Not that he isn't guilty on all probable charges, but still, I kind of hope Blago beats the rap.

After all, his great crime was asking for his bribes in advance, rather than doing it the respectable way and waiting till he was out of office and doing speaking engagements for outlandish fees. You know, the way Bush I, Bill Clinton, and all the rest of the nice folks do it.

Yep, Blago is scum all right, but his only real mistake in our world of fee-for-service politics was to ask for his cash up front, in vernacular English.

His deft handling of Harry Reid by appointing Roland Burris, an African American with a fairly clean background, for Obama's vacant Senate seat shows he's no fool. For that kind of audacity and grit, I have to admire him just a little. In fact, I wish more Democrats had cojones that big.