Think about this. You’ve got a popular Democratic incoming president, a Democratic lieutenant governor and secretary of state, and overwhelming Democratic majorities both in Congress and in the Illinois legislature. Everyone involved was opposed to letting Blagojevich make the pick.

And together they still couldn’t figure out a way to stop him.

“Barring objections from Senate Republicans, we expect Senator-designee Burris to be sworn in and formally seated later this week,” said a joint statement from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin…

“We have spoken to Mr. Burris to let him know that he is now the Senator-designate from Illinois and as such, will be accorded all the rights and privileges of a Senator-elect,” said the joint statement.

A refresher on the timeline. After Reid sends Blago a letter co-signed by every last Democrat in the Senate warning him not to appoint anyone, the state legislature huddles and decides it’s going to pass a bill making the seat subject to a special election. No bill emerges. Blago then flips Reid the bird by appointing Burris, drawing new warnings plus a rebuke from The One himself, who declares that Congress “cannot accept an appointment made by a governor who is accused of selling this very Senate seat.” Enter Bobby Rush, demagoging the hell out of anyone who so much as looks at Burris cross-eyed. Burris shows up to Congress and is turned away, supposedly because the secretary of state refused to sign his certificate of appointment. Then he meets with Reid, who, it turns out, has gotten a phone call from Obama urging him to make this go away. Suddenly the secretary of state has a change of heart, Reid and Durbin have a change of heart, and Burris is officially the senator-designate, insisting all the while that he’s never played racial politics even as he’s paraphrasing Malcolm X about being seated by any means necessary. Did I miss anything?

Exit question: The boss calls this Harry Reid’s humiliation. Isn’t it just as much Obama’s humiliation, too?