Sep 19, 2008 8:27 pm US/Central
Gov: Obama Will Regret Supporting Ethics Reform
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Gov. Rod Blagojevich announces the renewal of the Illinois Film Tax Credit, while actor Harold Ramis looks on behind him.
CBS
Gov. Rod Blagojevich has a warning for Sen. Barack Obama. He predicts that before the presidential election, Obama will regret supporting ethics legislation that Blagojevich calls inadequate.
"This is a Republican trap," Blagojevich said. "They're setting Barack Obama up by using this ethics issue in Illinois."
Nonetheless, as CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery reports, Obama's endorsement appears to guarantee the ethics bill will become law.
Sources tell CBS 2 that at least three teams of IRS agents are now investigating Blagojevich. It's a large commitment of federal resources. Among other things, they're sifting through documents related to allegations of criminal wrongdoing by the governor. While not responding specifically to that, the governor did insist Friday that he's been a model of ethics reform.
"I've followed every rule that exists and no one has said otherwise," Blagojevich said.
The governor said he's upset that the general assembly will apparently not approve a sweeping ethics reform proposal he supports and has written into an executive order, even as it prepares to enact into law another bill backed by Obama. Obama personally persuaded his one-time mentor, Senate President Emil Jones, to stop blocking the bill.
Longtime reformer UIC Professor Dick Simpson said that, without Obama's intervention, the bill likely to be enacted Monday could have died.
"Obama did come in and save the bill from defeat," Simpson said. "And the citizens of Illinois will be better off."
It took three years to get this ethics bill to the verge of passage and it's widely believed that before any additional reforms can be enacted, several more years of bargaining back and forth will be required.
The governor also said Friday of his convicted former fundraiser, Antoin "Tony" Rezko, people are human, make mistakes and maybe they don't even know they made them.
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