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We knew this was coming:

SPRINGFIELD---In a historic vote, the Illinois House has impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich, directing the Senate to put the state’s 40th chief executive on trial with the goal of removing him from office.

The vote by the House was 114-1 and marks the first time in the state's 190-year history that a governor has been impeached, despite Illinois' longstanding reputation for political corruption.

Meanwhile, it appears that Roland Burris may have been less than forthcoming about his contacts with Blago:

For the first time, Burris indicated that he asked Blagojevich's former chief of staff and college classmate, Lon Monk, to relay his interest in the Senate seat to the governor last July or September.

"If you're close to the governor, you know, let him know I'm certainly interested in the seat," Burris said he told Monk.

That testimony appears to differ from an affidavit Burris submitted to the impeachment panel this week in which he stated he spoke to no "representatives" of the governor about the Senate post prior to Dec. 26.

What else would you expect from a guy who would take this appointment under these circumstances anyway?

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In today's episode of As The Stomach Turns, Harry Reid signaled at this morning's presser that he's leaving open a door for Roland Burris to walk through.

After a 45-minute meeting this morning between Burris, Reid and his lieutenant, Sen.Dick Durbin, Reid said Senate Democrats would wait to see if the Illinois Supreme Court would order Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White to sign Burris' appointment by Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

I think we can probably count on the Illinois Supreme Court informing Jesse White he has to sign the appointment. Which leaves Harry Reid holding a nice stinky bag of crap.

If it's any consolation, the public agrees with Reid that Burris' appointment is tainted and he shouldn't be seated. That will make it tougher for Burris to win the seat in two years, but that's the price Rod Blagojevich is making us all pay. Including Harry Reid.

Meanwhile, Reid is saying he expects to keep leading the Senate for a good long time. All he's really doing is making an argument against seniority and incumbency, because he has done nothing to demonstrate he's worthy of leading the Senate. Especially not recently. As Jane says, I'd sure like to play poker with Reid -- and I usually make a habit of never playing against guys from Nevada.

Roland Martin thinks Democrats just need to suck it up and accept that Burris is the selection. I suspect he's right.

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Our old pal Jane Hamsher was "Muckraker of the Day" on David Shuster's MSNBC program yesterday, talking about Harry Reid and how he's managed to bollox the Blagejovich-Roland Burris situation. Apparently she's managed to upset the Village applecart a bit with her critique. Good on her.

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Conservatives have a gift for pretending the obvious isn't there. Take Brit Hume yesterday for example. He gets all worked up -- even angry-seeming -- over the terrible injustice being done to Rod Blagojevich and Roland Burris.

Why? Because the prosecutor is Patrick Fitzgerald. Seems Hume harbors a grudge from one of Fitzgerald's previous prosecutions ...

It's all wrapped up in defense of Blago's selection of Burris to fill Barack Obama's Senate seat:

Hume: Why is it that he's thought to be under a taint? He's thought to be under a taint because an accusation has been made against him, not yet an indictment, by a prosecutor --

[Crosstalk]

Hume: -- Against Blagojevich, not against him -- by a prosecutor who for all of his success in court, has a propensity, as we saw in the Scooter Libby case, to say things in news conferences that he ultimately chooses or is unable to prove in court. That is all we have. We have his say-so.

Someone was saying on the air the other day, 'Well, we have the tapes.' No, we don't have the tapes. All we have is quotations from the tapes by the prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, and it's not at all clear when we'll see them, what they'll show, what the context was or anything. This man is innocent until proven guilty.

That's all a stirring and noble defense of Blago, but Hume doesn't seem to realize that the breadth and depth of the case against the Illinois governor involves a great deal more than just those tapes and just the Obama Senate seat matter. And really, do we need to spell out that any selection in which there is an appearance of impropriety in the process is tainted, especially when it involves the sale of the selection?

But I gather that if you live in RightWingLand, it's difficult to imagine why anyone would consider the selection of Roland Burris tainted. After all, criminal complaints laying out a politician's desire to corruptly sell off federal appointments -- hey, that's ordinary. Routine! Everyone does that!

Is it something in the water that conservatives drink, or what?

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We all kind of watched agape yesterday as Rod Blagojevich plowed ahead with his selection of Roland Burris to Obama's Senate seat yesterday, assuming that better sense would prevail eventually.

But perhaps not, according to Sam Stein:

Rod Blagojevich's decision to appoint Roland Burris to Illinois' vacant Senate seat, even as the governor faces intense criminal scrutiny, is being treated as a crazy political power grab. It also seems very likely to be permanent.

A legal scholar writes in to say that precedent surrounding the Senate's right to not seat certain members seems very likely to fall in Burris' favor.

"My reading of Powell v. McCormack, 395 U.S. 486, is that the Senate probably can NOT constitutionally block Burris from being seated," writes the constitutional law professor. "Art. I, sec. 5 gives each House the power to judge the qualifications of its own members. Powell holds (inter alia) that the qualifications to be judged are those stated in the Constitution (see Art. I, sec. 3, cl. 3 and the 17th Amendment)."

"Burris has met all of those qualifications: he's over 30, been a US citizen for 9 years, he's an Illinois resident; he was appointed by the executive authority of the state to fill a vacancy, pursuant to Illinois law."

Even on the state level, Democrats seem fairly hamstrung when it comes to stopping Blagojevich. Secretary of State Jesse White's office has said it will not certify the Burris appointment. But, here again, the law may not be on their side.

Now that's what I call chutzpah:

Gov. Rod Blagojevich is expected today to name former Illinois Atty. Gen. Roland Burris to replace President-elect Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate.

The action comes despite warnings by Democratic Senate leaders that they would not seat anyone appointed by the disgraced governor who faces criminal charges of trying to sell the post, sources familiar with the decision said.

Shortly after Obama's Nov. 4 victory, Burris made known his interest in an appointment to the Senate but was never seriously considered, according to Blagojevich insiders. But in the days following Blagojevich's arrest, and despite questions over the taint of a Senate appointment, Burris stepped up his efforts to win the governor's support.

Though he is 71, Burris has said that Obama's replacement should be able to win re-election and he has noted that despite a string of primary losses in races ranging from Chicago mayor to governor and U.S. senator, he's never lost to a Republican.

All this shows what a complete screwhead Blagojevich is. Burris is an old-school Chicago politician who, within the Democratic Party in Illinois, is considered well on the other side of the aisle from Obama. Early word from the Senate indicates that Burris will not be considered acceptable -- especially if he has Blago's blessing.

What a mess.

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Wottamaroon:

Defying U.S. Senate leaders and his own state's lawmakers, Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Tuesday appointed former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to replace President-elect Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate.

Blagojevich, accused of trying to sell Obama's Senate seat to the highest bidder, praised the 71-year-old Burris' integrity and asked that the corruption allegations not "taint this good and honest man."

Other than the surprise that Blagojevich is deluded enough to believe he can proceed with filling Barack Obama's Senate seate without permanently tainting anyone he names, the only real surprises in this press conference were Burris' surprise at finding out he'd given $14,000 or so to Blagojevich's re-election campaign, and Blago's screwed-up admonishment at the end:

Feel free to castigate the appointer, but don't lynch the appointor.

I think he meant "appointee." But even more noteworthy was his use of the word "lynch" to describe what refusal of Burris's seating in the Senate might mean in terms of the politics of this mess. Combined with Rep. Bobby Rush's threat at the conference to make it a racial issue if an African-American wasn't named to fill Obama's seat, I think it's clear that Team Blago intends to flourish the race card in this matter.

Now, it's already been pointed out that the Senate cannot refuse to seat a duly elected member on any grounds other than constitutional ones (that is, citizenship qualifications, etc.).

But just before the press conference, MSNBC read a statement from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid saying that the Senate Democratic Caucus would refuse to seat any member appointed by Blagojevich. Moreover, the Illinois Secretary of State has also announced he will refuse to sign the papers certifying Burris as the nominee.

Worth noting: Only a couple of days ago, the lieutenant governor announced that Blago would be removed before mid-February.

Looks like Blago decided to have a last laugh at their expense. He's throwing a monkey wrench at them, mostly it appears, out of spite.

This would explain why Blago tried to smear him:

CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who was cited in a criminal complaint against Rod Blagojevich, went to the U.S. Attorney's office about alleged wrongdoers, including the Illinois governor, a Jackson spokesman said Tuesday.

Jesse Jackson Jr. reported in 2006 what he believed was a shakedown by the Illinois governor.

Jackson rejected being labeled with the term "informant" in a message to CNN contributor Roland Martin.

[...] In addition, two sources close to Jackson told CNN that, in 2002, Blagojevich -- then running for governor of Illinois -- solicited a $25,000 campaign donation from Jackson, which he did not get.

At the time, Jackson's wife, Sandi, was a candidate for the job of director of the state's Lottery Commission, a post she did not win, the sources said.

After Blagojevich took office, in early 2003, he told Jackson something to the effect of, "You see what $25,000 would have done?" the sources said.

In 2006, Jackson reported the incident, which he believed to have been an attempt at a shakedown, the sources said.

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Jesse Jackson Jr. was impassioned and emphatic in his press conference today responding to the news that he had been identified as "Senate Candidate No. 5", the figure in the Rod Blagejovich scandal whose emissary, according to Blago, had made a "pay to play" offer. (Blago also indicated on tape that Obama was opposed to this candidate's selection.)

Of course, not only is Blago clearly delusional (how else can you explain this kind of conduct when you're under investigation by the feds?), he's also clearly a liar of prodigious levels. So nothing he said should be taken at any kind of face value.

Nonetheless, the taint clearly threatened Jackson's political future, and coming out -- especially as convincingly as he did today -- was an essential first step in repairing the damage.