Well, We Won't Have Blagojevich to Kick Around Anymore...

Breaking news, within the past hour: The Quarterback is TOAST.

I watched Hardball as it took place. My God, it was a unanimous vote too, 59 to zero, in favor of impeaching now-former Illinois Gov. Rod "This Is F-cking Golden" Blagojevich for becoming a shameless embarrassment for the state, the Democratic Party, and Americans across the board. He couldn't even get one sympathy vote, or at least a guy sneaking out to light up a fattie in the bathroom and end up abstaining.

The charges on the proceedings - abuse of power, attempts to extort campaign contributions, an attempt to bully the Chicago Tribune into forcing out Blago's critics - are actually pretty minor penny ante stuff, but still they were plentiful and powerful enough to give the state senate the excuse to kick the bum out. The impeachment only means that Blago is no longer governor, and that he can no longer run for elected office out of the state of Illinois (he can always carpetbag to New York and try there). His REAL problems of course are still out there in the form of the best prosecuting federal attorney of our day - FITZ! - readying a federal criminal trial for Blagojevich's misdeeds. The impeachment came before the criminal trial mostly because impeachment doesn't operate like a criminal trial: you can get impeached for committing acts that courts wouldn't even consider illegal but would make it difficult for government to function. The impeachment process had even speeded up once Blago pulled the Burris stunt and caused more chaos for everyone involved, all because he certainly didn't want to resign and showed with that one maneuver he was going to make everyone else miserable on his way out.

This isn't over yet: Fitzgerald still has his corruption trial for Blagojevich to start, and there's a good chance Blago's got more crazy sh-t under that moose rug of his. But for all intents the circus is over, it's done, and good riddance.

Now we need to see about impeaching Rush Limbaugh...