Rod Blagojevich's hilarious media tour has succeeded! Sure, he'll still be kicked out of office tomorrow, but now everyone in America loves him!

His utter shamelessness probably saved him from doing time—Fitzgerald rushed the arrest to stop Blago from appointing a Senator and tainting the Senate, and then Blago appointed a Senator! And meanwhile the US Attorney's case against him is mostly just "he kept threatening to do something illegal."

And so Blago leaves office but becomes, instead of another scummy imprisoned Illinois politician, a sort of harmless lovable nut who says crazy things to Larry King and is almost charmingly shameless. When Shep Smith interrupts Blago's rambling news conferences to ask "WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL" it is because Blago's stories about saving the lives of cancer patients are almost endearingly kooky. While his media blitz was ostensibly about convincing the Illinois Senate to allow him to call witnesses that would ruin his upcoming criminal trial, what it was really about was introducing the crazy personality behind those ridiculous and scuzzy phone transcripts.

Oh, those threats came from the funny little guy under the hair? Hah! What a character!

So while he'll probably never hold public office again, its worthwhile to remember that he hasn't even been indicted yet. He's already been offered a radio gig back in Chicago, if he steps down. He might end up with G. Gordon Liddy's career without spending a day in the clink.

Good work, Blago, on your transformation from representation of endemic corruption to funny guy with the hair.