Feelings mixed locally on ouster
By TIM KANE -
tkane@nwherald.com
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| Visitors in the senate gallery, including Jack Franks, D-Marengo, (center) listen to senators as they cast their vote to remove Rod Blagojevich from the office of governor at his impeachment trial Thursday in the senate chambers of the State Capital building in Springfield. (AP Photo) |
CRYSTAL LAKE – A TV screen flickered behind the bar, and a half-dozen patrons of Williams Street Tap watched the televised impeachment proceedings against soon-to-be-former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
None of them were surprised at the outcome – the unanimous vote to remove Blagojevich from office – but Richard Mackie, a Crystal Lake resident, was disgusted.
The Illinois Senate, Mackie said, was undoing the democratic process. The senators were removing a sitting governor whom the people had elected into office.
“It’s kind of a travesty,” Mackie said. “I did not vote for him. I never really liked him. But I don’t think he’s getting a fair trial. I think it’s wrong. He’s been set up.”
William “Spike” Black, who stood behind the bar, was noncommittal.
“I’m a bartender,” Black said. “One thing I learned is you don’t talk religion or politics standing back here.”
It was a chilly night with a sharp wind, and Diane Terrell, a Harvard resident, parked her car on Williams Street and was winding her way to a coffee shop down the block.
“I’m a yellow-dog Republican,” Terrell said. “But this rhetoric from Patrick Quinn, his over-the-top pontification while at the same time measuring the drapes in the governor’s mansion.
“... Blagojevich is just a small potato. The politicians in Springfield are all feigning outrage. Each is trying to act more pious than the next. It’s incredible. It’s a joke.”
Cathy Foreman, a McHenry resident, said she, too, expected Blagojevich’s ouster.
“It’s not surprising,” Foreman said. “They had wiretaps. But we don’t know the whole story. I was talking to my dad about this. Illinois is steeped in corruption. We don’t know what he did. We don’t have all the facts, and there was no trial.”
Dan Phelps, who works at The Players Bench – a guitar shop on Williams Street – was outside taking a smoking break.
“I’m a lifelong Democrat, but I’m happy,” Phelps said. “I’m happy he was impeached. Corruption is corruption. It doesn’t matter who’s doing it. If it’s good for George Ryan, it’s good for Blagojevich.”
