The Deconstruction of a Governor

John, at Ad Orientem, breaks with his regularly scheduled programming to note the marsupail nature of Blagojevich's impeachment:

It's the bizarre idea that no matter how obviously guilty a man is, no matter if he shot the sheriff in front of a hundred people in broad daylight and sat on the corpse until he was arrested, he is still entitled to a fair trial before he can be hung. And let us again be frank and honest. Whatever you choose to call what went on in Springfield over the last week; due process and fair trial are not words which can be applied. The descriptive term which I am leaning towards is "kangaroo court."

We have established a lovely litte precedent. A little interaction between the federal and state governments which could be pretty effective in destroying other governors too. Who is next- Sarah Palin? Few will have the audacity to talk the way Blagojevich talked, but the real secret is that it won't matter. If the possibility of a federal corruption trial can hamstring one's defense in an impeachment trail, then the quality of the evidence won't matter. It just becomes a matter of numbers, of who in the state government will be willing to play ball with the federal authorities.