It was about Blago

Regardless of what the national press insists, the Illinois primaries had nothing, NOTHING to do with Barack Obama. Both of the major races -- Governor and Senate -- were seriously impacted by Rod Blagojevich.

1) When he was impeached and tossed from office, Blago left his Lt. Governor, Pat Quinn, a fiscal mess of epic proportions. Worse, Quinn was blind-sided about much of it because during much of his last term, Blago wouldn't talk to anyone but his staff.

2) The open Senate seat is the one that Blago (allegedly) tried to sell -- it's "fucking golden," after all -- and may have been purchased by Roland Burris.

3) Tony Rezko, one of Blago's best buds, has donated money to every politician in Illinois. It would be only a slight exaggeration to say that Rezko money may have even tainted the Pinewood Derby.

The result of these scandals is that many of the marquee Dems -- most notably Attorney General Lisa Madigan -- played like Punxsutawney Phil and were reluctant to leave their holes, lest they see their shadows. Safer to stay put, to stay out of the fray, to avoid the scrutiny.

There was more to yesterday's results, of course. Quinn tried to tie his opponent, Dan Hynes, to a particularly unsavory cemetary scandal, while Hynes "exhumed" Mayor Washington, using a decades-old video of Harold bashing Quinn. It was so dirty and so irrelevant that I don't know anyone who truly cared who won. Alexi Giannoulias, the leading Democrat in the Senate primary, is involved up to his hips in his family's bank -- which is having such major solvency problems that he didn't campaign these past few days, lest he have to answer questions about it.

But none of it was a referendum on Barack Obama. And should Illinois fade from blue to purple, with a Republican Senator or Governor elected this November, that won't have anything to do with the President, either.

It's hard to believe that a buffoon like Blago can leave such ruin in his wake. It's hard to believe I voted for him twice, too. Shame on me.