Illinois House Impeaches Blagojevich

By DOUGLAS BELKIN

The Illinois House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to impeach Gov. Rod Blagojevich, one month after he was arrested and charged with corruption.

Impeachment required just 60 votes. The final result was 114-1. A Senate trial will follow in coming days or weeks.

"You ought to be angry, you ought to be disgusted, you ought to be mad as hell," said Rep. Tom Cross, before urging his colleagues to join him in voting to impeach.
More

* Complete Coverage: Rod Blagojevich

Member after member called the day sad, grave and difficult. None spoke in defense of Mr. Blagojevich.

"He has violated the constitution, he has violated the laws of this state," said Rep Barbara Flynn Currie, who chaired a 21-member committee that unanimously recommended impeachment on Thursday. "The totality of the evidence shows he has forfeited the right to hold office."

Mr. Blagojevich was arrested Dec. 9 on a federal criminal complaint alleging corruption, including an attempt to gain from the sale of President-elect Barack Obama's Senate seat.

In a statement Thursday night, Mr. Blagojevich said he expected to be impeached by the House, saying the body's proceedings were flawed and biased and did not follow the rules of law."

But he promised to put up a fight in his Senate trial where "an actual judge will preside over the hearings." There, the statement said, "the governor believes the outcome will be much different."

On Friday morning, however, Rep. Jim Durkin said the impeachment process had been both thorough and fair. "I think we have to act now," he said. "If we did not act we would be derelict in our duties."

Write to Douglas Belkin at doug.belkin@wsj.com