At this point, we have to say it out loud.
Who would want President Barack Obama's senate seat next term?
Wait, we forgot about the power of political ambition. Attorney General Lisa Madigan (if she doesn't run for governor), State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulis and Rep. Mark Kirk have all had visions of the Obama effect on their futures.
But there is clearly stink on the seat. Sniff. Gov. Rod Blagojevich has been charged with trying to sell the seat. Sniff sniff. Sen. Roland Burris has been questioned about whether he lied to an impeachment panel about the appointment. Sniff sniff sniff.
“They keep trotting out these marquee names to scare Roland,” adviser Delmarie Cobb told Politico, adding that Democrats are out to “lynch” Burris and turn him into a “whipping boy.”
Sen. Burris may not be the bad guy. But in the Senate, he is clearly associated with bad things. Like bribery charges against Blagojevich.
"What distinguishes it is the governor who appointed him, and the cloud that the governor was under, and the implication that this appointment was done for corrupt reasons," Ross K. Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University, said. "Colleagues would view a too-close association with him as being a kind of contamination in a sense that he personally is an inoffensive guy but he's a carrier of the pathogen of Blagojevich."
Which make the chances of Burris running for the seat, well, stink.
