I think your analysis is spot-on, Betty. (I’d say you’re smarter than Broder, but I like you and wouldn’t wish to damn you with faint praise.)

Why let this stupid sideshow go on any longer? Same thing I ultimately felt about Lieberman—is that the sword you want to fall on at the start of the administration? (I still wish they’d stripped him of his committee chairmanship, but whatev.)

Burris is an idiot, but I suspect he’ll be a useful idiot and will vote pretty much along straight Dem lines. No one is going to put him in charge of the Defense committee or anything.

The biggest fear is that the Illinois GOP gets its head out of its collective post-George Ryan ass and runs a candidate that can beat Burris or whichever Dem beats Burris in the primary in 2010. (Hint to Illinois GOP: Try to find a candidate NOT named “Ryan.” That one hasn’t worked so well for you!) But that could happen with any Dem candidate if the splashback with Blago lingers for two years. The surest way to make sure it lingers is to let this Burris appointment become an even bigger part of the news cycle for even longer.

Jesus H. Christ on a pogo stick, is it January 20th yet?

I totally agree with you.  It’s hard to see how much harm Burris can do in two years and if he does a decent job he’ll get re-elected.  Or not.  I just get tired of all the sideshows. 

Speaking of sideshows, the PUMAs perl haxxor may be working as the Weblogs website has been almost impossible to get into today.  HAKA, HAKA, HAXXOR!!!

The only reason this became such theater is because Reid needlessly pulled another of his “get tough” acts. In doing so, he put the Obama administration in a bad position, and one can only hope that this spells the end of Reid’s tenure as Majority Leader.

God, I miss Chicago.

Btw, the appropriate term for that thing atop Rod Blagojevich’s head is “chinchilla brain cozy.”

My opinion?  Reid (and to a much lesser extent Durbin, allowed himself to be painted into a corner by sputtering that never, never would he allow a Blago appointee server in his senate.  Blago, yes an idiot, made damn sure he had the law on his side before he named Burris.

Reid got taken.  Again.  He’s a weaslely little shit and needs to be replace and have his dick cut off with a blunt instrument.

Oh, wait…

J

You’re another displaced Chicagoan? I grew up there and moved to Seattle when I got married. God, I miss it so.

I’m an ex-Chicagoan, too.  I had the pleasure of living in Shakowsky’s district for a while, at least.  I’d thought all the dirty politics had sifted down to the local village level (see Betty Maltese in Cicero) but Rod the Bod keeps the dream alive… oy.

Burris is too old to run for a full term in 2012, imo, and god only knows what can happen in the next two years. 

Fuckin’ Blago… god damn his eyes!  Just had to fuckin’ be somebody.  I’d kick the shit out of him for a beer and the general satisfaction.  (That’s intertoobz hyperbole, not a threat, for our literal readers.)

for our literal readers.)

So, duz we has thoz?

Great read, Betty, Thanks

Ex Park Forest brat, here. Literally, I was shorter than the snowdrifts at the time, but still technically, ex-Chicagoid.

Cicero as a kid (16th and 51st), suburbs as a teen (Palatine), city as an adult (Uptown, Lincoln Park, Jefferson Park.)

We should form a support group.

God I fucking hate Seattle.

I live in Chicago now (grew up in the ‘burbs, spent seven years in San Francisco in the nineties), but I really like Seattle too—I have many friends there. I actually think I like it better than San Francisco in many ways. Okay, the rain is a bit much, but I found people much more easygoing in Seattle compared to the Bay Area.

But Chicago will always be home. Bless its crappy wintry corrupt little heart.

The thing that bothers me most about Burris, and there is plenty, is that he would not release that man from prison, even after another confessed, and DNA cleared him.  Burris was running for office and would not release him even with all that evidence. 

He is an egomaniac.

As for the Tomb… “Trailblazer”.  Did you see the photo of that thing? 

Add to that his kids names, Roland and Rolanda.  Granson’s name, of course, is Roland.

You think he suffers from low esteem? 

I can’t stand him.

Kerry, have you been to Lynfred Winery in Roselle?

Great tastings, great wine, and guaranteed nooky when you get home.

Betty, once again you have shown all the chattering toupees how to do their jobs with your incisive analysis.

In a just world, you would live to be whisked by limo from your swanky Dupont Circle digs to the studio for hair and makeup, so you could tell America what Joe Six-Pack thinks about the liquidity crisis in between commercials for denture adhesives and erectile dysfunction.

Did I not hear Harry Reid the other day saying that he would never, never resign as majority leader?  That means that we may confidently expect his resignation at any moment, i guess.

Kerry, have you been to Lynfred Winery in Roselle?

Great tastings, great wine, and guaranteed nooky when you get home.

My sister lives 2 blocks from there.

She’s available too. You just need to pick up the tuition for her 2 kids at Loyola.

My sister-in-law lives in Roselle and I know she’s been there, but I haven’t had the pleasure yet!

Blago may think he’s stuck it to his enemies by making the appointment, but what does he really gain?

One theory I’ve heard is that by appointing someone who apparently didn’t pay him, he might have made it legally more difficult to convict him in court for his attempts to sell the seat. I’m not sure wether it will help him much, though.

I’m with you, Raphael—I don’t think that’ll help much. It would be like Bernie Madoff NOT ripping off a client and saying, “See, I didn’t screw this person, ergo, I must be totally innocent!”