I have been saying for sometime that the uproar over Roland Burris' appointment by newly impeached and all around scumbag Illinois Govener Rod Blagojevich was much ado about nothing. Besides the fact that I believe that he has a pretty strong legal argument that his appointment was legal and fair, I also felt like the politics of the situation would play a major role. Not the race baiting crap from Bobby Rush but the simple fact that the longer Harry Reid and the Senate Dems fight to keep Burris out of the Senate, the longer the story will be in the headlines. A story that focuses on a Democratic Govener and his scandal plagued tenure. Now after meeting with Reid and Dick Durbin Burris has gone back to Illinois and testified at Rod Blagojevich's impeachment trial and said on the record that he didn't engage in any quid pro quo. He also had the Supreme Court rule that he didn't need the signature from Secretary of State Jesse White to be certified as a Senator. Not only that after the ruling Sec. White has decided to sign another sheet of paper attesting that Burris' appointment letter is "true and accurate". So now Burris will head back to Washington with momentum on his side and demand to be seated again. Well a couple of new reasons just popped into my head of why the Senate Dems are going to simply let this go.
What happens if they successfully block Burris from being seated? They still haven't signed off on a special election. So that seems to mean that they would rather wait until Blagojevich is impeached and Lt. Govener Pat Quinn is signed in and let him make the appointment. There are a few problems with that though. Here is the thing, will Quinn risk the very poor political optics of choosing a white person to fill the seat after all of this hullabaloo about not seating Burris? Mind you let there be no doubt that Bobby Rush was totally full of shit with his race baiting. But still it has opened a can of worms. And if not and he plans to appoint a black person, which one of them would be willing to accept and be seen as having taken the same seat that another black person, Burris, was denied? To me this is the biggest catch 22 of the whole situation. Even if Blagojevich is impeached and Burris is denied the seat unless the state congress of Illiniois votes to have a special election Quinn is going to have a hard time making a selection that won't piss a lot of people off.
I think Burris is seated by Monday evening. And in all reality its probably the right move even if it took a little while coming.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
I totally agree, SG, Burris needs to be seated and the smart Democrats in the Senate should make this go away.
ReplyDeleteBlagojevich talked about selling the seat but didn't get to do it because Fitzgerald intervened. Blagojevich made the appointment as governor which he is entitled to do. Furthermore, Burris is okay. I'd sooner have Burris represent me than my senators John McCain and Jon Kyl.
They need to seat Burris and move on. People are mostly concerned about the recession and this Burris controversy just looks like unnecessary political bickering. The Democrats need to hit the ground running and assure Americans that the recession is all they think about until they manage somehow to restore confidence. They need to cut this crap and hope the public's short memory gives them a pass.
Other than that, I've been checking out your blog, SG, having read your comments on TNC.
Hey Liza, thanks for stopping by.
ReplyDeleteTo use a Bush word I think they "misunderstimated" how obstinate Blago was going to be in all of this. This is a no win situation now and its better to lose small by letting him in now than lose big by fighting it and losing big in the end after weeks of having it in the headlines. If they can accept Harry Reid then they should be able to accept Burris for two years.