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Tom Geoghegan was on Fox News with Greg Jarrett yesterday, talking about the lawsuit he's filed to force a special election to fill Barack Obama's Senate seat and force Roland Burris to stand aside:

If the General Assembly or the U.S. Senate Ethics Committee isn’t prepared to unseat Sen. Roland Burris, labor lawyer and 5th Congressional District candidate Tom Geoghegan is ready to take on the fight.

At a press conference at the Dirksen Federal Building this morning, Geoghegan -- along with co-counsels Scott Frankel, Rob Cohen, and former alderman Marty Oberman -- announced that he has filed a suit in federal court against the state of Illinois and Gov. Pat Quinn seeking a special election for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama.

The plaintiffs claim that neither former Gov. Rod Blagojevich nor Quinn issued a “writ of elections to fill senate vacancies” as required by the 17th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Currently, Illinois follows a legal proviso in the amendment that allows the governor to “make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislatures may direct.” Geogeghan and his colleagues are not suggesting that Burris’ appointment was illegal—rather, it represents a temporary placeholder until the state could marshal the resources to hold a statewide election. (Geogeghan first laid out this argument in a New York Times op-ed published a few days after Burris’ appointment in January.)

Speaking to a large assembling of reporters, Geoghegan outlined three purposes for the suit: to “end the embarrassing stalemate” that is the Blagojevich-Burris charade, to establish rules so the people can vote for their elected officials, and to assure that the government is conducted by the rule of law. “This is why I went to law school” he said. “And the Constitution exists to make sure the democratic rights of the people are secured.”

Jarrett worries that whatever publicity gains Geoghegan might be making with this suit may well be offset by more mundane considerations:

Jarrett: Let me get one more in here because we're running out of time. There's a group of African American aldermen, they're vowing to help black voters punish any politician who seeks to remove Burris. That would include you. Does that strike you as a racially motivated threat?

Geoghegan: Greg, I am a labor lawyer, and I also bring civil-rights cases. I'm a civil-rights lawyer. My view is that both white and black and all citizens of the state of Illinois want to stop political corruption. That's the issue here. It's not a matter of race, it's a matter of enforcing the people's right to vote.

You know, if we want the right to recall elected officials, we at least ought to have the right to elect our senators directly.

Jarrett: Well, Tom, these black aldermen are going to come after you. You know that, because you're trying to get rid of Roland Burris, albeit in a very, very legal way. And they're going to come after you.

This seems overheated to me, but then, I'm not from Chicago. In the meantime, it never hurts to go help out progressive heroes like Geoghegan.

Adam Green of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) has posted this video on YouTube in support of Tom Geoghegan who's contesting the March 3rd special election to replace Rahm Emanuel in Illinois' 5th District.

A bunch of netroots folks threw a small-dollar fundraising event for Tom Geoghegan this week in Washington, D.C. Together, we raised a whopping $3,800 on ActBlue and in-person -- enough to fund 2 field organizers for the final month before the March 3 special election to replace Rahm Emanuel.

Tom taped a video thanking everyone for their support, and detailing the bold progressive issues he will champion in Congress. Can you check out the video and help the PCCC keep the momentum going for Tom by chipping chipping in with an online donation today?

Tom is a famed labor lawyer who wrote legendary pro-worker books like Which Side Are You On? David Sirota calls him "one of the greatest living progressives in America" and a writer at The Nation wrote "Tom could be the next Paul Wellstone." The new PCCC made Tom its first supported candidate.

There will likely be a dozen or so candidates on the ballot. As Jerome Armstrong says, "It's going to be a split vote, and Tom, a real true progressive, has a great shot to win this wide open race".

As he prepares for the final push, now is the moment Tom needs our help. Please consider donating what you can today.

(Original PCCC event co-hosts: Adam Green, Dave Meyer, Nolan Treadway, Stephanie Taylor, Ali Savino, Erin Hoeftig, April Pederson, Jeff Jacobs, Tom Adkins, John Aravosis)

Kathy G. gives us the goods on Geoghegan.

Crooks & Liars is really proud of all the progressive candidates we got behind in 2008 and we're excited about the winners who are starting work in Washington this week-- as well as our California neighbor/Blue America superstar, Rep. Hilda Solis, who will be leaving Congress to become Secretary of Labor in the Obama cabinet. We expect great things from Hilda, and from new members of Congress like Alan Grayson (D-FL), Larry Kissell (D-NC), Jared Polis (D-CO), Eric Massa (D-NY), Tom Perriello (D-VA), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Jim Himes (D-CT), Gary Peters (D-MI), Mark Schauer (D-MI) and of course from Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR).

But this isn't the time to sit back and rest on our laurels. Soon there will be a special election to fill Hilda's seat. And this week it was announced that the special election to fill Rahm Emanuel's seat in Chicago (IL-05) will be on April 7, with the crucial Democratic primary in this overwhemingly Democratic district (PVI: D+18) on March 3. March 3; that's like in a few weeks! Good news though, one of the best progressives to run for Congress in years anywhere tossed his hat into the ring yesterday: labor lawwyer, activist and author Tom Geoghegan (pronounced gay-gun).

If you're a fan of someone who has already proven himself a tough and unrelenting fighter for progressive ideals, from single payer health care to the unfettered rights of workers to unionize to livable pensions for retired workers comparable to the rest of the industrialized world's, please join me in donating to Tom's campaign. And if you take a look at DownWithTyranny, you'll find a special party-in-a-box offer for anyone who donates today.