Blago and the Media: Impeachment is NOT a trial

I keep seeing Blagojevich and some media anchors saying that Blago is not getting a fair "trial" at his impeachment since he is not able to call witnesses. At first, due to my legal background, I was actually having the same kinds of thoughts but then it popped into my head recently that when someone is about to be fired, they don't get to call witnesses. An impeachment is just a fancy name for being fired. Here's an email that I sent to Geraldo and Greta Van Susteren since I watch Fox News Channel on a regular basis and these two are proponents of Blago being able to call witnesses....


Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 10:18 PM
To: 'Atlarge@foxnews.com', 'ontherecord@foxnews.com'
Subject: Governor Blago...

Geraldo & Greta,

At first I was with you in thinking that Blago should be able to call witnesses, etc., at his impeachment but as I thought about it more, the impeachment is not a civil or criminal trial (where he can be fined, get a financial judgment or be imprisoned), but rather like a Board Meeting where the board is debating on whether to fire the CEO of a company... In this case, the Illinois State Senate is the Board and Blago is the CEO. A "normal" CEO doesn't have any right to call witnesses, etc., when he is about to be fired, so why should Blago???

Sincerely,

Lenny Vasbinder

So... am I right or are all of the talking heads and lawyers right???