*** UPDATE 1 *** Important update! Must read! From the governor’s office…

We were invited to the Obama party two days ago…

*** UPDATE 2 *** From regular blog commenter Vote Quimby…

Yeah, I got the same email saying if you want to join the Grant Park party to send in $25

[End of update. But I don’t know which is funnier: Inviting him or not inviting him. Discuss.]

* CBS 2 reports [wrongly, it appears] that Gov. Blagojevich has not been invited to Barack Obama’s big Grant Park election night party. Todd Stroger, however, did make it onto the VIP list.

Todd but not Rod??? Now, that’s a snub, baby.

* Since he can’t go to the big event, the governor might want to check out this long list of alternative election night parties, including…

An open bar awaits you at the Bipartisan Blowout Election Night Party at the McCormick Tribune Auditorium, along with the chance to win 2 air tickets to Washington D.C. so you can visit our nation’s capitol either to revel in your candidate’s glorious win or, camp on the Mall and PROTEST, of course.

See? The guv can go to DC gratis and protest the fact that he wasn’t invited to the convention, the party and the inaugural ball. Perhaps he can even carry a sign that reads: “Pardon Me!!!”

* Meanwhile, Governor Bad Karma himself talks about bad karma…

Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Thursday cited the potential for bad “karma” and avoided discussing potential Senate successors to Barack Obama should the Democratic nominee win the White House, but acknowledged he has a process in mind for making the most important appointment of his career.

“I just don’t want to jinx him and I don’t like the karma of me thinking that far ahead,” Blagojevich said of Obama’s prospects in Tuesday’s election.

His future is, indeed, a scary thing.

* Notice how the AP isn’t a hundred percent sure what the governor will do…

In Illinois, Governor Rod Blagojevich will almost certainly pick a Democrat to succeed Barack Obama, because both are Democrats.

He may also pick the man in the moon.

Oh, look, a kitty.

* The Jacksonville Journal-Courier runs a somewhat flawed analysis (African-American support has been declining along with everyone else’s) which concludes that the governor could win his party’s 2010 nomination…

And who do the Republicans have to oppose him? The usual assortment of megalomaniac millionaires and suburban pols from the land of George Ryan. Most everything disagreeable about Gov. Blagojevich was well known when he ran for re-election in 2006, yet he won handily.

There is one clear path out of this nightmare: If Barack Obama becomes president, Gov. Blagojevich should appoint himself senator.

Heaven, help us.

* The AP is reporting that Barack Obama may be wanting to hire the hardballer’s hardballer if he’s elected president…

Barack Obama’s campaign has approached Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel about possibly serving as White House chief of staff, officials said Thursday

Lynn Sweet has some follow-up…

On the tarmac after landing, Washington Times reporter Christina Bellantoni asked Obama about a possible Emanuel appointment.

“I’m trying to win an election…” Obama said.

Is that a no?

“Plouffe is my chief of staff,” Obama said, a reference to his campaign chief of staff, David Plouffe.

I asked Obama chief strategist David Axelrod–who has also been Emanuel’s media consultant–about the report.

“Don’t believe everything you read. I don’t,” Axelrod said.

If Rahm does take the job, maybe Gov. Blagojevich can get his old House seat back. Hey, who knows?

* Speaking of the Chicago Way, Ald. Tom Allen exacts some revenge…

A Chicago alderman wants police Supt. Jody Weis to be disciplined for making a statement in a TV interview earlier this month that seemed to support Barack Obama’s candidacy.

Earlier this year, the department reprimanded a detective who campaigned for Ald. Tom Allen (38th) in his failed race for Cook County state’s attorney. The department found the detective had violated a rule barring officers from engaging in partisan activity while wearing the uniform or identifying themselves as officers.

“What’s good for the goose is good for the gander,” said Allen. “If they’re going to play games with me politically and hurt good people I’ve known for 25 years, touche. He should face whatever the penalty is.” […]

On Oct. 15, Weis was interviewed as part of a WLS-Channel 7 story on security at Obama’s South Side home. “He’s our senator and he’s hopefully going to be our next president, so it’s an honor to serve and protect his home,” said Weis, who was wearing his dark blue police uniform.

* Eleanor Holmes-Norton talks about race and the presidential campaign in a way Illinoisans can certainly understand…

America tends to have a number of ethnic groups, so that when a Greek ran - Dukakis - Greeks were visibly for him. When Kennedy ran, the Irish were extraordinarily for him. We are a country of ethnic groups. That doesn’t mean the Irish expected John F Kennedy to cater to the Irish or that Dukakis would do something for the Greeks.

That last part is just the opposite here. Ethnics in power always expect to be catered to.

* A young Republican intern for Congresscritter Judy Biggert tells of a chance encounter this past summer…

“I once saw Sens. McCain and Obama sharing a car on the Senate subway underneath the Capitol building, and they had their arms around each other and were laughing about something. I found it peculiar that something so simple would have such a profound affect on me, but it did. It made me realize that it’s OK to disagree politically on an issue and to fight for what you personally believe in, but that the measure of a person’s character isn’t how strongly he or she fights for something, but how he or she is able to work together to find common ground and do what’s right,”

* On an unrelated note, I just got a press release from Republican US Senate candidate Steve Sauerberg that calls the State Journal-Register an “ultra-liberal newspaper.”‘

Can “commie pinko rag” be far behind?