* “Governor Irrelevant” seems to be sticking. From the Sun-Times…

On Wednesday, Gov. Blagojevich proclaimed that any state budget sent to him that didn’t meet his approval would be “dead on arrival.” As threats go, that one was as empty as the House during one of the governor’s special sessions.

If lawmakers do send him a budget over his protests, it means Democrats and Republicans alike have ignored him and brokered a deal among themselves. It means they have mustered a three-fifths majority. It means a gubernatorial veto is not a death sentence but simply a minor, easily cured boo-boo.

Blagojevich doesn’t like to be irrelevant, of course, even though no one is to blame but himself. So he’s also threatening to shut the government down if he’s sent “any budget that is constructed to appear balanced but is, in fact, unbalanced and, therefore, unconstitutional.” […]

We’ve got news for you, governor. Fight all you want for your pet projects, drag things out for as long as you can, but if the Legislature passes a budget with a veto-proof majority, the debate is pretty much over, and you’ve lost.

* Apparently, both papers want him to remain irrelevant. The Tribune says so specifically, running an editorial today with the headline: “Stick to ‘irrelevant,’ Governor”…

Option three, Hynes observes, is for the governor to order a shutdown of the state agencies under his control — which is most of them. That sort of exercise in chest-pounding would let a governor proclaim his heroism (”I’m Gov. Robin Hood, feared by the bad, loved by the good!”) in demanding a budget rewrite that is Just So.

Maybe Hynes is over-reading Blagojevich’s threat. Maybe the governor doesn’t entertain goofy notions of closing state offices (ooh, the theatrics …) or pulling Illinois Gaming Board agents off the boats they monitor (wowzer, imagine the public hubbub if the casinos close — which they’d have to do, at a loss of $2 million-plus in state and local tax revenues each day!).

We hope Hynes is mistaken. Because every effort the governor has made to demonize his opponents this year — some, such as employers and legislators who questioned his priorities didn’t even know they were headed for his enemies list — has flopped. Illinois citizens, like their lawmakers, aren’t drinking his Kool-Aid.

The individual now taking public scorn for the budget impasse, and the individual who’ll wear the jacket if the state does shut down, is the governor who can’t govern. That leaves him irrelevant, but as Hynes says, there’s worse.

* Dan Hynes was apparently making the rounds of editorial boards yesterday…

Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes said Thursday it is irresponsible for Gov. Rod Blagojevich to threaten a government shutdown if the legislature doesn’t send him a budget to his liking.

“It’s my belief that it would do a disservice to all state employees and all who rely on state government to allow government to be shut down or to allow the prospect of a shutdown to be used for political or legislative advantage,” Hynes told the editorial board of The State Journal-Register.

“If the legislature passes a 12-month budget by a supermajority vote, the game’s over,” Hynes said. “And to throw out the idea of a government shutdown is, I think, a dangerous thing.”

* The SJ-R ran an accompanying editorial…

We know the governor is passionate about his priorities, but for decades governors have had to settle for less than what they hoped for and come back to fight another day.

We strongly urge Gov. Blagojevich to keep that in mind if a budget passed with a supermajority reaches his desk soon. At that point, as Hynes said, “The game’s over.” Blagojevich does not need to like that fact, but disregarding it would be incredibly selfish and possibly disastrous for our state.

*** UPDATE *** I forgot about Krol’s weekly column today. Sorry, Eric…

Although you can never be certain while the General Assembly is still in session, Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich is slipping dangerously close to irrelevancy.

This week, the four legislative leaders appeared to be on the verge of negotiating a budget deal to end the state-record overtime session without the governor’s involvement.

Blagojevich threatened a veto, but that threat ultimately almost surely will prove hollow: after all, a 3/5th majority is needed to pass any OT budget. And 3/5th also happens to be the margin required to override the governor’s veto. So any veto would be quickly overridden, leaving the governor to call endless special sessions lawmakers will ignore. Blagojevich would be yelling into the empty abyss, like some overacting B-movie villain whose plans went awry.