Obama: Blagojevich 'Crippled' Illinois

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says the removal of Rod Blagojevich (blah-GOY'-uh-vich) as governor has ended a "painful episode for Illinois."

In a 41-word statement released late Thursday, Obama says he wishes Blagojevich's replacement, Gov. Patrick Quinn, the best even though the state was crippled by a crisis of leadership.

Lawmakers in Springfield unanimously ousted Blagojevich from office Thursday afternoon. He is accused of trying to profit from selling Obama's former seat in the U.S. Senate and faces federal investigation.

Blagojevich says he has done no wrong and has vowed to defend himself.

Comments

[PennP]

http://blogs.courant.com/capitol_watch/2009/01/barack-obama-on-gov-rod-blagoj.html

"Today ends a painful episode for Illinois. For months, the state had been crippled by a crisis of leadership. Now that cloud has lifted. I wish Governor Quinn the best and pledge my full cooperation as he undertakes his new responsibilities.''

[Ron333wood]

The ancient Egyptians had the right idea. When a pharoah was disgraced or deposed all mention of him was removed from scrolls and obolisks'. Unfortunately, we are able to remove his name and face from public view, but the consequences of his mismanagement will take years and a tax increases to restore this state to solvency. I wish I could steal money from supposedly "dedicated" funds and not pay my bills and then say, "Yeah, I have money in the bank!!!" It will take years to restore state agencies to efficiency levels they had reached BEFORE Blagojevich "improved" them.

[PerryWhite]

Some of what Blagojevich was impeached for occurred in his first term. Why then did Obama endorse Blagojevich in a contested primary?

[eden4barack08]

Obama endorsed his opponent in the primaries. Get your facts straight.

[weatherwaxx]

He didn't.

[harriettubman]

The man has been a crook for 6 yrs. In IL, running unopposed or against someone no one knows will keep you in office.

[wvinvent]

I'm curious. It was a "41-word statement". The author took 32 words to interpret a portion of the statement, but did not bother to post the statement itself. Was there too little room available on the HoffPost server for all those characters? Or was the authors interpretation more important than Obama's statement? Just wondering.

[eden4barack08]

I was looking for at least a link to the statement too. Curious.

[philosopherkingtomas]

impeach all republicrites! and encourage Palin (just to screw up the party even more)>

[jsgaetano]

Now that Blago has been impeached, we can get to work on impeaching Bush.

[eden4barack08]

He's not in office anymore.

[weatherwaxx]

Then arrest the son-of-a-bush.