My husband was, as often is the case, muttering imprecations at the television set Sunday night. Following a week which saw a wholesale shuttering of businesses large and small, skyrocketing unemployment, a cratering international financial system and continuing violence in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East, NBC knew just the story to lead its newscast: the endlessly entertaining adventures of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

"The world is going to hell in a handbasket, and this is what they lead with?" he asked, voice dripping with scorn.

Well, love of my life, that is exactly the case! Who wants to hear about failing banks and vanishing polar ice caps when one can savor the madcap antics of the man who apparently had a deep interest in bartering the Senate seat of now-President Obama for personal gain and glory?

C'mon, admit it. Who could resist a guy who, accused of shaking down the head of a major children's hospital for big-time political contributions before releasing the major grant that same hospital had been given, insists that this is "all just one big misunderstanding"? A man who sought the firing of Chicago's largest newspaper's editorial writers, who'd had the temerity to criticize him, as a condition of state aid to the publisher of that newspaper - and who now insists that those same editorial writers take up his cause?

What's not to love about someone who, defending himself against credible charges of corruption, rattles off verses from Kipling and Tennyson?

Amazing! In fewer than two months, "Bla-goy'-o-vich" has come to roll easily off the tongues even of toddlers. If a vote were held tomorrow he would probably win American Idol. That hair! Or whatever that is on his head. And his weird stream-of-consciousness speaking style, reminiscent of another governor, Alaska's Sarah Palin, the recent GOP vice-presidential candidate and YouTube's favorite turkey pardoner.

Blagojevich is exceptional, even in Illinois, a state which it can safely be said knows a thing or two about political corruption. It was an open secret for years that the governor was under scrutiny by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, the same straight arrow who brought down former vice president Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

But when federal wiretaps revealed that the governor was shopping around the Senate seat, Fitzgerald blew a very public whistle. And the state legislators, who didn't much like Blago anyway because he routinely pretended they didn't exist, decided enough was enough. In short order the Illinois House impeached the guv, and Monday the state Senate in Springfield opened a trial to see whether he should be removed from office.

Rod, though, was far away. His foray onto NBC Sunday news was only an opening salvo in a PR battle with his opponents. Starting Monday morning, he fairly galloped around the national TV talk show circuit, hitting ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, MSNBC, CNN and something called TruTV. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before he's sharing cooking tips with Emeril.

In the process he referred to the day he was arrested as his own personal Pearl Harbor. Keeping with Big Themes, he compared himself repeatedly to Nelson Mandela, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi. For good measure, he also threw in the embattled crusading heroes of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and It's a Wonderful Life.

He was being persecuted, he complained, because he wanted to provide health care for the poor and free transportation for senior citizens.

He also confided to all who would listen that he considered naming Oprah Winfrey to Obama's vacated seat but figured the talk-show superstar wouldn't return his phone calls.

If Land of Lincoln lawmakers seemed unmoved by Blagojevich's media blitz, it was having an effect on the naifs in New York media circles. Motormouth Chris Matthews seemed aggrieved on his behalf, apparently confusing the safeguards of a criminal trial, which can deprive a person of his liberty, with what the governor is facing - an impeachment trial, to see if he abused his office and should be removed. Troglodyte Pat Buchanan said that Blago "is being railroaded," just like Pat's political hero, Richard Nixon. And the ladies of The View, in particular, showed that - like Blago - they had, at best, an imperfect grasp of even simple facts. Whoopi Goldberg actually asked, "Where is the Supreme Court when you need it?"

Only veteran interviewer Barbara Walters tried to grill the governor, and when he repeatedly responded to questions with the same clichés he'd been peddling all over town she finally asked him, a bit plaintively, "For the sake of your state, for your own dignity, wouldn't it be better if you resigned?"

Oh, no, he said. To do so would be "to disgrace my children." No reference yet to a family dog, but I suspect sooner or later Fido will show up.

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