Ed Genson wants to play a game of chicken with the Illinois House and its impeachment panel.  The attorney for Governor Rod Blagojevich has demanded that the committee issue subpoenas to people connected to the pay-for-play scandal, including Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel.  Ostensibly, Genson claims that they will clear Blagojevich, but it’s really a high-stakes gamble:

An attorney for Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) has asked the legislative panel considering impeachment of the governor to subpoena more than a dozen witnesses, including President-elect Barack Obama’s incoming chief of staff.

Ed Genson wants the committee to subpoena  Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), longtime Obama friend and adviser Valerie Jarrett, and  Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), said state Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie.

Currie, the head of the committee, said she did not yet know what the committee’s response to Genson’s request would be. Its next meeting is scheduled for Monday, she added.

Currie noted that the U.S. attorney’s office has already denied the panel’s request to interview a list of people named in the criminal complaint against Blagojevich. U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said earlier this week that lawmakers’ interviews of current or former members of Blagojevich’s staff might jeopardize his criminal investigation.

Genson’s demand is a big bluff, a sing-or-get-off-the-karaoke-stage moment for the Illinois legislature.  He knows that they will resist interfering in Patrick Fitzgerald’s investigation, and that Fitzgerald will act to protect it.  They have the right to issue these subpoenas, but if they derail the years-long probe into Illinois corruption by doing so, they will bear the blame for its collapse.  On the other hand, if they don’t subpoena these witnesses (and potential co-conspirators), then Genson can make a public argument that impeachment is nothing more than a railroad job, an illegitimate attempt at a coup in Illinois.

Would that work?  Potentially, it could.  The Illinois House doesn’t need to prove a crime was committed in order to impeach Blagojevich, as the state constitution doesn’t have any restrictions at all on grounds for impeachment.  It’s a purely political process — but that cuts both ways.  If Genson paints them as a kangaroo court unwilling to force the appearance of witnesses that might reluctantly produce exculpatory evidence, or unable to prove any crime was committed, then that puts the legislature in a very bad position, politically speaking.

Genson’s betting that the legislature will back down from impeachment if he can make it look like Blagojevich isn’t getting a fair hearing.  He’s using the law as a springboard for a political campaign to save Blagojevich.  The big question is whether Genson holds any cards at all for this bluff, or whether Blagojevich and the wiretap tapes will inevitably trump any questions on process.