Why not just strip him of the office?

The Illinois legislature seeks to cripple their tyrant.

A bill that would strip Gov. Rod Blagojevich of control over the Illinois State Board of Education sailed through a state House committee Tuesday, sending it before the full House.

But even if the bill makes it through the House, it will face a tougher road in the Senate, where Blagojevich ally Emil Jones (D-Chicago) holds the gavel. Jones said Tuesday that he is satisfied with the board as it is.

Naturally.

Mr. Popular's name is coming up all over the place, including courtrooms. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Blagojevich's name was on the table within the first ten minutes of Tony Rezko's trial, and among the witnesses was Blagojevich's former campaign finance director, Kelly Glynn.

Kelly Glynn, who is not accused of any wrongdoing in the case, served as finance director for Rod Blagojevich's 2002 Illinois gubernatorial campaign, a job she does not list on an online resume [on LinkedIn].

There is a hole in her experience between 2002, when she reported she stopped working as a deputy chief of staff for Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and 2005, when she reports taking her current position as finance director for the [Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee].

That's a part of my life I'd try to forget, too. This is the only man who holds the power to so disgust the legislature and citizenry that a constitutional amendment is being written just for him.

At the urging of Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn, an Illinois House committee Wednesday voted unanimously in favor of asking voters if they want to allow California-style recalls of elected officials.

State Rep. Jack Franks, D-Woodstock, said he proposed the constitutional amendment because of Gov. Rod Blagojevich's performance, and that he expects overwhelming support for the bill in the House.

"Illinois voters deserve a way to remove an incompetent elected official who has not committed a crime," Franks said.

I think the word he was looking for is "convicted". To assert that Blagojevich hasn't committed a crime is, shall we say, a stretch.

Of course, as Eric Zorn so correctly noted last November, Illinois voters do have a way to remove incompetent elected officials - by voting for someone else.

You had your chance. Blagojevich has been a banquet-sized turkey as a chief executive -- our editorial cited "his reckless financial stewardship, his dictatorial antics (and) his penchant for creating political enemies" as well as the smog of scandal that's hovered over his administration -- but no one can argue that he was a stealth turkey.

Blagojevich ran for re-election in a primary and general election last year as a notorious self-basting holiday bird whose record for grandstanding, stubbornness and cronyism in his first term was widely reported.

You may be disappointed by the pettiness, paralysis, polarization and general gobble-gobble-gobble in Springfield, but, unless you weren't paying attention last year, you can't be surprised. And you can't, in good conscience, ask for a re-do just because Blagojevich is running true to form.

Even if he weren't, you, the voters, have given us no reason to think you'd make a better decision choosing his replacement.

One day, we'll look back and on this and laugh, right?