Brother Rod’s Traveling Salvation Show

As the Illinois state Senate began its impeachment trial, Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) did the nonsensical. He got out of Dodge and headed for the bright lights and big city.

After the sideshow of the possible attempt to sell the Obama Senate seat and the circus that was the process that gave us Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.), where else would Blagojevich want to go but the land of “If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere” — Manhattan!

In doing so, he became one of the biggest “gets” for television in recent memory — except that seemingly anyone who wanted Blagojevich got him. Larry King, Rachel Maddow, Diane Sawyer, Geraldo Rivera. And, of course, the cringe-inducing appearance on “The View.” Just when we thought Illinois’s Office of the Governor had been stripped of all dignity, enter Joy Behar, mussing the Blago mane and asking for a Nixonian “I am not a crook.” Could “Saturday Night Live” be next?

While much of the nation shakes its collective head over the Blagojevich media blitz, it’s important to remember this is an intentional strategic decision. A wrong one, to be sure, but Blagojevich knows the Illinois state Senate will remove him from office. His audience now is a potential juror pool, made up, he hopes, of fans of “The View” and other talk shows.

Whether he further incriminated himself during his media salvation tour, of course, is another matter. And who can guess what he’ll do now that he’s back home, especially when addressing the Illinois state Senate?