Senators in Illinois prepare for guv's trial

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Hours after impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich convened a new Illinois Senate and urged lawmakers to "find the truth," senators took the first steps Wednesday toward a trial to determine whether the governor is ousted from office for corruption and abuse of power.

The Democratic governor presided over the first meeting of a Senate whose most urgent task is putting him on trial. He was greeted by silence as he entered the Senate chamber through a back entrance, took the podium without introduction and banged a gavel to call the session to order. He mostly stuck to the formalities of overseeing the ceremony during the hour or so he presided over the chamber.

But as he handed the proceedings over to incoming Senate President John Cullerton, a fellow Democrat from Chicago, Blagojevich said he hoped senators would "find the truth and sort things out, to put the business of the people first."

He also called on state senators to act "with malice toward none, with charity for all," referring to Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address, delivered near the end of the Civil War, when he implored his countrymen to "bind up the nation's wounds" and work toward peace.

He left through a back door to the Senate chamber. The Senate did not provide a group of escorts that would walk a governor out the front door to allow plenty of time for handshakes and backslaps.

Soon after, the Senate took the first formal steps toward a trial, approving rules for the proceedings and swearing in members as jurors. Blagojevich spokeswoman Kelley Quinn said the governor's legal team on Wednesday accepted a summons from the Senate for the impeachment trial.

Senators fell silent and took their seats as two staffers wheeled in a dolly stacked with nine boxes of evidence and files from the House impeachment committee. House-appointed prosecutor David Ellis then read details of the governor's impeachment into the record.

Republican Sen. Dan Rutherford said the silence and the desks adorned with flowers — left over from earlier festivities — were a bit eerie.

"Unless it's the resolution to memorialize the death of a colleague, I haven't heard it this quiet in the chambers," Rutherford said.

The Illinois House impeached Blagojevich last week on a 114-1 vote, more than a month after his Dec. 9 arrest on federal corruption charges. New House members also sworn in Wednesday reaffirmed the vote, with the governor's sister-in-law as the only dissenting vote.