Hindsight is indeed 20/20, and fear can drive a person to do out of character things. But when that "person" is an entire political party, and those "out of character things" end up screwing up the party, then fear itself is what is to be feared. Didn't the top Democrat of the 20 century warn us of that?

Unfortunately, the Democratic party so-called "leadership" let fear be the enemy when the snippets of tapes of Illinois Gov. Blagojevich got mass media distribution. Geez, these tapes were unseemly, but come on - they were just a few seconds of much longer conversations. The rest of the conversations weren't released. And...in case those Democratic leaders have forgotten, we are "innocent until proven guilty."

The Democrats should have, and could have, protected Blagojevich's right to a fair trial and the presumption of innocence without jeopardizing their political careers - But Noooooooooo. They had to, en masse, jump on the train trying to run over Blagojevich before he had a chance to be heard. There's probably reasons for this that we can't even understand or know. And I'm not defending Blagojevich. A governor shouldn't be saying "fuck" so much, even in private conversations. It just isn't what most people vote for in a governor. And, Blago should have been more hip to the fact that he was under big time scrutiny.

So now we get to the Burrus appointment. If Reid, as leader of the Dems, had told everyone to just chill, and give quotes to the press like "we'll let the legal process take its course," which could have been tempered by other quotes like "if the allegations are proven to be true in a court of law, then he should face what every other citizen that breaks the law would face," then the Dems would be in a position to accept Burrus as senator. And Burrus would not be a bad senator, at least as a temporary replacement. He has a good record in Illinois, and he is aged, but in good health, African American, which replaces Obama as the only African-American in the Senate, and is truly qualified.

Now Reid, along with the Illinois Democratic party, both have dug a hole for itself by flying off the handle immediately after the allegations surfaced and threw Blagojevich under the bus, have a very difficult situation. Either they lose face and seat Burrus, which at this point is the path of least resistance, or they drag it out and risk alienating African Americans. So Reid and the Illinois Dems have one hope - that is to find some dirt on Burrus. Good luck. If they do, then they will be redeemed. A slim thread to hold onto.

It didn't have to come down to this. And, I just have to comment that I think Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn has crossed the line. He, in my opinion, is appearing to be so desperate to be governor that he has lost sight of the fact that his standing up on national media arguing that a guy should resign his job so that he can get it smacks of a conflict of interest also. Quinn needs to lay back and let the others play this out. He's starting to lose his good will of reputation as being a straight shooter, at least to me. He's starting to look like someone who smells his one chance to be governor and is pushing things too far to see that it happens.

It is very likely that Blagojevich is going down. He has no friends in the system. But he still is governor. And Burrus is right. There is no such status as "tainted governor." He's either governor, with all the authority, or he isn't. I feel pretty certain that the courts will rule that, just as Burrus says.

Reid, Durbin, Quinn, and the Madigans would be well served to back off on Burrus, unless they have some damning dirt on his. If they do, then come forward with it now. If they don't, then back off, and let Burrus have the seat. It will be the best thing for the people of Illinois.