Tuesday, January 13, 2009
It looks like the Roland Burris saga is about to come to an end.
Thanks to pressure from Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and a certification from the Illinois Secretary of State, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has capitulated and will go ahead and seat Mr. Burris despite the fact that 52% of Illinois voters oppose the appointment.
Burris is the first U.S. Senator to be appointed by a governor who was arrested for corruption charges involving conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, and solicitation of bribery. This month, the Illinois House of Representatives voted to impeach Blagojevich by a vote of 114-1.
But hey, what’s a little taint between friends?
From the Left 
The Roland Burris mess is like a bad joke.
Had the Illinois House and Senate returned early from their Christmas recess and voted to impeach Blago before now, there would be no “Roland Burris, Junior Senator from Illinois.”
The general consensus of opinion in Chicago is, our idiot Gov. Blago is clinically insane and better suited to be in a mental institution than the governor’s mansion.
So to see Harry Reid and the Dems agree to seat his stooge, a man who donated thousands of dollars to Blago’s reelection effort, and then ignore the request from Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin for a special election to fill Obama’s seat, is simply embarrassing.
Just keep this in mind. Roland Burris was appointed by a crook and a psychotic.
ChiTom: Refusing to seat Burris was illegal. We need the government to respect the rule of law.
I think Burris is relatively harmless and it was better to seat him (since I agree with Libhomo that legally they had no choice) than to carry on a quixotic but ultimately futile effort to refuse to seat him. It was taking up too much time and effort, and was basically terrible PR to boot. So I’m glad. The circumstances certainly are not ideal but there are bigger fish to fry. I agree with Ulysses that if they had managed to impeach Blago sooner we wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place.
I’m no expert on Illinois politics but wouldn’t it have been a whole lot simpler to hold a special election?
If 52% of Illinois residents disapprove of the appointment, don’t their opinions count for anything?
The second the Secretary of State certified him, he was good to go, like it or hate it. If Illinois residents hate it, then they need to change the law.
Rod Blagojevich was only arrested. He has not yet even been indicted. He, Burris, Davis, Rush and Judicial Watch exercised their rights and strared down on constitutional grounds the most popular man in the world. That Burris has only a 52% disapproval rating probably means that he’d have a 70% approval rating under other circumstances.
I’m sure Barack Obama would like to be as above the law as he is “above politics,” but there is a process by which things are supposed to be done.
All of this could look very different when all of the tapes — including those taken by Jesse Jackson Jr’s wire — are heard in open court. Fitzgerald released short clips from only 4 tapes. Does anyone believe they’ll feel the same about Barack Obama when all the tapes are played as they do now?
And Obama, so far, is not a target of the inquiry anyway. But when people hear him sounding very much not like the Carebear, none of these other people will seem quite so bad.
I think it’s best to let him in and try to move on with governing. Burris should expect to get a primary challenge in a few years though.
The circumstances surrounding his appointment were clearly questionable and he hasn’t exactly been the best political candidate in the past (three failed gubernatorial runs and bid for mayor of Chicago).
Given that Durbin is fairly when entrenched for the foreseeable future, this could be the best and only shot for a number of “rising stars” on both sides.