CHICAGO — With pressure mounting for him to resign or face impeachment, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich went back to work Thursday in what an aide described as an attempt to “return to normalcy.”
Blagojevich, facing federal charges accusing him of putting President-elect Barack Obama’s Senate seat up for sale, did his best to ignore, or appear to ignore, the storm swirling around him.
Obama himself called on Blagojevich to step down. Lt. Gov. Patrick Quinn urged lawmakers to quickly begin impeachment proceedings. And the state’s attorney general threatened a last-resort option of getting a state high court order declaring Blagojevich unfit to serve.
“Illinois is in crisis,” Quinn said at the state Capitol.
Blagojevich, meanwhile, returned for a second day to his Chicago office and was in an “upbeat, positive” mood, spokesman Lucio Guerrero said. “There’s a sense of trying to return to normalcy,” he said, adding that he doesn’t know whether Blagojevich will step down. “That’s something that obviously he’ll decide on his own.”
Allegations that the governor tried to sell or trade Obama’s seat form just part of the federal charges that led to his arrest Tuesday. Obama said at a news conference that neither he nor his staff were involved in a deal with the disgraced governor.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan again threatened to go to the state Supreme Court to have Blagojevich declared unfit to hold office if he doesn’t resign soon or get impeached. Madigan, a Blagojevich foe who is considering a run for governor in 2010, wants a signal from lawmakers about whether they will move quickly on impeachment proceedings.
Legislative leaders planned a special session Monday to strip Blagojevich of his power to pick a new U.S. senator, putting the decision in the hands of Illinois voters instead. Lawmakers also prepared to discuss the possibility of impeachment.
Quinn said that the impeachment process should begin when the legislature convenes and if that lawmakers don’t take action to remove Blagojevich, he would support Madigan’s going to the Supreme Court.
