Fighting over the spoils

This morning I said I'd defer all future Blago blogging to Marathon Pundit, but the revelation of Harry Reid's involvement in the Illinois Senate Auction (what else would you call it?) is too rich to ignore. I especially appreciate liberal blogger Chris Bowers' take:

[U]sing "electability" as the rationale, Reid did advocate on behalf of two candidates, one of whom, Attorney General Lisa Madigan, attempted to remove Blgaojevich via judicial coup. If the Senate's move to block Roland Burris wasn't already viewed as a political move rather than one of ethics, this story should put an end to that once and for all.

Bowers points out that Obama's seat was previously held by Carol Mosley Braun and yet Reid seems to believe that a black appointee would be "unelectable" in 2010. By appointing Burris, Blago has put the Democrats between a rock and a hard place. All of this uproar, it should be noted, would never have happened if Democrats had trusted Blago to make the decision in the first place. Instead, as a creation of the Chicago machine, Blago was treated as a stooge, incompetent to pick his own appointee, and expected to take dictation from Team Obama.

This entire episode has been an eye-opening lesson in how the Democratic Party actually works.