Governor Get Him Out

Readers overwhelmingly responded to the Tribune's Sunday editorial advocating recall for Governor No Lincoln. Today's editorial here.

People were pretty disgusted with Governor Pretty Boy and many wanted to toss Stroger too.

My favorite letter, though, is from one reader who emphatically disagreed (in the print edition, didn't make it online):

The idiotic editorial 'Removing a governor" is ghastly Halloween hyperbole on par with some of Ann Coulter's craziest anti-liberal tirades.

It completely overlooks the fact that Rod Blagojevich is the best and most popular governor in Illinois history, and a prime prospect to run for vice president with whoever wins the 2008 presidential primary. [sorry Mr. Epstein, I don't think he makes the short list for the GOP. Maybe Hillary will improve her election prospects in Illinois and take him off our hands.]

Such a blatantly pretentious attempt at character assassination is as far off as when John Wilkes Booth called Abraham Lincoln a tyrant.

Anyone with any sense would know better than to believe such loony right-wing rhetoric.

As a trial balloon, the editorial obviously does not float.

Kenneth J. Epstein, Chicago

Whatever floats your boat. Though I usually think Ann Coulter is way over the top in a bid to sell more books, I think this time she may have something in her latest one---If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans.

UPDATE: Illinois GOP statement:

Where do Illinois Democrats stand
on recall provision?

In light of yesterday’s Chicago Tribune editorial, the Illinois Republican Party is calling on state leaders Mike Madigan, Emil Jones, Senator Barack Obama and Senator Dick Durbin to take a stand on the Tribune’s question as to whether Illinoisans should have the right to recall their statewide elected officials.

The Chicago Tribune made strong and accurate statements regarding Rod Blagojevich’s failed administration. Further, they posed the question of adding a provision giving Illinois voters the power to remove state officials from office.

“As Rod Blagojevich and his minions run Illinois into the ground, other Democrats throughout Illinois remain curiously quiet about Rod Blagojevich’s inability to govern and the possibility of a recall provision being placed on the November 2008 ballot,” said ILGOP Spokesperson Lance Trover.

While Illinoisans are coming off the longest legislative session in Illinois history, years of corruption, unprecedented borrowing, failure to pass a capital plan, and a transit system facing certain doom due to lack of state funding, Illinois Democrats including Senators Barack Obama and Dick Durbin choose to sit on the sidelines and ignore the problems facing this state.

“It would also be informative to hear from Speaker Madigan and President Jones as to whether they would support the necessary actions of the General Assembly to bring a recall provision to fruition,” added Trover.