As Illinois legislators began to talk openly of quickly impeaching indicted governor Rod Blagojevich, Barack Obama prepared to make a statement, Sen. Dick Durbin called for a special election, and the lawyers of the nation's largest labor union reviewed its role in the indictment in detail.
Obama, meeting with former vice president Al Gore today, will probably make a brief on-camera statement. Transition aides declined to comment on the indictment; they seemed to be surprised by its scope. Speaking about Obama, U.S. Attorney Pat Fitzgerald told reporters that prosecutors "make no allegations that he is aware of anything." Perhaps as a courtesy to the president-elect, Obama's name isn't printed in the indictment -- only
Durbin called on the Illinois General Assembly to enact a law as quickly as possible calling for a special election to fill the Senate vacancy of Barack Obama. No appointment by this Governor could produce a credible replacement."
Rep. Jan Schawkosky (D-IL) called today for Blagojevich to resign, and if he refuses, to impeach him.
The complaint alleges that Blagojevich tried to use an intermediary to bargain with Sen. Obama; it describes a meeting on November 12 with a high-ranking official at the Service Employees International Union, where Blagojevich suggested that he'd accept a position at an organization designed to help the Senate candidate.
One labor official and one press accounts say that the SEIU official was Andrew Stern, the SEIU's outspoken president. Discussing how one might help a senatorial candidate is legal and par the course, but Blagojhevich apparently asked for the money upfront.
A senior SEIU official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that the union's lawyers had reviewed the complaint and did not believe that anyone associated with the union had anything to be concerned about. Witnesses, they surely are.
| 
