Rod Blagojevich, It Sucks To Be You

By Margaret Lyons in News on Nov 12, 2007 6:00PM

Looks like we're not the only ones with a case of the Mondays: Things aren't looking so great for Blagojevich today, either. Over the weekend, Lt. Governor Pat Quinn blamed Blago for the firing of 17 veterans from security jobs within the Illinois Department of Military Affairs. "The governor proclaimed this 'Hire a Veteran Month.' He didn't say 'Fire a Veteran,'" said Quinn. All together now: Oh, snap! Blagojevich says it's a matter of federal funding.

Speaking of moolah (sort of), State Police have reopened an investigation into whether a Blagojevich fund-raiser illegally solicited a donation to his campaign. Pharmacy owner Jatin Patel claims fund-raiser Harish Bhatt suggested that making a campaign contribution would ensure that Patel's pharmacy would be treated "fairly" by the administration in a Medicaid payment dispute. Bhatt denies it.

Not helping Blago's self esteem is a new poll says 51.9 percent of Illinois's registered voters would vote to recall the Governor if Illinois had such a provision.

According to the poll, a majority or a plurality of every demographic, including race, region and party, said they would vote to recall Blagojevich. Even in Chicago, the margin was 48.2 percent for Blagojevich's recall and 43.9 percent against. And 46.7 percent of Democrats said they were for recalling Blagojevich if they had the chance; 45.4 percent said they wouldn't support it.

And finally, a Blago ally and appointee still owes the state $80K in election fines. After Calvin Giles lost his race for the Illinois House, Blagojevich appointed him northern region manager for the Illinois Department of Employment Security.