Versatile eBay

You can get pretty much anything on eBay. Including, until a little bit earlier today, an appointment to the United States Senate seat being vacated in a few weeks by President-elect Obama.

Well, no, actually the auction was for a framed photograph of soon-to-be-indicted Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who is accused of having offered an appointment to that seat in exchange for money. Gov. Blagojevich denies this and defiantly indicates that he will not resign. It doesn't help his cause, though, that he has fallen out of favor with Illinois voters. Maybe he and Ted Stevens can be cellmates or something.

EBay, by the way, has taken the actual auction down. That's probably a good idea. Meanwhile, seating under the wheels of the Obama political bus is getting very slim -- if you want to be dissed by the President-Elect, you're going to have to do better than Jon Favreau, a speechwriter for the Obama campaign who is likely to get a position in the White House press office either as a speechwriter or a press aide. (That's Favreau on the left of the picture, giving the cutout photo of Senator Hillary Clinton a reach-around. We don't yet know the name of the Genius Grant recipient on the right, the one wearing the "Obama Staff" T-shirt and backward baseball cap.)

Now, there's obviously a party going on here, likely during the primaries, and Favreau is all of twenty-seven years old, and political types speak highly of his talent as a speechwriter. No doubt some tasteless jokes were made after a few too many beers had been drunk. Senator Clinton herself has laughed off the photograph making the rounds on the Intertubes, but others are demonstrating a decidedly more judgmental attitude. Personally, I think that if Clinton is willing to dismiss it, the rest of us should follow her cue. That's not to say that he shouldn't have to face some retribution -- but the humiliation is retribution enough, and it's doubtful that he'll be getting a lot of favors from the State Department during his time in the White House. That's how it rolls.