At the same time the Illinois House of Representatives was voting 114-1 to impeach Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Friday, “Blago” was out running in Chicago – or was he running away?
It’s so hard to get a sense of direction in this deliciously tragic spectacle, which – lest we forget – centers around a politician whose only proven crime to date is a hairdo that only John Edwards could admire.
There were charges that Blagojevich had tried to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama to the highest bidder – one of whom, we were assured, was definitely not Jesse Jackson Jr., whose family style has been to shake down others, not be shaken down.
Then Blagojevich ignored warnings against appointing anybody, lest his alleged slime trip up Obama’s successor.
No such worry with Roland Burris, who would rival perennial candidate Harold Stassen for political futility except that, as an African American, any opposition to his service is undeniably racist.
Rep. Bobby Rush, a Democrat from Chicago’s South Side and a founder of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, just happened to be at the news conference at which Burris was introduced and said, “I would ask you to not hang or lynch the appointee as you try to castigate the appointer.”

Of course, politicians in the Land of Lincoln could have avoided this mess had they simply scheduled a special senatorial election in the first place.