And what does Blagojevich do?

He appoints one of the state’s leading African-American statesmen to the now all-white Senate.

Brilliant.

Everyone from Senate leadership to the members of the Democratically controlled Illinois legislature warned the governor not to exercise his authority to fill the seat. They argued any replacement for Obama would be tainted by accusations that Blagojevich tried to sell the seat to the highest bigger.

Daring a desperate man not to do something was probably not the smartest move.

No one is in Blagojevich’s corner. Even Burris called the accusations against him reprehensible and said he should step down.

But the governor did not get to the top echelon of state politics by accident. He knows how to play the game, and in this situation he had nothing to lose.

After all, at this point he has been convicted of nothing.

Yes, he was arrested, fingerprinted and had to post bail, but he is still the duly elected governor of his state, is driven around in his state-issued vehicle by state troopers and goes to his state office every day.

And guess what? His Senate appointee became the front-page story, allowing Blagojevich to slip quietly out of the spotlight.

The question the governor had to ask himself was who wanted that Senate appointment badly enough to take the heat that would come with the prize?

Burris was more than willing.

The former state comptroller and attorney general tossed his hat in the ring for the appointment early on with very little notice. He tried to advance past those two positions for years with no success and, although he appears to be well-liked and respected by the state’s political bigwigs, he didn’t make the cut and wasn’t on the list of acceptable choices Rahm Emanuel provided the governor’s office.

All of that is pointless now. Burris is the man.

Rumor has it that when he arrives for the new member swearing-in Tuesday, he will be barred from the Senate floor.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his caucus do so at their own peril.

Besides the shaky legal ground they stand on, Democrats can ill afford to tell one of the most qualified public servants in Illinois history that he isn’t good enough by virtue of Blagojevich’s image problems.

If being associated with people who get bad press was a disqualifier, both the Democrats and Republicans would have to throw several current members of the Senate under the bus.

Picture it: Burris, dressed in his best suit and that grandfatherly smile, strolls up to the ornate Senate doors. He is greeted by Capitol Police and is dragged away from the chamber. As he protests his treatment, you can barely make out the figures of Reid and Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin peeking over the shoulders of the burly sergeant-at-arms.

Not pretty.

These images will be played over and over again by the world media, and suddenly our Congress will look more like a meeting of the South Korean Parliament and not the most esteemed legislative body in North America.

Everyone will feign shock and awe, but the most affected viewers will be African-Americans, the most loyal Democratic Party constituency in history.

It has to have crossed the mind of some overpaid party consultant that a Rodney King-like confrontation outside the Capitol with an elderly black man being roughed up could present problems.

Now is the time for cooler heads to prevail. If we ever needed “No-Drama Obama,” we need him now.

The Senate and Obama could move the state of Illinois and the country past this ugly Blagojevich affair by simply saying it’s time to move on.

But since when did we expect Washington to do the right thing?

Anthony McCarthy is the host of “The Anthony McCarthy Show” on public radio WEAA 88.9 FM and an ordained minister.