Don't You Dare, Dems

Demonstrating utter contempt for the public, new Dem Illinois Senate boss John Cullerton, of CHICAGO, suggests they might hold the impeachment debate behind closed doors. Tucked into the Sun Times print edition, page 3, can't find it online:

"We want this to be fair for everybody. You know what? It might be if someone wants to say something nice about the governor, but politically it's not appropriate, they might prefer to be in deliberations that are closed."

This is beyond belief, even for The Chicago Way master practitioners. Don't you dare, Dems! Live by political posturing and pay to play, die by it. This is not a criminal trial, rather a determination of whether the governor, as a public official, has violated the public trust. Impeachment must be public, so we can judge his conduct for ourselves. Sun Times editorial at the onset:

State lawmakers have plenty of material to work with, because they're using a broad criteria -- abuse of power -- in considering the alleged misdeeds of the governor.

State officials need to be as transparent as possible, not only about their case against Blagojevich, but also about their own conflicts of interest.

Madigan, for instance, will be running the impeachment process. He has a daughter you may have heard of, Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who would like to be governor.

Such conflicts are myriad in Illinois, almost inevitable, and the way to deal with them is to address them head-on, not shunt them aside.

If Gov. Blagojevich is to be impeached, the process must be one of unassailable integrity.

(Good luck with that in Illinois.) And if we happen to make some judgments about other public officials who aided and tolerated his behavior for so long, so be it. (David Axelrod actually had the integrity to not work with the Blago campaign for governor, but not Rahmbo and Barack Obama, no, no, no)

The panel has already thumbed its nose at the public once, meeting behind closed doors Sunday.

Leftie columnist Mark Brown, Sun Times: "Burris Backers Sell Out Voters":

The best solution here would have been a special election, but Democrats were too busy trying to ensure their hold on the Senate seat, which as we know is a bleeping valuable thing. They couldn't just give it away for nothing.

Brown has some background on Burris' lucrative deal-making, despite his claims: "there was certainly no pay to play involved because I don't have no money." Burris up before the impeachment committee today, but don't expect much from that.