What should Harry do?

[radarrider]

Update:  Burris has indeed been refused entry to the Senate.  The reason given was that he had not been certified by the Illinois Secretary of State who, presumably, did not sign the certification because of the corruption charges against Gov. Blagojevich.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich appointed Roland Burris to fill Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat.  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is threatening not to allow Burris to be seated because he is "a tainted appointment."  This isn't because of any problem with Burris, but because of who appointed him.

So here we have a (probably) guilty governor appointing a man who is, as near as we can tell, a fine upstanding gentleman.  In other words, it's like the wrong man appointed the right man.  Since Burris will probably represent his state quite well (in terms of his political views being representative of the majority of Illinois citizens), is there any real reason why he shouldn't be admitted to the Senate?

Comments

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Well, as I understand it, the applicable facts of the matter are these:

1. Blagojevich was arrested for corruption as a result of, among other things, blatantly attempting to sell off Obama's vacated Senate seat — or, more correctly, his appointment of that seat — to the highest bidder.
2. As a result of (1), Blagojevich was ordered not to make an appointment to the vacant seat, since any appointment he might make was now suspect. (Can't find a reference for this, but I know I read it.)
3. The Illinois Democratic Party declared there should be a special election instead of an appointment, then reversed themselves, allegedly because they realized Illinois voters were so disgusted at Blagojevich that they might elect a Republican.
4. Blagojevich went ahead and appointed Burris anyway in defiance of (2).

If it were not for Blagojevich being investigated and arrested, there would be no question of the propriety of his appointing a replacement to fill Obama's seat. However, given that he was arrested, and for attempting to sell off that very appointment, I cannot but agree that it is now improper for him to appoint anyone to the seat — unless any appointment were to be put off until after his acquittal on the corruption charges. However, such an acquittal appears rather unlikely.

Now, if Blagojevich were to resign and allow the Lieutenant Governor to make an appointment in his place, I don't have a problem with that. But I strongly agree that under the circumstances, Blagojevich should not be appointing anyone to that seat. I've seen a few references that say Burris may decline to accept the appointment in any case, and I can't say I'd blame him.

[radarrider.livejournal.com]

I've seen a few references that say Burris may decline to accept the appointment in any case, and I can't say I'd blame him.

Since he actually showed up at the Capitol today, that's obviously not going to happen. The whole show smacked of political theater, as does his statement that he's considering a federal lawsuit to force the Senate to seat him. This causes me to rethink my earlier "fine upstanding gentleman" remark; looks like he's a typical politician after all....

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I just stumbled across that myself. I guess he changed is mind about not wanting to be involved in the circus.