What happens now with Blagojevich?

A lot of people are wondering what happens in Springfield now. Even as more and more pressure is put on Blagojevich to resign, he just retained Ed Genson and looks to be ready for a fight.

There are a lot of ways for this to end, a combination of events could either take down the Democratic Party in Illinois or let everyone, including Blagojevich skate free.

Option A: Impeachment

The Illinois Republicans have been pushing realty hard for impeachment, and have been getting no where. A real impeachment trial would be long, and would be very damaging to the Illinois Democratic Party. A long public impeachment trial combined with a scorched earth mentality for Blagojevich could wind up revealing many secrets about the political machine in Illinois, damaging not only the Illinois Democratic party, but our new Dear Leader himself. How good would the new administration look if everyone got to see the shit that the fertilized the fields his political carrier grew in.

If impeachment proceedings were to drag on and on look for Blagojevich to continually drive up the stakes. Remember, that his wife Patti, did work with Rezko, and even the threat that she could spill the beans (even if she knew nothing) on Obama would be a strong hand to play.

A good legal team could keep Blagojevich in trial and out of jail for years. He is going to be looking for a promise from the Obama administration for a pardon after Obama leaves office.

Option B: Removal, the Lisa Madigan Way

Lisa Madigan was all over the TV the other day. She was floating the idea of using Article V, Section 6 of the Illinois constitution to oust Blagojevich from office challenging his mental fitness. This is a bit of a long shot, and several legal scholars have taken Madigan to task for the weakness of the brief.

This is a long shot, but one worth trying. Mike Madigan, Speaker of the House and AG Madigan’s dad (cozy nepotism) would like to keep his skeletons clean in any impeachment trial

Option C: Resignation

Blagojevich quits, leaves office. I don’t think he will do this unless someone throws out some carrots, because there aren’t any sticks left to hit him with. As above, the longer he waits to do this, the more desperate the Illinois Democratic Party will be to cut a deal with him.

No one would accept the Senate seat if Blagojevich gave it to them, and the longer he is the governor, the more pressure there is going to be to hold a special election. A special election in this climate would mean that a guaranteed democratic seat in the Senate would be put in doubt (I don’t think they could win it, but the Republican party in Illinois sucks ass too, so who knows).

Also, the longer this goes on, the more pressure there is going to be for an impeachment, and the democrats don’t want that either .

My bet, resignation with a deal. Fight it out in federal court, do a few months in jail and have Obama pardon him.

If this doesn’t happen by Christmas though, it will be well into February before it does.