Last Friday, our favorite power-hungry Illinois politician by far, impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich, called on the major Illinois newspapers to write editorials urging the Illinois Senate leadership to ensure that his trial is fair and law-abiding. And we all know how important the law is to Blagojevich. But no matter how much he pleads for a chance to have a fair impeachment trial, the reality is that he has already had one too many chances.

We have a hard time getting over the fact that Blagojevich is now asking for help from his biggest fans, The Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times, when only a little more than a month ago, he threatened to withhold state money for Wrigley Field renovations unless the Tribune fired some of their editorial writers who have been critical of him. Simply put, Blagojevich didn’t like the Tribune’s editorial writers for obvious reasons: those being that the Tribune’s editorial writers didn’t much like Blagojevich. The same goes for the Sun-Times and most Illinois papers that have now become interchangeable in the sense that not many of us have had positive views of Blagojevich in the past. And why would we?

Blagojevich has wasted so much of his breath blaming the media for negative coverage of him. But in his time of need, he’s turned around and wants our help. Two words, Blago: too late. You burned that bridge long ago and because of this economic recession we’re all in (thank you very much, by the way), we can’t afford to repair it.

So instead of urging state senators to give Blagojevich that fair trial he wants, we’d rather like to urge Blagojevich to show up at his own impeachment trial to ensure its fairness. Blagojevich wants to share his side of the story to show his innocence, but appearing on NBC’s “Today” Show, CNN’s “Larry King Live,” and ABC-TV’s “The View” and “Good Morning, America,” won’t do him any good unless the ladies on “The View” are part of the jury. And from what we know, that’s not the case.

Blagojevich said he would love to go to trial, to challenge the charges brought against him, to call witnesses to defend him, but said that under the current rules in the Constitution, he was “being hanged” before he even went to trial. That may be the case, but he can’t argue against it while sitting in a comfortable lounge chair, sipping coffee in New York – another state that has already had to deal with a governor gone bad.

While we don’t wish that his trial be unfair — toward him or toward the people of Illinois – we do want justice for our state.

We understand people screw up, mistakes happen and some governors become dirty politicians. But in the least, we’d like Illinois to become a little bit less of a mockery than what Blagojevich has made it to be. And the only way that can happen is if we get this trial going, if Blagojevich cooperates, and if we can find a “one size fits all” orange jumpsuit.