The only governor to give Sarah Palin a run for her money in the “just plain nuts” department Rod Blagojevich has named former Illinois AG Roland Burris to replace Barack Obama.

Given that the Senate Dems have already said they won’t seat him, it guts ugly, particularly since the precedent of Adam Clayton Powell indicates that they may have to.

Furthermore, we have reports on him, and we know that he is 71, that he is the first Black man to be elected to state wide office in Illinois, that it appears that he is not interested in running for reelection in 2010, and he has excoriated Blago:

Burris has also condemned Blagojevich and supported his removal,and that he’s said he would not seek another term.”

The Illinois secretary of state is trying to reject the paperwork, though the legality of that is unclear.

The initial reports on Burris is that he’s squeaky clean, and he ran against, and lost to, Blagojevich in the primary. See here:

My home state’s culture of political corruption is well documented. Roland Burris managed to build a career in politics in this state without falling into that muck. He is, to the best of everyone’s knowledge, squeaky clean, and he’s highly respected. He’s 71 years old, so I wonder if he intends to serve as a caretaker. But he’s an honorable guy, well liked by people across the state in both parties. It’s a stroke of brilliance by Blagojevich in my opinion.”