Should Blago get an official mug at Capitol?

SPRINGFIELD - Rod Blagojevich's name has been scrubbed from state Web sites, scraped from office doors, and stripped from tollway signs. If he ever stops making TV appearances, he'll soon be nothing more than a memory.

But in the space where Illinois remembers its governors - the Capitol's second floor Hall of Governors - Blagojevich is missing. And he may stay missing for a very long time.

Before leaving office governors typically arrange funding for their official portrait. But on Jan. 29, when Blagojevich was abruptly removed from office by the state legislature for abuse of power, there were no plans for a portrait.

At the same time, since every current state legislator except Blagojevich's sister-in-law state Rep. Deborah Mell voted either to impeach or remove the governor, Blagojevich's portrait is not high on the list of legislative priorities, especially with Illinois facing a multibillion-dollar deficit.

"If anybody sponsored it, and it was a stand-alone bill, it would surely lose," said state Rep. Jack Franks, an outspoken critic of the former governor. "I would vote against it."

But the Marengo Democrat suspects money for a portrait of the former governor will eventually get added to a larger spending plan and approved.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Pat Quinn did not respond to a request for comment.

Every Illinois governor's portrait hangs in the sun-drenched second floor south hallway: the competent, the corrupt and the crooks. Even Gov. William Ewing has a portrait. He served only 14 days in 1834 after Gov. John Reynolds and Lt. Gov. Zadoc Casey both resigned to take seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The most recent unveiling was in 2003 for now-jailed former-Gov. George Ryan. His portrait cost $18,350.

During Ryan's ceremony Roland Burris, Judy Baar Topinka, Emil Jones Jr., and former Gov. Jim Thompson praised the Kankakee Republican for always taking a stand, returning phone calls and keeping his promises.

Ryan himself poked fun at then-Gov. Blagojevich whose distant governing style was very different from the glad-handing Ryan.

"You heard a lot of things I think you needed to hear today," Ryan said to Blagojevich during that unveiling. He told Blagojevich that someday he too would have a ceremony where people might say nice things about him.

Blagojevich's response seems eerily prescient some five years later: "I hope somebody shows up," Blagojevich said at the time.

Now, Franks suggests that if Blagojevich eventually gets his portrait painted and hung, Illinois should set up a special wing of jailed former governors as a tourist attraction.

"We've had a lot of other governors that have been scoundrels," Franks said. "We should market it right."