Impeachment Report - Read This

Last week I vented to local elected politicians about the difficulty of finding the voting record on the Blago impeachment, and I would like to thank the offices of Sen. Althoff and Rep. Tryon for their replies and information.

The vote was apparently 114-1-1, not 114-1 as was reported in the mainstream press. Representative Milton Patterson (D-Chicago) was the lone "No" vote on impeachment, but the voter of "Present" or whatever it was remained unidentified. Who is Milton Patterson? You can read all (little) about him at http://www.ilga.gov/house/Rep.asp?GA=95&MemberID=1306. No years shown for his term in office. No biography. Who is this mysterious man from Chicago's South Side that had the intestinal fortitude to stand alone and vote against Blago's impeachment? Hey, it takes guts to do that.

If you'd like to read the whole sordid mess in the Final Report of the Special Investigative Committee (on Impeachment), go to
http://www.ilga.gov/house/committees/reports.asp?CommitteeID=758&GA=95

There you can read of the multiple (alleged) attempts to "trade officials acts for campaign contributions" and other (alleged) misdeeds. One that jumped out at me was "The Governor's I-SaveRx Plan".

I had complained continually to the governor's office and to Rep. Jack Franks that this plan was illegal. It turns out that the FDA had informed Blago that the importation of prescription drugs was illegal on multiple occasions, Blago launched the I-SaveRx Plan, anyway. And Jack promoted it on his website for a long time, right on the homepage.

Foreign pharmacies were inspected by Illinois State personnel who were not drug compliance investigators, as required by Illinois law. Forty (40%) percent of the drug inspection forms were not completely filled out. The Report states that the Illinois Attorney General identified many problems that were violations of State law.

Where was the AG when I complained to that office about the illegal importation of prescription drugs? It certainly would be interesting to learn how my complaint was handled!

It took a complaint to the Illinois Legislative AG (who was hard to find!) to get Jack's attention and the removal of the I-SaveRx Plan from his website. Once the L.A.G. got involved, that information was off Jack's website within three days. But let a constituent complain about a violation of Federal law? No action!

Section IV (F) concludes with "In sum, the Governor knew the program was illegal but allowed it to go forward; and then the program, once implemented, violated numerous State laws relating to safety and quality control of prescription drugs. The Committee finds that the Governor abused the power of his office."

Read this Report. This is serious stuff!

Now, why is the Senate waiting two weeks to begin its impeachment trial? Gotta get ready to get ready; right? The trial should have started today!