Post Impeachment

Friday, after the impeachment was finished, the news cameras were all at the former governor’s Chicago home. His security detail was packing up and leaving. Apparently there is no provision for security once a governor leaves office – insert joke about going to prison here.

Something about the abruptness of that bothered me a bit. I don’t expect that anyone is going to physically harm the family. But I wouldn’t be surprised if a brick went through a window. It made me think of some other things we hadn’t considered before.

Like the fact that there was no way to stop a presumably corrupt governor from appointing someone to the Senate even after he was indicted for trying to sell the seat. There is also no provision in the Illinois Constitution for electing or appointing an interim Lt. Governor.

As I was mulling this over, my mother reminded me that I voted (rather adamantly) against calling a state constitutional convention last fall. This was a routine measure, not a campaign for reform. I had two reasons:

First, former governor Jim Edgar noted that having the same old politicians craft a new constitution isn’t going to fix what we don’t like about the old one. Second, Illinois doesn’t have the money for it right now.

While I am not quite so adamant about it these days, (because clearly the Illinois Constitution needs some work) I do not regret my vote.

The second reason – the cost - is also the reason why I wasn’t particularly interested in a mid-term election for President Obama’s Senate seat. An election would take more money and more time than I think we want. Roland Burris would not have been my candidate, but I hardly think he is going to do a lot of damage for the two years remaining in the term.

I hope I am done talking about this now. Illinois is embarrassed. I hope we are embarrassed enough to start making changes. Until then, the cartoons are pretty funny.