By Jayne Lyn Stahl

You’ve got to admire newly ousted Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich’s chutzpah, or cajones, for showing up on the set of “The View,” and making the rounds at the talk circuit, today instead of showing up for his impeachment proceedings though he’s clearly not setting any precedents in not showing up. Karl Rove, who’s been subpoenaed by the House Judiciary Committee, was a no show when he was subpoenaed, on GWB’s watch, to testify about what he knew about the illegal firing of nine U.S. attorneys, and framing Don Siegelman, a popular former governor, on corruption charges. Reportedly, Rep. Conyers, head of the House Judiciary Committee, is giving Rove another shot at being a no-show.

The only one framing Blagojevich is Blagokvetch himself. There are some who might argue, and wisely, that the only thing unique about the Illinois governor is his impossible to spell surname.

What I’m wondering is how history will see us in, oh, say about a hundred years given that we impeached one of our most effective presidents, Bill Clinton, for lying to a federal grand jury about having extramarital sex in the Oval Office while letting among our most corrupt chief executives, George W. Bush, and Dick Cheney, off the hook for breaking the Presidential Records Act, lying to Congress and the American people about the so-called weapons of mass destruction, illegal government surveillance, and countless other violations of the Constitution and international law? For shame, America, impeach a guy over extramarital oral sex, but not waterboarding?

Remember the old saying—everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it. It’s starting to look at lot like that in Washington, D.C., too, lately.