Easy Amendment

One of our Constitution's lesser-known amendments is the Seventeeth, which requires that Senators be elected by popular vote. One of the lesser-known sections of this amendment is it also allows state legislatures to empower the governor to appoint an interim senator if there's a vacancy.

People have been thinking about this power quite a bit lately. First, some suggested Sarah Palin might appoint herself to the Senate if Ted Stevens were elected then removed. (Though apparently the law was changed a few years ago in Alaska and the governor can no longer appoint anyone.)

Now we've got Governor Blagojevich wondering how best to fill Obama's vacant seat. According to government wiretaps, in one of his cleaner moments, he declared: "if they are not going to offer anything of value, then I might just take it."

I have no idea what's going to happen to Blago, but I do know this. If someone right now suggested a constitutional amendment stripping all governors of the power to appoint themselves, I bet it would sail through.