All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

Lawmakers in the state of Illinois are debating the economic and safety issues surrounding a potential transfer of prisoners from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to a maximum security prison about 150 miles west of Chicago. In the process, they have also managed to turn the discussion into a partisan debate.

Democrats in Illinois, including Gov. Pat Quinn and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, are in support of a plan the White House is considering to move Guantanamo detainees to the Thomson State Correctional facility in Northwest Illinois. On Wednesday, Durbin will hold a closed-door briefing on the issue with the state's entire congressional delegation, according to the Hill newspaper. Pentagon and Justice Department officials will be in attendance at the meeting, along with Illinois state officials, the Hill reports.

Federal officials and state lawmakers toured the nearly empty facility in November. Thomson has 1,600 cells, but it currently only holds about 200 minimum-security inmates because budget problems kept it from fully opening. Bringing the Guantanamo detainees to the prison could bring nearly 3,000 jobs to the area, according to a White House analysis. The county's unemployment rate, which was at 10.5 percent in September, could be cut by 2 to 4 percentage points by the transfer, according to the analysis.

"There are too many people out of work, there are businesses closing down because people are out of work," Durbin said reportedly said in November, explaining his support for the plan. "They need pay checks."

Nevertheless, Republican representatives from Illinois maintain the move would be a bad idea. GOP Illinois Reps. Mark Kirk, Aaron Schock, Pete Roskam, Tim Johnson, Mark Kirk, John Shimkus, Judy Biggert and Don Manzullo have introduced legislation to ban funding for the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to the U.S., the Hill notes.

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Ousted Illinois Gov. Rob Blagojevich will be indicted today, according to sources, reports the Chicago Sun-Times.

All the U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago is saying for sure is that they will release a court filing today about a "significant criminal matter." The release did not mention what case the filing pertained to, but the Sun-Times says it will be related to Blagojevich.

Blagojevich was first arrested on December 9 on corruption charges related to accusations he was trying to sell President Obama's former senate seat. He was impeached and removed from office two months later.

Also of note: according to the Associated Press, the former governor and his family are on vacation at Walt Disney World in Florida.

Sen. Dick Durbin suggested to his fellow Illinois Sen. Roland Burris today that he would resign from the chamber if he was in Burris' shoes.

But in a meeting today, Burris said he would not resign, according to Durbin.

Durbin's comments were made after the two Democrats met privately as Burris faces calls to step down following his admission that he had more involvement with former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich than initially he let on while being considered for an appointment to President Obama’s former Senate seat.

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From the Associated Press:

A Chicago minister tells The Associated Press he and other black pastors who previously supported U.S. Sen. Roland Burris now plan to ask him to resign.

The minister spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity because a meeting with Burris hadn't yet been scheduled. He says the senator can no longer serve effectively.

Many of the city's black pastors supported seating Burris because of his scandal-free reputation — even though he was appointed by then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich after the governor was arrested.

But revelations that Burris attempted to raise money for Blagojevich while seeking the Senate job have eroded some of his support. Blagojevich is accused of trying to sell the Senate appointment.

A Burris spokeswoman didn't immediately return a phone message.

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If you haven't heard, ex-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was on The Late Show with David Letterman last night proclaiming his innocence and, at least briefly, talking hair care products.

Video of the appearance is below.

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For an attorney and lawmaker, former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich sure seems to have a limited understanding of guilt and innocence.

The coiffed crusader was on CBS' Late Show With David Letterman today (airing later tonight) to once again let America know the truth: He's innocent.

And how do we know he's innocent? Because he says he's innocent.

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This analysis is by CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen

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In his appeal to the Illinois state Senate, Gov. Rod Blagojevich was calm, he was organized and he was a lot less fiesty and argumentative than he had been earlier in the week on all those talk shows.

His appeal was simple: I may be a rough and tumble governor who likes to cut through red tape and who pushes too hard, but my motives were always good and my conduct was always legal. That's a tough sell in politics or law.

Even if it doesn't save his job, we clearly saw a preview of the defense he'll offer in federal court if and when he is indicted on those bribery and corruption charges that led to his impeachment. He's going to say the evidence is weak, that what he did is what politicians do, and that he had no criminal intent during all those alleged pay for play phone calls.

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This analysis was written by CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen.

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Today, the threadbare phrase “political theater” rises temporarily from cliché. Kingfish-like, Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich will tear himself away from the green rooms and audio ear pieces of New York and will, on this last Thursday of the rest of his life, deliver himself into the well of the State Senate in Springfield.

There, he will face his prosecutors, who also happen to be his judges, to stand and deliver his own closing argument for an impeachment trial at which he has not been present or presented any defense.

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This analysis is written by CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen

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We have learned over the past thousand years or so that there is something about the nature of politics, something about the yin-and-yang of governance and the gratuitous bowing down to voters, that draws self-destructive people into its orbit. The list of elected officials who have ruined their own careers through hubris and greed and lust and sheer stupidity is endless. See, e.g., Spitzer, Eliot.

Illinois Governor Rod R. Blagojevich, however, may have brought this pattern to a new low.

First, he pulled a Gary Hart and challenged the world to tape his phone conversations. His challenge, naturally, came exactly one day before U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald filed a powerful criminal complaint against him based upon incriminating wiretapped phone conversations between Blagojevich and his satellites.

No reasonable person in the world, under investigation (and who knew or should have known that his phone was tapped), would talk smack that way. And yet Blagojevich did.

But that suicidal move was nothing compared to what the governor has done this week while his impeachment trial has been underway in the state legislature in Springfield.

Instead of respecting the political/legal process and defending himself against still-unproven bribery and corruption charges, instead of doing what a reasonable person in his circumstances would do, Gov. Blagojevich left Illinois, traveled to New York, and compared himself to Ghandi, Mandela, Roosevelt, etc.

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"If you don't pay close attention, the plot changes," Illinois senator Dick Durbin said of the drama surrounding the appointment of Roland Burris to fill Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat on CBS News' Face The Nation this morning.

Admitting that Democrats in the Senate had initially opposed seating Burris, owing to what was perceived as a possible taint from his selection by indicted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Durbin said, "As time has gone on and we've looked closely, we want to be fair to Roland Burris."

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