Though Alexi Giannoulias is set to be at President Obama's event today in Quincy, Illinois, Lynn Sweet reports that we shouldn't expect to hear him give a "shout out" to his old basketball buddy:

[WH Deputy Press Secretary Bill] Burton was asked, "Do you think the President is going to acknowledge his presence and talk a little bit about his campaign, which is sort of having some trouble at the moment," a reference to the failure last week of the family controlled Broadway Bank.

Replied Burton, "I don't think it would be appropriate for the President to talk about anybody's campaign at what are all official events."

Meanwhile, a few miles down river the St. Louis Dispatch carries an unflattering editorial this morning about Giannoulias' Broadway Bank mess:

There remains doubt about Mr. Giannoulias' personal culpability for the problems at Broadway Bank. He has stressed that he hasn't been associated with the bank since taking leave to run for treasurer, and claims that the bank's problems are no different from those of many small banks who were overly aggressive with commercial lending.

But he did cite his banking experience in the treasurer's race. And the bank did loan money to Rezko, the Blagojevich bag-man convicted of fraud and bribery in 2008. And after he became chief loan officer in 2004 at the tender age of 28, he was part of the banking brain trust that loaned $26 million to a partnership that included an ex-mob bookie named Michael “Jaws” Giorango.

No polling has been done since the news late Friday that Broadway's failure will cost taxpayers a cool $394 million. As of right now, Kirk leads by less than a point in the RCP Average, and we have the race classified a Toss Up.

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