Rahm Emanuel's quest to become mayor of Chicago has been (at least temporarily) derailed after an appeals court booted him off the ballot. The Illinois appellate court ruled that the former White House chief of staff was ineligible to run, given that he has not been a Chicago resident for the past year. Emanuel's legal team plans to appeal the decision to the state's Supreme Court — but with only four weeks until Election Day, a decision may not come soon enough to save his candidacy. Commentators took the opportunity to crack wise at the famously profane Emanuel's expense:
"Initial word was that the vote on the three-judge panel in Illinois was 237 to 126."
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"The Illinois Supreme Court will sort this out and reinstate Rahm. The Illinois Dems still have the receipt from when they purchased the court."
"Anyone think that there are going to be a few dead fish delivered to a few judges?"
—Doug Mataconis at Outside the Beltway, in reference to the White House's parting gift to Emanuel
"BREAKING: Chicago fish-markets experience unprecedented Monday sales."
—Brian Beutler of Talking Points Memo, on his Twitter feed
"What's Rahm to do? It's not like there's a big, high-profile administration anywhere that likes to keep a full stock of Chicago Democratic personalities."
"I'm no huge fan of Emanuel's... but this is still silly. If the good people of Chicago are dumb enough to want to make Emanuel their leader, they should have that right."
"I think we can safely assume Rahm's immediate reaction to this news was unprintable."
—Libby Spencer at The Impolitic
"Motherf***ing s**t f***ing f*** sh***ers. What the f***ing f*** motherf***ing happened?!"
—"Mayor Emanuel," the former chief of staff's foul-mouthed Twitter alter ego