Weaving around in Springfield

Today, the Illinois State House of Representatives began initial committee meetings to initiate an impeachment against Governor Rod Blagojevich.
In a land where things disappear with amazing alacrity, so has the "request" made by the Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to the Illinois Supreme Court to precipitously remove the governor on the basis of his being "disabled".
It's possible that the chorus of thousands of wags pointing out his "disability" was the same as Madigan's, and scores of other Illinois politicos', might have slowed that train down just as it was clearing yard limits and making it out onto the main line.
When even leftist rags like the Chicago Tribune take a breath and a second look, you know the "request" plan had to be really stinko.
With The Obama's thunder being smothered day after day by the emanations from the sewer he just was sent from, the President-elect trotted out Chicago Schools boss Arne Duncan to be his secretary of education. Despite what non-native viewers might think, Duncan's actually clean, and has half a brain, and a good work ethic.
The tough part for the rest of the country is that Duncan's effectiveness bodes ill for those who believe that the Federal government has no business interfering in education in the first place, as, some may point out, it has no Constitutional authority to do.
Since expanding the power and control of the central government in his own image is Job One for Obama, though, having a non-putz running a bureaucracy that has enormous power, even more money, is shot through with teacher's union tentacles, and lives on top of a pretty cloud where grubby conservatives can't reach, isn't so great.

Meanwhile, back on the corruption beat, the real news of the day ought to be the new shining of a bit of a light on Machine (and Obama) fixer Tony Rezko, whose sentencing (following his conviction on Federal corruption charges) was mysteriously, and suddenly, put off Monday. Persons revolted by the staggering corruption in Illinois have reason to cheer that; maybe he's back to thinking about talking again, something the Feds, and all right-minded folks, really want. He could give forth with some really interesting stuff, the prosecutors may think, and might get some indictments some extra horsepower to climb the mountain of Machinery in front of them.
It's hard not to imagine that this latest change in Rezko's status is connected to Blagojevich's arrest. Who knows who might clear his throat and begin singing?
Oddly, I don't get that there's too much danger for the president-elect. It doesn't seem Fitzgerald and his merry band want to get after O, perhaps because he really hasn't done anything, legal or criminal, or anything in the way of "accomplishment" (save conning folks out of a cool billion). Or, maybe it's just common sense not to sniff too close to the new boss.
But the total media disappearance of major Obamite Rahm Emanuel is almost shocking. A guy who never could pass a news camera by without saying something fraught with powerful importance suddenly going mute, and invisible, is an eyebrow-raiser.
We've been assured Emanuel's not done anything "wrong", and specifically in the course of the passing on of Obama's former US Senate seat, but... there were lots of wiretaps going on out there, and their centerpiece, Blagojevich, talks to lots of folks in the course of things.
Now, Obama assures us that he's had an investigation done and everything's fine.
It's probably a good idea to have your own people investigate themselves, as it must simplfy things quite a bit. One has to appreciate the energy savings of it all. Very green.
But like every other thing Obama's given forth with since he got within a month of his elevation to the Oneness, there's a snagger line in there. This one's nearly unfathomable: that he'll release the results of his investigation "in a week".
A week? What the heck is that about? What happens in a week? The Rezko sentencing isn't happening soon, supposedly. Blagojevich isn't resigning in a week. Well, who knows, about that, either.
Why a week? Man, that's a juicy little nugget.
Or not. It could just be more bumbling from the guy whose been in the vicinity of more scandals between Election Day and Inauguration Day than any president ever.