chicagotribune.comEditorial
Recall? You said 'yes'
October 30, 2007
Should Rod Blagojevich remain as governor of Illinois?
This page posed that question in a Sunday editorial, then went on to answer it in a way that probably didn't surprise many people: Blagojevich is Exhibit A in favor of a constitutional amendment that would allow the voters of Illinois to recall an inept governor.
He has played fast and loose with the state's finances, neglected Illinois' most urgent needs while crusading for his own prohibitively expensive causes and stubbornly obstructed progress on critical initiatives without offering realistic alternatives.
When the same question was asked of readers, though, the response was harder to predict. After all, the people of Illinois elected and re-elected Blagojevich. Have his actions and inactions in the first year of his second term been so egregious that voters would entertain a proposal to un-elect him?
As one reader wrote: "Let's get started!"
More than 1,200 readers replied, and the overwhelming majority supported the recall of the governor. You can read many of the responses on today's Commentary page, and find more at Chicagotribune.com/opinion.
Many of you spoke in terms that were even more emphatic than the editorial. He can't work with others, even in his own party, they said. He worries more about his cronies and his contributors than about the people who elected him, they said. He hasn't kept his promise to address the state pension crisis because he's too busy fighting a lost battle for universal health care, they said. (And that perfectly blown hair really, really rubs some of you the wrong way.) Though a handful of readers rose to the governor's defense, they were shouted down by hundreds of others -- including many who prefaced responses with "I'm a lifelong Democrat" or "I voted for Blagojevich twice" -- who said he should go.
"YES!! Recall Blagojevich."
"He is an unmitigated disaster."
"GET HIM OUT NOW."
And it turns out they were just warming up.
"How about [Cook County President Todd] Stroger? Can we dump him too?"
Angry readers took their shots at Stroger, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, House Speaker Mike Madigan, House Republican Leader Tom Cross and Emil Jones, "self-appointed King of the Illinois Senate."
In a remarkable outpouring of exasperation and
, readers lashed out against the cascade of new tax increase proposals and the failure of elected officials to cut spending or trim patronage workers from their bloated staffs. You railed about broken campaign promises, gridlock in Springfield, legislative indifference to critical needs such as education or pension reform and the uncertainty over whether we'll have a mass transit system come Monday. Yes, you'd like the opportunity to recall Blagojevich, you said, but why stop there? Good question.
Mr. Mayor, Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, et al.: We hope you're listening. Though it is far easier to vent than to vote, your constituents are fed up, and dangerously receptive to the suggestion that they do something about it for a change.
It's time to put their needs ahead of your political ambitions and your personal connections, not because they might remove you from office but because they put you there in the first place.
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune
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