversion of law.

  -  George Walker Bush has attached signing statements to more than one hundred bills before signing them, within which he has made over eleven hundred challenges to provisions of laws passed by Congress, a figure that exceeds the total number of such challenges by all previous presidents combined, and has used this practice to exempt himself, as President of the United States, from enforcing or from being held accountable to provisions of the said laws. By declining to veto bills, and instead attaching signing statements challenging hundreds of laws passed by Congress, he has sought to exempt the executive branch from accountability to said laws, thereby violating Article 1, Section 7 and Article II, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution. These articles of the Constitution dictate that the president has the option of signing or vetoing a bill, and upon signing the bill to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed."

Gee, Rod Blagojevich kinda seems like small potatoes now, doesn't he?   How is it that the media and public are so outraged about a relatively small time knucklehead like Rod Blagojevich when George W. Bush is unaccountable for his willful subversion of the Constitution of the United States?

He should have been impeached a long time ago.

Comments

[John Anders]

Stop the witch hunt now! Set Hot Rod Free! Some folks out there have organized the movement to Free Rod Blagojevich, including a letter writing campaign, at http://www.freerodblagojevich.com.

[Jay McDonough]

I sure do like the nickname...."Hot Rod".....very catchy