Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s attorney challenged the authority of state lawmakers to decide the political fate of the governor, who federal prosecutors say attempted to sell Barack Obama’s vacant U.S. Senate seat.

“In going over the statute and in going over the constitution prior to this proceeding, I find nothing, nothing in any of those places that talks about what the basis for impeachment can be,” Edward Genson, a partner in Genson & Gillespie, told an impeachment panel in Springfield, Illinois. “I find nothing in there about the standard of proof.”

Genson, who has defended music star R. Kelly and former Hollinger International Inc. Chairman Conrad Black, seeks to prevent Blagojevich, a Chicago Democrat, from becoming the first state official impeached in Illinois in 175 years. The 21-member panel was created after Blagojevich’s Dec. 9 arrest on accusations that he tried to sell the Senate post for personal gain and pressured institutions for donations or other support.

Illinois House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, who leads the committee, didn’t immediately respond to Genson, who delivered his remarks as the panel debated the rules that will govern its proceedings.

Currie, 68, whose district includes the Hyde Park neighborhood in Chicago that Obama once represented in the Illinois Senate, said yesterday that the panel’s authority to assess the governor’s conduct and decide whether to recommend impeachment to the full 118-member Illinois House is a tenet of the state’s constitution.

Calls for Resignation

Blagojevich, 52, is in his sixth year as governor. He has ignored calls to resign from Obama, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn. The governor has gone to his office in downtown Chicago every workday since his arrest, signing bills into law and issuing press releases.

The Illinois Supreme Court rejected a motion today by state Attorney General Lisa Madigan to temporarily remove Blagojevich from office. She is a daughter of the House speaker.

“We have to reject cronyism, criminality and corruption,” state Representative Jack Franks, a Democrat on the panel, said yesterday. “We have to make sure we have politicians who don’t self deal but are committed to public service.”

Genson unsuccessfully sought to have Franks and Republicans Jil Tracy and William Black removed from the panel for statements in recent days that he said showed “Rod Blagojevich cannot get a fair and impartial hearing of this committee.”

Currie also rejected Genson’s demand that the state pay the governor’s legal fees, saying that would be outside the panel’s authority. Genson said he made the request to the Illinois attorney general as well.

Vaccine Decision

Blagojevich is at least Genson’s third high-profile client in the past two years. R. Kelly was acquitted of child pornography charges in a state court trial in June, while Black was convicted of fraud in Chicago’s federal court last year.

Republicans on the House panel protested a rule giving Currie and Madigan sole power to subpoena witnesses, rather than making it a committee decision. The measure was adopted by a 12- 9 vote, with all the Republicans on the panel opposed.

The panel plans to also examine policy and spending decisions undertaken by Blagojevich that are separate from the actions described by federal prosecutors in last week’s 78-page criminal complaint, Franks said.

The committee will investigate a 2004 decision by the governor’s office to attempt to import hundreds of thousands of doses of influenza vaccine from a European supplier amid concern that the state risked a shortage, Franks said.

Violated Federal Law

The program violated federal law because it lacked required U.S. Food and Drug Administration permission, according to a 2006 report by the Legislative Audit Commission. The vaccine was eventually donated to Pakistan, which destroyed the medicine because most of it had already expired, the report found.

Blagojevich also faces a $2 billion budget deficit. The last time Illinois successfully impeached a state official was 1833; a 1997 attempt to impeach a state Supreme Court justice failed.

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald accused Blagojevich last week of threatening to withhold state funds from a children’s hospital unless an executive made a $50,000 campaign donation. Fitzgerald also said Blagojevich, who as governor fills the empty Senate seat, tried to put the post Obama resigned last month up for bid.

The governor directed aides to tell the Tribune Co. that the company, which also owns the Chicago Cubs baseball team, would lose any chance of state help in selling the Cubs’ home stadium of Wrigley Field unless writers of critical editorials at the Chicago Tribune were fired, Fitzgerald’s office said in court documents. The Chicago-based company sought bankruptcy court protection from creditors on Dec. 8.

To contact the reporter on this story: Joe Carroll in Springfield, Illinois, at jcarroll8@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: December 17, 2008 15:15 EST