DHS: No Blagos Allowed

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Jan 3, 2009 4:45PM

Poor Governor Rod Blagojevich. Everyone's picking on him. First, those no-good feds arrest for simply trying to get the best deal for the empty senate seat. Then everyone gets their panties in a tangle over his appointment of Roland Burris as the new Senator. Now, those jerkstores at the Department of Homeland Security are telling him he is no longer allowed to access classified federal security information. Totally not cool, guys.

Every governor is given such a clearance by Homeland Security to receive briefings on sensitive security information from Homeland Security and other federal agencies such as the FBI, said Amy Kudwa, spokeswoman for Homeland Security. "Being the subject of a criminal complaint, no matter who you are, is a disqualification," she said.

Okay, fair enough. But, seriously, who, then, gets the information about terrorist threats against the state, like The Great Sears Tower Plot of '06? Well, State Police Director Larry Trent and Illinois Emergency Management Agency Director Andrew Velasquez are among a group of top state officials who get the classified information and pass it along to the Governor. Patti Thompson, spokeswoman for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, said, "On the day-to-day things, his advisers are briefed. I think things will operate without a hitch because the higher advisers have that clearance."

But Jay E. Stewart, executive director of the Better Government Association, isn't so optimistic, saying Blago is, "flying in the dark when it comes to security...If there is an issue in Illinois with a national security element, he will not be the first to know about it in the state. He is not in the loop. Aside from Illinois being embarrassed yet again on a national level [with Blagojevich's arrest], our state operations are hampered and this is another example of that."

To be perfectly honest, when we're talking about a guy who uses the same code word for his Paul Mitchell brush that the President uses for the nuclear attack codes, we're not sure if we're more worried or actually relieved.

As for the snub, don't sweat it, Blago. At least Snoopy feels your pain...