Who Will He Choose?

As you know, Illinois governor, Rod Blagojevich, must choose someone to replace President-elect Obama in the Senate. All of those mentioned are far left machine Democrats. The list of possibilities includes Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr.; Illinois Director of Veterans' Affairs, Tammy Duckworth; Illinois Senate President, Emil Jones; Illinois Attorney General, Lisa Madigan; and Rep. Jan Schakowksy. Rasmussen has a new poll out today showing that Illinois Democrats favor Triple J.

Schakowksy, whose husband recently finished his sentence in federal prison, has been actively lobbing for the job. She is by far the most liberal and partisan of the lot. And, that's saying something in a list that includes Jesse Jackson, Jr.

The politically smart move for Blagojevich is to appoint Lisa Madigan. She is widely perceived to have the best chance of beating Blagojevich in the Democratic primary if he decides to seek reelection (which is hard to believe that he is even thinking about it because of his 13% approval rating). If he appoints her to the Senate, he gets her out of Dodge and she won't be challenging him for the governor's office.

Republicans in Illinois (the few that are left) are hoping the Jesse Jackson, Jr. is appointed because they feel that he can be defeated in the 2010 election. It is likely that the Republicans will nominate Rep. Mark Kirk for that Senate seat. Rep. Kirk is every Democrat's favorite Republican member of the House of Representatives. He will draw a lot of votes from independents and Democrats who believe that Jackson is too polarizing and too liberal.

Blagojevich is faced with an interesting choice. If he makes the wrong choice, he potentially can lose his job or lose a safe Senate seat for the Democrats. Soon, it will all be revealed.

UPDATE: Gov. Rod Blagojevich is currently in the custody of the FBI. He was arrested by the FBI this morning (December 9, 2008). The charges including attempting to sell the US Senate seat that was vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.