Why Hasn't Rahm Emanuel Resigned From His Congressional Seat?

Since Barack Obama's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is smack dab in the middle of the Rod Blagojevich scandal, it got me wondering why he hasn't resigned from his Congressional seat yet? Before we get to that, however, we have news this morning that Emanuel indeed spoke directly with Blagojevich about who might replace Obama.

President-elect Barack Obama's incoming chief of staff Rahm Emanuel had a deeper involvement in pressing for a U.S. Senate seat appointment than previously reported, the Sun-Times has learned. Emanuel had direct discussions about the seat with Gov. Blagojevich, who is is accused of trying to auction it to the highest bidder.

Emanuel talked with the governor in the days following the Nov. 4 election and pressed early on for the appointment of Valerie Jarrett to the post, sources with knowledge of the conversations told the Sun-Times. There was no indication from sources that Emanuel brokered a deal, however.

A source with the Obama camp strongly denied Emanuel spoke with the governor directly about the seat, saying Emanuel only spoke with Blagojevich once recently to say he was taking the chief of staff post.

But sources with knowledge of the investigation said Blagojevich told his aides about the calls with Emanuel and sometimes gave them directions afterward. Sources said that early on, Emanuel pushed for the appointment of Jarrett to the governor and his staff and asked that it be done by a certain date.

At least some of the conversations between Emanuel and Blagojevich were likely caught on tape, sources said.

Oops. Now those are tapes I'd really like to hear.

So we now have both Obama and Emanuel caught in a lie.

Change!

Anyway, since the media hasn't paid it much attention, we're wondering why Emanuel hasn't resigned from his seat yet. I cannot locate any stories saying he's already done so, but according to his Wikipedia page, there's probably a good reason why he hasn't yet done so.

After Emanuel submits his resignation of his congressional seat, the Governor of Illinois must set the date for a special election within five days, and the election must take place within 115 days.

Maybe Emanuel hasn't resigned yet because it's possible he'll be jettisoned from Obama's administration and he can just go back to Congress? It's almost a shame Blagojevich can't appoint someone in his place. Now that would really be amusing.