The impeachment of Rod Blagojevich drew swift praise from an area that helped send the two-term governor to Springfield.

Many Metro East residents expressed a form of buyer's remorse Thursday, saying they're happy to see their governor removed from office.

"I think this has been a long time coming," said Ruth Ellis, 53, of Edwardsville. "I'm not disappointed, and I'm a yellow-dog Democrat."

Ellis said Democrats should have been riding high, with a governor from their party and control of both houses of the Legislature.

Blagojevich "couldn't get along with his fellow Democrats," she said. "They couldn't get anything done."

Both St. Clair and Madison counties favored Blagojevich by double-digit percentage margins in his two statewide elections. Blagojevich lost the more Republican-friendly Monroe County in 2002, but was able to win the county in his 2006 re-election.

Staunton resident Diane Yehling, 64, said Blagojevich needed to go. She said she watched as he made some of his statement Thursday in the Senate and wasn't impressed by all that he said he had done for Illinois residents.

"I wanted to reach through the screen and smack him," she said.

Britt Bauer of Edwardsville said the governor's departure was overdue, but came at a "really bad time" for Illinois, when another of its residents, Barack Obama, had just become president. Bauer, 23, works at the City Museum in St. Louis.

"He completely denied he did it," she said. "That's stupid. He should have resigned honestly and admitted that he screwed up."

Before his ouster by state lawmakers, Blagojevich went on national talk shows trying to convince the public that his impeachment trial was fixed.

State Rep. Ron Stephens, R-Highland, begged to differ.

"This, now former, governor has disgraced Illinois through his actions, most recently appearing on countless television shows proclaiming how unfair the Senate impeachment trial was," Stephens said. "What he doesn't understand is the people of Illinois were treated unfairly when they had a sitting governor who cared more about his personal gain than the state he was supposed to be leading."

But some residents thought Blagojevich got less than a fair shake in the impeachment proceedings.

Melik Alkan, originally from Turkey, pointed out that Blagojevich is a descendant of Serbian immigrants, an area in southeastern Europe not far from Alkan's home country.

"He wasn't all bad, he did some good things," Alkan said, while entering the St. Clair Square mall in Fairview Heights. "I would have liked to have seen more of an investigation."

John Coats, a Republican from Columbia, Ill., said he also would have liked to have seen more.

"This state seems to have a knack for electing criminals," Coats said. "But we should see more evidence that he used his office to commit a crime."

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