Rod Blagojevich’s (probable) failure to finish his term is not a huge surprise. But the hammer falling as swiftly and Fitzily as it did this morning was a surprise. It was like, *whooosh*THWACK* and then there was blood everywhere, and yet all the blogs just couldn’t look away.
In one swift motion, we’ve suddenly retaken the title of Most Hilarious Politics in North America from Canada, although they’re still running a pretty good race, what with suspending parliament and not really being sure who is the Liberal Party leader at any given moment. Maybe Blago should have taken a cue from Harper and suspended the Justice Department to avoid being arrested. What do you mean “he can’t do that”? This is a man who (according to the DOJ statement), when contemplating reasons for appointing himself to the Senate, decided that “avoiding impeachment by the Illinois legislature” was high on the list. Clearly, common sense does not factor into this man’s political decisions.
What happens now? A lot of people are concerned about what would happen if Blagojevich tried to appoint someone to Obama’s vacated seat anyway, while he still has the power to do so. (The state legislature is trying to take that power away as quickly as possible. Turns out changing the law that provides that power is slightly quicker than impeaching the shit out of him.)
I think that it’s an interesting legal question, but that it’s not likely to come into play for two reasons. First, any sensible politician would run away from that appointment so fast that they would appear red. Second, Blagojevich is probably not overly concerned about making the appointment now that he doesn’t stand to profit from it. He has more immediate concerns that more directly affect his personal interests, like preparing his (hopefully creative) legal defense, and negotiating a hefty contract with NASA that allows them to study the properties of his hair.
Strangely enough, my spell checker had no problem with “Fitzily”.