Well now, as we thoroughly expected from the day Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich called the Senate’s bluff and appointed him, Roland Burris will, it seems, be seated as President-elect Obama’s successor atop Capitol Hill. Bully for him.

For all Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s fulminations, for all the paperwork or enabling signatures Mr. Burris failed to obtain, we believed there was no way, ultimately, that the former Illinois attorney general could be denied. What some folks conveniently overlooked is that Mr. Blagojevich, though hauled off in handcuffs for allegedly trying to sell Mr. Obama’s seat to the highest bidder, remains the chief executive of Illinois — that is, until he is found guilty by the legislature or a federal jury and subsequently removed from office. Until then, he can legally make such appointments as Mr. Burris, who, by the way, is not guilty or charged with anything.

What we find decidedly interesting — and perhaps a bit delicious as well — is that Mr. Reid has, in this episode, been found thoroughly wanting. Or, as they say in Texas, “all hat and no cattle.” Such repeated blustering that no appointment made by Mr. Blagojevich would “stand” in his Senate turned out to be nothing more than typically empty declarations.

Unable as well to elude the taint of this affair has been Mr. Obama, who initially, it appears, bought into the circus-like rejection of Mr. Burris’ credentials but then went through Senate cloakroom channels to soften opposition to his seating.

No doubt Mr. Burris will be duly certified before the drama of Inaugural Week truly unfolds. By then, Mr. Reid, other members of the Democratic leadership, and even, to some extent, Mr. Obama will have had ample time to digest the ample quantities of crow on which they were forced to dine.