The Latest News From The Illinois Senate Seat Crack-Up
The train wreck that is the Illinois Senate seat scandal continues apace today.
Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance Gainer, a former chief of the Capitol Hill police, told the Associated Press that he does not expect any trouble from Roland Burris should Burris be turned away from the Senate door next week. "He is a good man," said Gainer, who has known Burris for years. "He plays by the rules. I don't think there's going to be a confrontation."
At the same time, you have to think that any potential situation where Burris is turned away from the Senate would by definition be a real scene, even if it happened to go smoothly and civilly.
Meanwhile, the Illinois House is being called back for a potential impeachment vote against Rod Blagojevich next week. An aide to a top legislative Democrat tells Election Central that the speed of the vote depends on a ruling Monday by a federal judge on whether Patrick Fitzgerald can release to them the tapes of Blago's wiretaps, and how long it would take for any necessary edits and redactions to be made.
"If he says you need a week, then maybe they'll wait," the source told us. "If the judge says you need three months, well they probably won't wait for that." At this point, it appears that Blagojevich is still on track to be removed from office around early February.
Oh hell, if they don't really care if they have the evidence or not ("maybe we'll wait, maybe not") then why don't they just get it over with and impeach the guy! Why get bogged down by the appearance of fair play if you're not really going to be fair anyway?
*note: That's not to say I'm taking Blog's side here, I'm not, he's a shnook!
January 2, 2009 4:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
By all means. Let's keep this monumental circle jerk going. God forbid the Senate seat its 58th member of the Democratic caucus next week with Franken to follow.
Mitch McConnell will probably have to be hospitalized next week from too much violent laughing!
Whatever would Harry Reid do with a near filibuster proof majority instead of a not quite close to filibuster proof majority?
January 2, 2009 4:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Impeach Blago already please!
January 2, 2009 5:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
I said this in another thread but it bears repeating.
No matter what you think ought to be done about this situation I think you'll agree: the sight of the US Senate, which currently has no black members, using armed police to bar one from entering the chamber is going to look bad, to say the least.
I don't know how to best resolve this situation but I'm angry at the idea of my state having only one senator (albeit a powerful one) representing us when they are deciding what to do with hundreds of billions of dollars in stimulus money.
January 2, 2009 6:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, I am a Moderate Republican but if the Republican Senators try to hinder the seating of the winner of the Minnesota Senate race, there is a huge group of us who will resign from the Republican Party and shift to the Democratic Party. For any party to thwart the will of the electorate is simply disgusting and it should not be countenanced. No matter how Republican Senators try to "nice up" this sort of disgusting behavior, it will not end up well for the party. If Republicans cannot play by the rules, they do not deserve our votes and I will gladly shift to be a Democrat to support their effort to make every vote count as it was intended to be counted. God help Republicans as they set out to totally implode!!!!
January 2, 2009 9:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, you missed 2000 and 2004, but you finally made it! We are happy to have you commit to ensuring every vote is counted. If we can interpret the intent of a legitimate voter, then it should be counted. We should recount as many times as needed to ensure the will of the people, all the people, is expressed.
January 3, 2009 1:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
If the Ill leg wanted to stop the appointment, should they not have passed a change to the legislation regarding appointments and/or sued the governor to be enjoined from making the appointment?
It still seems to me that the case for exclusion now is weak -- except for a commentor's point that the Constitution includes the word "returns" in what the Senate may consider. Returns could be interpreted to include the nature of the appointment process; returns being the Governor's vote.
I donno. Seat the guy and get on with it seems to be the best option.
January 2, 2009 11:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Burris has said he's not going to make big deal out of it. He's not going to be led away in cuffs. He very well may be the next senator even if the IL State Assembly impeaches Blago next week. Quinn could just re-select him. Burris was rumored to be a Quinn choice a few weeks ago with the codicil that he wouldn't run again in 2010. That would placate Repubs in IL who are now demanding he be seated. I guess they think they can beat him 2010.
January 3, 2009 10:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
Last I heard, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has only been arrested and initially charged; he has not been indicted by a federal grand jury (not yet, anyway!). Further, for all their collective huffing and puffing, the members of the Illinois legislature has done nothing to legally enjoin the governor from exercising his duly prescribed duties and obligations of office, one of which is to select someone to fill the state's vacancy in the United States Senate whenever one occurs.
Therefore, whether we like it or not, Roland Burris has been selected lawfully as the United States senator from Illinois in accordance with state statute, and I predict that the bellicose sputterings by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Democrats to prevent Burris from assuming hs office will amount to the same as all his other public threats - the empty and impotent rhetoric of reactive political posturing.
By most all accounts, Mr. Burris is a good and decent man with many years of public service, and we truly have far more important things to worry about right now than mitigating the political criticism of the GOP.
Our elected Democrats in Washington need to keep their focus, and learn to resist their latent urge to continue doing the Republicans' dirty work for them. The remainder of Barack Obama's Senate term is only two years; let Illinois citizens render final judgement of Roland Burris' interim appointment, and not Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell.
January 4, 2009 5:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well said. If Burris is shown to have done wrong, then he too can be removed from his seat. This has gotten downright silly, and laws -- not politics -- must prevail.
January 4, 2009 9:12 AM | Reply | Permalink