Democrat Mike Madigan, Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives, issued a memo today to Illinois Democratic legislature candidates urging them to call for the House to investigate whether impeachment proceedings should be brought against our governor, Democrat Rod Blagojevich. The memo (warning: large .pdf) includes a list of reasons why the Governor should be impeached as well as talking points and answers to potential media questions. Some of the reasons are better than others (good reason: in the recent Ali Ata trial, Blagojevich was publicly identified as "Public Official A," implicating him as accepting campaign contributions in return for jobs; bad reason: Blagojevich proposed a gross receipts tax last year. I don't like taxes, but do we impeach officials for stupid policy?), but on the whole I think an impeachment investigation is warranted.
Of course, being Illinois, there has to be an element of ham-handed stupidity. The memo counsels the candidates to deny Madigan's involvement and refuse to comment on the implications of impeachment for Lisa Madigan (current Illinois Attorney General and daughter of the memo's propagator) and her aspirations to the governor's office. Have these morons never heard of the internet? This stuff gets out no matter what. Republican House Minority Leader Tom Cross of course pounced, pointing out that in a memo calling for impeaching the Governor for, among other things, lying, Madigan recommends the candidates lie.
For more, see The Capitol Fax.
