Spring Break
Ousting of Blagojevich the right decision
Sean Reed
Issue date: 2/2/09 Section: Opinion
If it looks like a rat and talks like a rat, it's probably a rat. Or at least that seems to be the opinion of the Illinois legislature.
On Thursday, in a unanimous vote, the Illinois Senate voted to oust and permanently bar from serving in state office disgraced Gov. Rod Blagojevich for a slew of corruption charges, including an allegation that he tried to sell the vacant U.S. Senate seat left by President Barack Obama.
This vote comes after two months of intrigue, accusations and sound bites from tapes the FBI obtained while performing their own investigation for a future criminal trial.
For his part, Blagojevich has and continues to assert his innocence, even going so far as to boycott his trial in the legislature as unfair because of rules that barred him from calling witnesses to testify on his behalf.
Instead of attending the trial, Blagojevich instead hit the media circuit in New York, in an attempt to make his case directly to the public.
In several interviews, he challenged the legitimacy of the proceedings and specifically called into question the evidence being used against him, including the FBI tapes.
And, to be perfectly honest, he had a point.
Because of the ongoing investigation, much of the evidence compiled by the FBI was not accessible to members of the legislature, leaving much left to hearsay, a fact even admitted by some members of the state senate, according to The New York Times.
This hindrance was especially apparent when it came to the tapes, which many media outlets would have you believe were damning evidence against Blagojevich.
Of course, that could still be true. However, the versions heard by the senators and posted online were so heavily redacted that multiple conclusions could be drawn from them.
Really, when it comes down to it, the so-called "evidence" didn't prove anything beyond a reasonable doubt.
On that point, Blagojevich was at least partially in the right.
On Thursday, in a unanimous vote, the Illinois Senate voted to oust and permanently bar from serving in state office disgraced Gov. Rod Blagojevich for a slew of corruption charges, including an allegation that he tried to sell the vacant U.S. Senate seat left by President Barack Obama.
This vote comes after two months of intrigue, accusations and sound bites from tapes the FBI obtained while performing their own investigation for a future criminal trial.
For his part, Blagojevich has and continues to assert his innocence, even going so far as to boycott his trial in the legislature as unfair because of rules that barred him from calling witnesses to testify on his behalf.
Instead of attending the trial, Blagojevich instead hit the media circuit in New York, in an attempt to make his case directly to the public.
In several interviews, he challenged the legitimacy of the proceedings and specifically called into question the evidence being used against him, including the FBI tapes.
And, to be perfectly honest, he had a point.
Because of the ongoing investigation, much of the evidence compiled by the FBI was not accessible to members of the legislature, leaving much left to hearsay, a fact even admitted by some members of the state senate, according to The New York Times.
This hindrance was especially apparent when it came to the tapes, which many media outlets would have you believe were damning evidence against Blagojevich.
Of course, that could still be true. However, the versions heard by the senators and posted online were so heavily redacted that multiple conclusions could be drawn from them.
Really, when it comes down to it, the so-called "evidence" didn't prove anything beyond a reasonable doubt.
On that point, Blagojevich was at least partially in the right.
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