This is a rush transcript from "Your World With Neil Cavuto," December 16, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: Well, the sooner the governor gets the boot, the sooner the president-elect will stop getting these kinds of questions?
Illinois State Representative Susana Mendoza doing her best to make that happen. She is on this Illinois impeachment panel. And she joins us now.
Representative, good to have you.
SUSANA MENDOZA, ILLINOIS STATE REPRESENTATIVE: Very nice to be here. Thank you, Neil.
CAVUTO: Where does this stand right now?
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MENDOZA: Well, we — last night, with a vote of 113 to nothing, we created the impeachment committee.
That committee had its first meeting today at 10:00 in the morning. And, tomorrow, we will be reconvening at 10:00 a.m. The governor's attorney, Ed Genson, will be at the committee, is my understanding. And we will be going over the actual 76-page complaint that the U.S. attorney put forth, as well as the plea agreement put forth and signed by Ali Ata and Joseph Cari. So, we have plenty of work to do tomorrow.
CAVUTO: All right. So, the governor's attorney will be there. What happens in that meeting? In other words, what can that attorney do or say in this hearing as this goes on?
MENDOZA: Well, we do not know. Your guess is as good as mine.
I know his attorney has a history of being very flamboyant and a very good attorney. So, we're expecting him to come ready to — to make himself known...
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: How long does this process take? Even if you sped it along, how long does it take?
MENDOZA: Well, again, we do not know. This is chartered territory for us.
The last time we actually had been impeachment in Illinois was in 1832 for a justice of the court. And so what we do now has to be done responsibly.
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: And that one took months. That one took months.
Could this one take months?
(CROSSTALK)
MENDOZA: Yes, it took a long time. This one could take months, potentially.
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: So, Blagojevich is still there just — I do not know what he's doing every day, but he is still there, and kind of whistling as you guys are trying to get this going, right? MENDOZA: Yes. What he should is resign.
CAVUTO: Well, he is not. So far, he is not.
MENDOZA: I mean, we have made that very clear. I again asked for that resignation yesterday.
He won't. And it is our job, then — if he does not want to resign and do the right thing, it's our job to have him resign the hard way.
CAVUTO: OK.
MENDOZA: And so we're prepared to move forward with these impeachment proceedings, and however long it takes. But it's going to happen. It won't end well.
CAVUTO: OK.
Representative, thank you very much.
MENDOZA: Thank you.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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