Rahm Boot

Schadenfreudemania, served deep-dish Chicago style:

Rahm Emanuel was thrown off the ballot for mayor of Chicago today by an appellate court panel, a stunning blow to the fund-raising leader in the race.

An appellate panel ruled 2-1 that Emanuel did not meet the residency standard to run for mayor.

Appellate justices Thomas Hoffman and Shelvin Louise Marie Hall ruled against Emanuel. Justice Bertina Lampkin voted in favor of keeping President Obama’s former chief of staff on the Feb. 22 ballot.

Ed Morrissey adds:

Initial word was that the vote on the three-judge panel in Illinois was 237 to 126.  I kid, I kid …

This puts the Emanuel campaign in serious danger of disqualification.  They can appeal to the Supreme Court, but the election takes place four weeks from tomorrow.  Presumably the Supreme Court would expedite its review, and the success of that will hinge on the appellate court’s reasoning for overturning the ruling of Lampkin, the fact-finder at the district court level.  Emanuel’s team says it will use the dissenting opinion on this decision to craft its appeal.

Emanuel’s not the only one in limbo.  With just four weeks to go, the ballots are almost certainly printed and ready, and one assumes that absentee voters already have theirs in hand.  Will Chicago voters, both above and below ground, press forward with the poll leader Emanuel and hope that the court won’t throw out an election result?  Or will they decide that they’d better start looking at their second choice candidates now?

Just another day in the life of David Brooks favorite “Warmhearted Machiavellian.” But given that it’s Chicago, who know what will happen with the appeal. We’ll know it’s over if and when President Obama’s office Fed Exes Rahm another Luca Brasi-style dead fish.

Related: Elsewhere in the Windy City, Chicago Bears fans’ love for Jay Cutler has become a funeral pyre.