It seems a like a distant memory at this point, but on November 3, 2008, then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich told reporters that he planned to assemble a search committee to replace Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate should he be elected president.  As we all know, Obama did defeat John McCain the following day. Despite high hopes for a transparent, rigorous replacement process, Blagojevich's "search committee" ultimately included only himself and his closest advisers.  Worse yet, the indictment handed down last year by a federal grand jury alleges that this cohort conspired to use the appointment for the governor's personal financial gain.  And his eventual choice, Roland Burris, has been dogged with very legitimate questions about how he came to accept the post.

If anything, the Blagojevich/Burris experience should remind us that appointments of this sort are best handled out in the open.  Voters in this state are more cynical and suspicious of their leaders than ever before.  If the process of replacing Scott Lee Cohen as the Democratic lieutenant governor nominee is handled in a secretive fashion, it's sure to haunt the party over the next few months.

In the coming weeks, Democratic Party Chairman Michael Madigan, Gov. Pat Qunn, and the 38-member Democratic State Central Committee (which will ultimately vote on the replacement) should provide the public with some idea of how this decision will be made. 

They should lay out the criteria for the candidates they intend to consider seriously.  They should provide a timeline for when the various decisions will be made.  They should enable reporters to closely observe the proceedings. They should make the debate and discussion as transparent as possible.  Finally, the members of the committee should make their votes public and, therefore, remain accountable.

At a press conference today, Quinn gave little in the way of specifics about how the process would be handled.  And Madigan has simply said that he won't act "heavy-handed." But before the committeemen cast ballots on a replacement (which hopefully will occur prior to their currently-scheduled March 15 meeting), the party's leaders must give the Democratic electorate some confidence in the process.

Scott Lee Cohen may be out of the picture.  But the Dems aren't out of the woods yet.