Governor Threat

Illinois Congressman Mark Kirk (R-10th) weighs in on our if nothing else colorful, sometime cowboy governor:

The governor's recent call for changes to the rules for the proceedings and his media tour have some state lawmakers wondering about his motives.

"He's gone insane. He has decided that he's only got a couple of days left in office and he's gonna go out in a blaze of misguided glory," said Republican Rep. Mark Kirk of Chicago's north suburbs.

Tomorrow brings Democrat Blazin' Blago on GMA, The View and Larry King, but he'll be a no-show for the drama at high noon on the Dem-run state senate floor. Tribune:

On Monday at noon, the ornate chandelier-framed chambers of the Illinois Senate will provide the setting for the impeachment trial. In a nod to decorum, senators were advised not to bring food to their desks, to turn off cell phones and iPods, and use their laptop computers only "in connection with the impeachment trial proceedings" rather than play solitaire as some often do.

He's lost his high-powered attorney Ed Genson but hired a notorious murder-suspect's PR firm:

The firm, The Publicity Agency, lists as a client former Bolingbrook Police Sgt. Drew Peterson, suspected in the slaying of his third wife and disappearance of his fourth wife.

Blago's not giving up without a fight, but why did Blago's attorney Ed Genson abruptly withdraw Friday after vowing to fight all the way, both on the impeachment proceeding and then the trial?

Is Blago toast or does the government not have a case, despite all the tapes? And after Blago's media blitz, will an Illinois jury convict? What about the revelation a few days ago that Rahm Emanuel asked cooperating witness John Wyma to tell Blago no deals--and it's on tape. And why does Blago keep dropping Rahmbo's name as a witness he wants to call? Who else will this whole scandal bring down? Or will the real scandal be not what was done illegally but what is done legally all the time, as leftie pundit Michael Kinsley once observed.

It looks like the governor will be summarily impeached this week, but the drama will go on. John Kass sees Blago transformed again, and gives us the background:

Gov. Nosferatu called attention to the plans of his fellow Democrats to slam through an income tax increase once they remove him, and a move by the road builders for another tax. And he went so far as to pressure President Barack Obama by demanding he be allowed to call the president's political operatives as witnesses, which the legislature has denied him as per the request of U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald, so as not to damage the pending criminal case against the governor.

And this:

It was the governor's loud demand to call the president's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, as a witness that made the real news. Gov. Nosferatu's criminal defense attorney was Edward Genson, whose job it was to hold the governor's hand and keep him quiet, just as Genson kept Larry Warner, the corrupt pal of former Gov. George Ryan, quiet.

But Nosferatu's demands about Emanuel forced Genson to fire himself from the case.

Read on. And what about David Axelrod? The governor is a threat to the entrenched interests around here. At least some good could come of all this. Hang 'em high.

P.S. Oh, and Maureen Dowd loves Blago. "Which governor is wackier?":

I love Blago.

I love his beady little eyes. I love his Serbian shock of hair. I love his flaring nostrils. I love the way he jogs through the snow under indictment, like a stork in spandex trying to gallop. I love the way he compares himself in quick order to Pearl Harbor, Oliver Wendell Holmes and a dead cowboy.