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Actually, I think Blago's nomination of Burris was pretty shrewd. On the one hand, he can say "look, I didn't sell the Senate seat. No matter what spin you put on my words on the tape, the fact is that I nominated someone who really doesn't have any scandals in his past and I didn't get anything out of it personally." So he uses the nomination as part of his defense to impeachment and to the criminal charges. Yes, it's after the fact, but he still is going to say "no harm, no foul, folks" -- and who knows, it might just work.
It's also shrewd because he now has the Bobby Rushes of the world, and their ilk, sniffing around for "racist" opposition to Burris. Burris himself is, to all appearances, clean and honest (at least by IL standards), and he's been trying unsuccessfully to move up to higher office for a long time. Here is his chance. Blago gets points with the African-American political powers in Chicago and elsewhere and forces the rest of the Democratic party into either accepting his choice or having to publicly refuse to seat the only African-American face in the Senate. Understand, I'm not sure how the Democratic caucus can legally refuse to seat him -- he was duly appointed by the sitting governor (who is legally innocent until proven guilty), and he meets the constitutional qualifications for a Senator. How can they not seat him? And besides, if he does a marginally decent job (which shouldn't be that difficult; it's hard to screw up royally in less than two years) he will be the incumbent coming into the next election. What on earth are Reid, et al. thinking?
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