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celticlord2112 -> RE: Illinois Irony (1/2/2009 10:03:00 AM)
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quote:
Remember when the G.W.Bush team used the "equal protection" statute to prevent the Florida recount? Any rational interpretation of the statute would have laughed it off, but their far-fetched twisting of logic was accepted by the 5 right-leaning Supreme Court justices. So anything can happen when it comes to legal word parsing and logic twisting.
I do remember. What many overlook is that Gore's recount methodology was to recount ONLY those precincts deemed most favorable to him, without regard to all other precincts in the state of Florida; Bush argued (successfully) that electoral standards were a state affair, and that recounts had to be statewide or not at all. What many also overlook is that Gore, not Bush, was the one who tossed the election into the court system to begin with. Gore gambled with the courts and lost. (Courts, especially those with a judicially conservative demeanor, are generally reluctant to involve themselves in electoral disputes--the potential for bad law makes it not worth the effort)
When you pause to read the petitions of both Gore and Bush, and the court rulings at both the state and federal level, the final ruling of the Supreme Court is not a stretch by any means. In many respects, it was the only decision the Supreme Court could render, given the totality of law, fact, and circumstance (which is why Rehnquist explicitly exempted the decision from the doctrine of stare decisis, stating that the case was to set no precedent for the future).
Ironically, had Gore pursued the statewide recount, he likely would have prevailed in Florida and thus won the Presidency. Gore lost his nerve, and lost the Presidency as a result.
In Illinois now, as in Florida then, were the letter of the law given the weight it deserves, Blagojevich would have been neutered long before he dropped this bombshell in everyone's lap. Instead of pontificating endlessly about how Blagojevich should simply "step down" because it is what is good for the people, the good folk in Springfield should have attended to their own duties to those same people. Legislators have the power and the duty to pass law, and it is by law that Blagojevich has the powers he has. Legislators have the power and the duty to impeach errant executives, which arguably describes Blagojevich since at least his 2006 re-election campaign. The Legislature has steadfastly declined to rein him in; as they have scorned their capacity to act, it does not surprise that Blagojevich similarly scorns that capacity.
As has been mis-attributed to Edmund Burke, "all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Whether the Illinois Legislature is comprised of "good men" is debatable at this juncture, but that they have done nothing is beyond dispute; for their failure to act, their consequence is to suffer a triumphant (for now, at least) Blagojevich.
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