It looked like former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris was about to be seated in the U.S. once the Secretary of State was forced to sign the certificate to appoint him.  The State Supreme Court ruled that the Secretary of State didn’t have to sign the certificate, but a funny thing about that:

CHICAGO (Reuters) - No one can occupy the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama until the governor of Illinois is removed and a new appointment can be certified, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said on Friday.

Durbin, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, was reacting to the Illinois Supreme Court’s ruling denying a motion by Roland Burris that the state’s secretary of state certify his appointment to the seat.

Secretary of State Jesse White has refused to sign the appointment by Gov. Rod Blagojevich because of corruption charges against the governor, which included accusations he tried to sell the seat.

“At this point we’ve clearly reached an impasse,” Durbin told reporters at his Chicago office.

He said the Senate seat could remain vacant until Blagojevich is removed from office and the lieutenant governor takes over, making a fresh appointment.

He said the Senate cannot waive a 125-year-old rule requiring the signatures of both the governor and the secretary of state on any election or appointment.

Apparently, the Secretary of State does need to sign the certificate and the Senate won’t just let their old 125-year rule go because the Illinois Supremes said so. This sets up an interesting showdown. The simplest thing to do would be for Lt. Governor Pat Quinn to go ahead and appoint Burris, but the odds of Quinn appointing Burris are narrow. So, what we’ll probably end up with are Burris and another person both claiming the title of appointment and a lawsuit being filled by Burris to stop the Secretary of State from certifying Quinn’s choice. Nice little train wreck you’ve set up ther.

Given Blagojevich, the Illinois Legislature, Lisa Madigan’s attempt to declare Blagojevich disabled, and now the Supreme’s ruling, is there any state in the Union with a more pathetic government than Illinois right now?

William Buckley once said, “I’d rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University. ”

I’d rather be governed by the last 300 graduates of Clown College than the folks running Illinois.