As compared to the "electability" argument of Reid, et al., for this and other Senate seats, to increase their power.  But that won't benefit them personally at all.

Seems odd that we are okay with this quick impeachment, and not asking Fitzgerald to make his case completely in open court and with a defense.

BTD: "It's a done deal now, but Reid blew this not by opposing a Blago appointment, but by capitulating to a Blago appointment."

I have to take issue with such a pointless matter of contention. While your own personal sense of political honor and propriety might be assuaged through such a hopelessly provocative act, I'd respectfully suggest that you look at this through the eyes of an attorney representing potential plaintiff Roland Burris, i.e., coldly and logically, and not emotionally:

(1) At the time Gov. Rod Blagojevich formally designated Roland Burris as President-elect Barack Obama's successor in the U.S. Senate, the governor had not yet been impeached by the Illinois State House of Representatives.

(2) While Gov. Blagojevich had initially been arrested at the direction of the U.S. Department of Justice on charges of political corruption, he has yet to even be formally indicted for such by a federal grand jury, much less stand convicted at trial and subsequently sentenced.

(3) For all its collective bluster and professions of outrage concerning Gov. Blagojevich's numerous political faux pas and alleged crimes against the state, the Illinois General Assembly never once availed itself of the opportunity presented by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald last month to curb prospectively Gov. Blagojevich's power of appointment, as Alaska legislators did after-the-fact with former Gov. Frank Murkowski following his appointment of daughter Lisa as his own successor to Alaska's junior U.S. Senate seat.

Therefore, barring the subsequent introduction of compelling and conclusive evidence regarding any tangible quid pro quo arrangement between the two, the law must assume that Gov. Blagojevich's appointment of Roland Burris as U.S. Senator from Illinois was conducted in full accordance with all applicable state and federal statutory and constitutional provisions.

Further, any subsequent effort by anyone to enjoin Burris from taking office in Washington, D.C. -- whether through some feeble and unenforceable "Katy Bar the Door" claim by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, or a ham-handed attempt by Illinois state legislators to retroactively repeal this governor's power of appointment to his date of initial arrest by federal authorities -- would by all rights have to fail in a fair hearing before an impartial federal judge.

"Tell Mike it was only business. I always liked him." - Tessio (Abe Vigoda) to Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall), The Godfather (1972)

More to the topic, Roland Burris' right to his appointment as U.S. Senator has everything to do with the law, and almost nothing with what you and I might consider to be the proper and ethical thing to do.

I now bid you adieu, and leave you with this memorable and oddly appropriate exchange between magistrate and potential defendant, from Charles Dicken's novel Oliver Twist:

Mr. Brownlow: "The law assumes that your wife acts under your direction."

Mr. Bumble: "If the law supposes that, then the law is a ass -- a idiot! If that's the eye of the law, then the law is a bachelor. And the worst I wish the law is that his eye may be opened by experience -- by experience!"

Interesting.

The question was in the future tense...re was anything promised?

Wonder what's on those tapes...