* There were a lot of lowlights from yesterday’s arraignment of Rep. Derrick Smith. Here’s a quote from Smith…

“God gives us all a cross to bear and this lawsuit is mine.”

Um, excuse me, Representative, but this is no mere lawsuit you’re facing. You’ve been indicted on federal bribery charges. Perhaps you need to look up the difference between civil and criminal matters.

* Mark Brown talked to some Chicago politicians who backed Smith in the Democratic primary against a white Republican who appeared to be campaigning as a black Democrat…

“I’m a bit disappointed quite frankly,” Congressman Danny K. Davis told me Monday after learning of Smith’s comments. “I would have hoped that Rep. Smith would have resigned his position as a member of the General Assembly.” To be clear, Davis would like him to resign his spot on the ballot as well.

Davis, who headlined the group that urged a vote for Smith after his arrest, said he did so because he “thought it was for the greater good of the district.”

At this time, “the greatest good would be served if Rep. Smith would put people out of their agony [by resigning]. Only he can do that,” Davis added.

Davis said he appreciates that Smith is in a difficult position and he’s entitled to the presumption of innocence, but added: “Sometimes you have to put the good of the group before your individual self.”

Ald. Emma Mitts (37th), chairman of the West Side Black Elected Officials who convened the pre-election press conference backing Smith, also said he should resign.

“The sooner the better,” Mitts told me. “He’s got enough to deal with without holding the district hostage.”

Mitts said Democratic committeemen whose wards encompass Smith’s 10th legislative district are preparing to run an independent candidate against him if he doesn’t step aside. That effort is being organized by Secretary of State Jesse White, Smith’s political mentor, who engineered his appointment.

* And WBEZ had a doozy of a quote from Smith’s attorney…

Henderson said the case reminds him of a poem.

“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist,” Henderson said, reading a printout from the website of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I am not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak to, for me.”

That poem is about Germans who ignored Nazi actions.

Asked if he was really comparing Derrick Smith’s case to the Holocaust, Henderson replied that when the government does something wrong, everyone has “an obligation to stand up.”

“Today it’s Derrick Smith,” he said. “Who is it tomorrow? That’s the point of [my reading] the poem.”

Oy.

* The Question: Derrick Smith is to _____ as Rod Blagojevich is to _____?