Marathon Pundit passes along word about the man who hopes to fill Barack Obama’s Senate seat:

Any hope that Chicago’s Broadway Bank, the platform from which Democrat Alexi Giannoulias launched his political career, will survive its current financial problems probably ended this morning when the state treasurer and US Senate candidate said in a press conference, “It’s quite likely that the bank will not be around” by Election Day in November.
Federal regulators have asked that the Giannoulias family-owned bank find an additional $70 million in capitol, or face shutdown.
Oh, I remember as if it was yesterday four autumns ago when Giannoulias appeared on WBBM-AM’s “At Issue” when he repeatedly declared “We need a banker in the state treasurer’s office.”

Alexi Giannoulias: Because Washington’s financial disaster deserves an experienced professional.

UPDATE: A reader makes an intriguing prediction: “As a Chicagoan, let me predict that Alexi the Banker will drop out at the last moment before ballots are printed and Dan Hynes will emerge as the Democratic Senate candidate.” Illinois Democrats have already used an early Torricelli Maneuver on their lieutenant governor candidate . . .