SPRINGFIELD - The Illinois House convened Friday morning and began debating impeachment of Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Capping three weeks of testimony and more than 1,000 pages of documents, a special committee voted 21-0 Thursday to recommend the full House take the historic step of impeaching the state's top elected official.

Neither Blagojevich nor his attorneys were present for the vote, in which lawmakers repeatedly described the 52-year-old Chicago Democrat as a selfish man who stole the public trust with his behavior.

"The evidence is overwhelmingly damning," said state Rep. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet.

Armed with evidence ranging from his Dec. 9 arrest on federal corruption charges to his management of the state over the past six years, many lawmakers said impeachment of the Blagojevich is inevitable.

"There's no doubt that we're going to impeach him tomorrow, and I think the vote will be unanimous," said state Rep. Brandon Phelps, D-Harrisburg.

Some went a step further and suggested the Senate will follow suit and remove the governor from office.

"I am very confident there will be a new governor," said state Rep. Mike Boland, D-East Moline.

Blagojevich, who was in Chicago on Thursday, called the proceedings flawed and biased and said his rights were violated by the committee's rules.

"Today's vote was not a surprise," noted a statement from the governor's press office.

Although the full House is set to vote on impeachment Friday, members likely will have to re-vote again after a new General Assembly is sworn in Jan. 14, making Blagojevich not only the first Illinois governor to be impeached, but the first ever impeached twice in one week.

The question of whether he will be removed from office will then move to the Senate. Preliminary plans call for the General Assembly's upper chamber to launch a trial of the governor on Jan. 26, with a goal of finishing by early February.

"When the case moves to the Senate, an actual judge will preside over the hearings, and the governor believes the outcome will be much different," the governor's statement concluded.

If Blagojevich is removed from office, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn would take over.

There have been rumblings of impeachment for more than a year.

But, House Speaker Michael Madigan, a longtime Blagojevich nemesis, said he wasn't convinced Blagojevich's oft-criticized governing style was enough to warrant the historic use of the impeachment clause in the Illinois Constitution.

"I didn't feel that there would be sufficient evidence to justify moving on the matter of impeachment," Madigan said.

Then came Blagojevich's dramatic arrest by federal agents at his Chicago home on Dec. 9.

Blagojevich is accused by federal prosecutors of plotting to sell Illinois' vacant U.S. Senate seat and shaking down businesses for campaign contributions. The committee also levied charges of abuse of power on the governor, saying he repeatedly tried to implement programs without legislative approval.

"He has snubbed his nose at the oath of office," said state Rep. Mike Bost, a Murphysboro Republican who sat on the special panel.

"We are a government of laws and not of men," said state Rep. Roger Eddy, R-Hutsonville.

While many members of the panel said it was a "sad day" for Illinois, others said it was a positive step for a state mired in gridlock for more than a year.

"It is a good day in the fact that we're moving forward," Bost said.

On Thursday evening, following the committee's vote, Madigan left little doubt about the outcome of Friday's session.

"I think the House will vote in favor of impeachment," Madigan predicted.

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The case for impeachment

The 21-member special committee that recommended Gov. Rod Blagojevich be impeached discussed topics that cover most of the governor's six years in office. Here is some of the evidence the House panel used to build a case for Blagojevich's impeachment.

The arrest

The governor's Dec. 9 arrest drove the impeachment inquiry. A federal affidavit alleges Blagojevich tried to sell the U.S. Senate seat President-elect Barack Obama vacated. Most of the committee's early action revolved around the governor's arrest, and they've been delayed recently in an attempt to get the wiretap recordings that the federal government used to charge Blagojevich.

Abuse of power

Last year, Blagojevich attempted to implement a massive health care plan despite not getting approval from lawmakers. Those lawmakers took the governor's move as an affront to their authority and argue that Blagojevich used powers he doesn't legally have to get his programs rolling. "The governor's office did not follow the law," said state Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie.

Hiring problems

A 2004 report by the executive inspector general revealed that the Blagojevich administration was bypassing state hiring procedures for jobs that were supposed to be nonpolitical. Zaldwaynaka Scott, Blagojevich's first executive inspector general, said, "This effort reflects not merely an ignorance of the law, but complete and utter contempt for the law."

Flu vaccines

During a shortage of flu vaccine in 2004, Blagojevich looked overseas and paid $2.6 million to a European company to get flu shots for Illinois. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration never approved the sale, and the vaccine was never delivered to the state. The shots eventually ended up in Pakistan.

Closed government

Blagojevich was accused of flouting the state Freedom of Information Act, specifically blocking the release of subpoenas his administration received from federal investigators. After the impeachment inquiry hearing on the issue, the administration made the documents public.

Pay-to-play

Campaign finance advocates argued Blagojevich showed a pattern of giving hefty campaign contributors state contracts or jobs on boards and commissions. "This appears to me to be far beyond coincidental," said Cindy Canary of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.

Senate seat

The governor's appointment of Roland Burris to the U.S. Senate wasn't necessarily a topic the impeachment committee used for its recommendation, but Burris testified before them Thursday anyway, denying any wrongdoing.

-Lee News Service