CHICAGO – Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn said he is certain scandal-plagued Gov. Rod Blagojevich will be out of office by Abraham Lincoln’s bicentennial birthday celebration Feb. 12, 2009.

Quinn, speaking from Chicago, told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday he believes Blagojevich will be impeached and convicted by the Illinois Legislature.

Blagojevich was arrested Dec. 9 on charges accusing him of scheming to swap President-elect Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat for profit, shaking down a hospital executive for campaign donations and other wrongdoing. The governor has declared his innocence and has vowed to fight the charges.

Quinn described Blagojevich as “isolated” in his decision-making and surrounded by a “tight palace guard” that “tells him what he wants to hear and not what he needs to know.”

He needs to know “he’s disgraced himself, he’s disgraced the people of Illinois,” Quinn said.

Quinn said he hasn’t spoken to the Blagojevich since August of 2007.

The Illinois House committee investigating a possible impeachment is scheduled to meet again Monday. The panel rejected a request from the governor’s lawyer to subpoena two top advisers to Obama, the committee’s chairwoman, Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, a Chicago Democrat, said Saturday.

If the House approves impeaching Blagojevich, the Senate would hold a trial. It would take a two-thirds vote to remove him from office.

Quinn said Sunday far more than the required two-thirds of the state’s senators are ready to vote for impeachment.

Blagojevich, who has not given any indication that he will resign, has been coming to work and signing legislation since the charges were announced. On Sunday, Blagojevich approved $2 million in grants for a statewide program that adds ramps, chair lifts for low-income senior seniors and residents with disabilities.

Quinn said Blagojevich’s daily routine since the charges has been a “pretense by the governor that he’s doing his regular business.”

Quinn would become governor if Blagojevich leaves office.

He said he would call for a special election to fill Obama’s seat.