And after all the tough talk yesterday about how the Senate will stand firm, wait for Blagojevich to be impeached, and only accept an appointment from Lt. Governor Pat Quinn, it looks like Dick Durbin is doing the el-foldo.

Senator Durbin has persuaded Citi to support his bankruptcy code amendment that lets homeowners modify their notes in Chapter 13. The Blue Dogs are the big danger to this important change.

On reflection, it’s just really neat the way the Blagojevich offer to Burris ended up in an offer–certainly picked up by wiretaps–that emphasized Burris’ qualifications for the office.

Senate Democratic leaders have got financial giant Citigroup to agree to back legislation allowing bankruptcy judges to change the terms of troubled mortgages to help borrowers avoid foreclosure:

But the deal reflects the changed political and economic realities of the nation’s deepening recession and puts pressure on other lenders to come aboard.

Roland Burris’ admission that he spoke with Lon Monk about the Senate seat is interesting for several reasons–not least because Monk is centrally tied to the allegations against Blago.

Liberals have long stood up for what Hubert Humphrey described as: “…those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life — the sick, the needy and the handicapped.” While conservatives revile liberal philosophy, we should all contemplate just what it is that liberal governance has gotten for us.

What a bizarre day in music news. Amy Winehouse is on an extremist hate list; Bono will soon be writing and podcasting for the New York Times; and William Zantzinger, who inspired Bob Dylan’s ballad The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll, passed away. What better way could there possibly be to shake off all the weeks news than a little Rock and Roll?

Now that Norm’s decided to blow another couple million bucks on his lawyers, the big question is: How far will it go? Will Norm be able to take this all the way to the conservative-controlled US Supreme Court, should the three-judge contest panel not give him the answer the national Republican leadership wants to hear? An FDL commenter, Sara, believes that Norm won’t be able to take this to the Federal level at all.

Quite frankly, I’m disappointed in you people.

Governor Palin is a little upset about double standards

“When I heard Barack Obama state in one of his interviews … that his wife was off limits, meaning, his family was off limits, I naively believed that they respected that … that it applied to all of us, but it didn’t apply.”