Blagojevich’s fitness to serve challenged

CHICAGO | Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan asked the state Supreme Court on Friday to grant a temporary restraining order declaring Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich unfit to serve, while President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team dodged questions on whether the incoming chief of staff talked with the governor about filling Mr. Obama’s vacant U.S. Senate seat.

Mr. Blagojevich faces federal charges of trying to sell the vacant Senate seat, seeking to bribe the Chicago Tribune to get rid of an editorial writer who criticized him and participating in other “pay-to-play” tactics.

Presented with detailed questions on whether the transition team had recommended longtime friend and supporter Valerie Jarrett for the Senate seat and whether Mr. Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, had contacted or presented a list of candidates to the governor’s office, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs did not offer any answers.

“Hold on to these until we have our accounting finished,” Mr. Gibbs told The Washington Times.

Fox News in Chicago on Friday, citing a reliable source, said Mr. Emanuel had “multiple conversations” with Mr. Blagojevich about his pay-to-play scheme to fill Mr. Obama’s old seat and that conversations between the two may have been taped. The report also said Mr. Blagojevich’s office was given a list of contenders for the seat who would be “acceptable” to Mr. Obama.

Mr. Emanuel has refused to answer questions about the possibility that he was the unnamed Obama adviser cited in the federal criminal complaint against Mr. Blagojevich.

However a person close to Mr. Emanuel told The Times that the senior Obama aide has been assured he is not a target of the investigation. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because he has not been authorized to speak for Mr. Emanuel.

The Obama transition team is attempting to piece together what contacts, if any, Obama advisers may have had with Mr. Blagojevich about filling the Senate seat, which Mr. Obama vacated after he won the Nov. 4 election.

The Madigan lawsuit, which also sought an order barring the Illinois governor from completing state business, was joined by a chorus of calls from across the board for Mr. Blagojevich to resign — although he has gone to work each day since his arrest by FBI agents Tuesday.

“I recognize this is an extraordinary request, but these are extraordinary circumstances,” Ms. Madigan said during a news conference Friday, acknowledging the request is unprecedented. “In light of his arrest, Governor Blagojevich can no longer fulfill his official duties with … legitimacy.”

If granted, the request would strip Mr. Blagojevich of nearly all of his legal authority, including naming a new senator, signing legislation, directing state contracts and dispersing state funds. Ms. Madigan declared state business dead since Mr. Blagojevich’s arrest.

The state’s short-term borrowing, for instance, requires the governor to get a clean “legal” bill of health from the attorney general’s office to get approved - something Ms. Madigan said she cannot do now.

Also Friday, Mr. Blagojevich’s chief of staff, John Harris, offered his letter of resignation, according to a source close to the governor’s office. Mr. Harris, who joined the Blagojevich administration in 2005, has been named by federal authorities with the governor on charges of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and solicitation of bribery.

State lawmakers are preparing to meet Monday to begin what could be lengthy impeachment proceedings against Mr. Blagojevich. The Supreme Court could respond to the temporary restraining order and move Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn into the governor’s seat within a few days.

The state Supreme Court is authorized to declare the governor unfit to serve. Ms. Madigan said the governor’s legal disability can be “very broad and not isolated to a physical and mental disability.”

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