SEE A MESS

The smoky haze settling over the Land of Lincoln is fall out from the fire fight between Central Management Services and the Auditor General's office.

Archpundit and Capital Fax are providing excellent reporting on the action.

IL Pundit has thoughtful analysis on how the General Assembly may react to the audit of CMS.

OneMan is hoping that the GOPers stay out of the way and let Blagorgeous' Democratic adversaries take shots at him. (And OneMan drops the veil on his secret identity)

I don't have much to offer on this topic other than an ironically titled article on Blagorgeous from The Nation. It's entitled "Corruption -- a Proven Winner."

No, it isn't about corruption in the governor's office. Instead, it tells the tale of Blagorgeous rise to power by "by successfully exploiting the taint of scandal against his opponent" and by promising to "to clean up state government and pass ethics reform."

It also contains this bitter nugget that I am sure was never intended to embolden disheartened Illinois Republicans:

Congressional Democrats should take a page out of Gingrich's and Blagojevich's books and propose comprehensive ethics reform. They should talk about the "corrupt Republicans" and "restoring transparency and integrity" at every turn. They should use DeLay's mounting ignominy to tar fellow Republicans who benefit from his fundraising and clout. In short, they should make Republican scandal and Democratic reform one of the central narratives of their opposition over the next two years. "Newt Gingrich came to power because of an ethics scandal," says Obama's state political director, Dan Shomon. "Rod Blagojevich got elected partly because of scandal. You can defeat an incumbent if you can catch his or her hand in the cookie jar."

Ouch.