Blagojevich has one weapon left, names

Sometime this week Gov. Rod Blagojevich is going to be out of a job - that's about as close to a sure bet as anything I know. He's angered his constituents and he's angered his fellow Democrats. Earlier this week he told the world that this impeachment was about a plan to get rid of him in order to pass an income and sales tax hike on the people. While he was chastised by Mayor Richard Daley - a fine upstanding citizen leader - for being cuckoo, that may have been the first shot from Blago's last arsenal in his defense, names.

Being on the inside of a corrupt political machine, Blago may have to resort to something we speculated upon when the impeachment controversy broke last month - naming every corrupt deal and deal maker in this state. No one will ever accuse Blago of being noble if he does this, it's the last desperate attempt to save his political hide. But if he does drop names, then he will have finally done something for the people of this state other than implement open-road tolls.

Blago is not going to be at the impeachment trial that begins tomorrow, instead he's going to be making the talk show rounds to appeal to a national audience. Maybe this will be the forum he uses to finally shed some light on the back room deals in this state. I certainly hope this is something he does, but if he does damn the torpedoes and drop names, there's no telling how far this could reach, perhaps even into the White House itself. After all, the president, his chief of staff and the education secretary nominee are all part of the Chicago machine - the very machine that got Blago elected.