Rod Blagojevich may appear to have leeway, but he’s highly unpopular now and needs Obama’s support, so he’ll choose only someone who is acceptable to The One.
The second most likely choice, IMO, is Rod appointing 74 year old Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White as Senator. This would be a win-win for Blago, IMO. He gives the Jackson crowd their token "black" Senator, so they're happy, he gets bonus points with Illinois voters since he appoints a "popular" statewide official that won about 2/3rds of the vote last time, and he frees the seat up for his criminal buddies in 2010, since Jesse White is old and senial and definitely won't run for a 6 year term in his own right. In short he'd appoint a seat warmer that would give him allocates from the media and every faction of the Chicago Dems.
The choice that makes me hurl the most would be Blago appointing Tammy Duckworth to the seat, especially after Illinois voters specifically REJECTED her at the polls in her bid to succeed Henry Hyde. Worse, she'd probably win election in her own right as an incumbent Senator. She is a total empty suit and a Democrat machine creation in much the way Obama is. Rahm Emnauel created her "war hero" persona and all her "values" are from the latest DNC script.
Jesse Jackson Jr. would be a horrible Senator but also a good pick for Blago, as JJJ is ultra-liberal and Marxist activist, but he talks a good game on TV and is smoother than his daddy. I don't think Blago will choose junior though, because he'd immediately outshine the Governor and nobody would pay attention to Blago anymore.
There's a chance that Blago could appoint himself, I suppose, if he figured he wouldn't get elected Gov again. He probably won't do this though, because Illinois voters would retaliate and dump him from the Senate, plus appointing himself would result in anti-machine Dem Pat Quinn becoming Governor.
And then there's Emil Jones. That would be a suicidal pick for Blago, IMO, and possibility result in a Republican pickup (except Jones probably won't run for re-election in 2010). Jones has dismal approval ratings statewide now and is "retiring" as Senate President under a "ethics cloud" (and we all know what that means). He's so unpopular that little known perennial Republican candidate Ray Wardingley, running a shoe-string campaign, ended up a competitive candidate on election night (I was Ray's press secretary in that race, I should know). Jones is in a "safe" Democrat seat and hadn't had a challenger in over a decade, but once he announced he was going to retire AFTER the election appoint his clueless hackjob son to "succeed" him to the seat in 2009, here's how Cook County voters responded on election night:
COOK COUNTY CLERK'S OFFICE ELECTION RESULTS
State Senator, 14th 4-yr
2 Candidates - Vote for 1
Precincts Counted: 86 of 86 (100.00%)
Candidates Votes %
Emil Jones (DEM) 18,429 53.38%
Ray Wardingley (REP) 16,097 46.62%
SOURCE: http://www.voterinfonet.com/results/110408/SummaryElection110408RaceNum28.html?Party=ALL
If he can only muster 53% in ultra Democrat CROOK County, I doubt Jones could win a statewide election even with the pathetic condition the Illinois GOP is in.
Aside note, I think Ray could have won that seat ala Joseph Cao -- IF he had the money to be competitive, and had been able to run TV ads and such. Too bad the RINOs were diverting attention from real campaigns to con conservatives into flushing their money and time down the drain for hopelessly doomed campaigns like Steve Sauerberg. If I was Emil Jones I would personally send a thank you to these RINOs for wasting valuable conservative resources on laughable races, thus ensuring he won re-election in a low-key contest.