The Blue Bush

4:15 pm, 10/28/07

The Blue Bush

It's "in" to hate Blagojevich, says Rich Miller:

Just 23 percent of voters said they approve of the way Blagojevich is handling his job, a recent Wesleyan University poll found. A different survey, from the respected Rasmussen Reports, found that only a tiny fraction of the population -- just 5 percent -- rate the governor's job performance as "excellent."

It's to the point where Blagojevich probably wishes he could move "up" to Richard Nixon's ratings. And he's very close to George Ryan's job approval ratings as the soon-to-be prison inmate was leaving office under a cloud of federal investigations.

Only 29 percent of voters in overwhelmingly Democratic Cook County said they approved of Blagojevich's job performance, according to the Wesleyan poll. By contrast, 67 percent of Cook voters gave the thumbs up to U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and 67 percent said they will vote for a Democrat for U.S. Congress. The governor's doing better with county voters than President Bush, but statewide the two are locked in a dead heat.

Not a single demographic in Illinois, whether it's race, party affiliation, gender, ideology, income or region, gives the governor a majority or even a plurality of support.

That's diversity.

I guess this makes me at trend setter. Meanwhile, the Chicago Tribune wonders how to get rid of the autotheistic Governor.

He shows no inclination to resign from office. And while the state constitution does allow for his impeachment by the Illinois House and trial by the Senate, it's doubtful legislators could bring themselves to such drastic action. So the realistic question becomes this: Given the multiple ineptitudes of Rod Blagojevich -- his reckless financial stewardship, his dictatorial antics, his penchant for creating political enemies -- should citizens create a new way to terminate a chief executive who won't, or can't, do his job?

The odds are not great that a process for removing inept governors can be initiated in time to remove this inept governor. But that effort, which must begin in the Illinois General Assembly, would be worth the burden it creates, possibly including a special election to replace Blagojevich with a new governor.

In practical terms: The earliest that voters could be asked to add a recall amendment to the state constitution is the November 2008 general election. If the amendment is worded properly, there would be time to recall Blagojevich before voters get a chance to dump him the old-fashioned way: in a 2010 primary or general election, should he seek a third term.

There wouldn't have been a second term if the GOP had nominated a decent candidate. I'm not sure a recall mechanism can fix the dearth of talent interested in the position.