Blagojevich proved his badassness to me today when he decided to appoint a black man to Obama’s vacant senate seat. What he basically did was put everyone trying to bring him down between a rock and a hard place. How are they going to block what could be the only african american in the senate? The can’t. Not without looking like a bunch of jackasses. His appointment, Roland Burris, a former state Attorney, is basically being used as a human shield. Of course Blagojevich tried to distance his appointment of this man from the charges against him saying:
“Please don’t allow the allegations against me to taint a good and honest man,” the governor said, turning to the smiling 71-year-old standing by his side.
“This is about Roland Burris as a U.S. senator, not about the governor who made the appointment.”
Burris was the first African-American elected to major statewide office in Illinois, serving as comptroller and running for governor three times — the last time losing to Blagojevich.
Of course he claimed he had no connection to the charges against Blagojevich, but what else would you expect him to say. I’m not going to defend Blago but I’m also not going to pre-judge him. Illinois is a really corrupt state - a fact that I’m proud of. If you read the post I wrote the day the Blagojevich story broke you’ll understand why. Chicago in particular is where pretty much all the corruption goes on. But Blagojevich was treated as a leper by all the corrupt politicians of this state because he wouldn’t play ball. He was like Rudolph except instead of a red nose he had an ethical dillema. The dilemma being that he acted ethically. Now it seems that exactly what he was fighting is what he became.
Before the announcement of Obama’s replacement all the corrupt politicians who are trying to look like they’re not corrupt by painting Blago as really corrupt (its kind of like trying to make yourself look tall by standing next to really short people all the time) were throwing hissy fits!
There’s one chink in Blago’s plan to get his appointment through by making it a racial thing. That chink is Jesse White, our Secretary of State here in Illinois. Jesse, a black man himself, said today that he won’t certify the appointment. And without Jesse White’s stamp of approval this thing ain’t happenin’. If Jesse doesn’t certify Burris no one can cry racism.
This is a pretty sad situation as Burris is an excellent choice for this seat. He ran against Blagojevich and lost some years ago. I bet he’s feeling vindicated now that all this happened to his former opponent. He could consider it a consolation prize.
Senate Democrats weren’t too enthusiastic with Rod picking Burris. They pretty much said “We don’t want that man picking a replacement because it makes us look bad” without really saying it. Their actual words were something like “We don’t want that man picking a senate replacement because its unfair to Burris and the people of Illinois”. But you know they only care about how it makes them look. Don’t buy the line about fairness. The official statement they put out said things like:
“It is truly regrettable that despite requests from all 50 Democratic senators and public officials throughout Illinois, Gov. Blagojevich would take the imprudent step of appointing someone to the United States Senate who would serve under a shadow and be plagued by questions of impropriety,”.
“Under these circumstances, anyone appointed by Gov. Blagojevich cannot be an effective representative of the people of Illinois and, as we have said, will not be seated by the Democratic caucus.”
I feel bad for Obama in all this mess. The righties are trying to paint him as Blagojevich’s best friend. Sean Hannity tries to link him to Blago on a nightly basis disregarding all facts that say otherwise and making up his own facts to support his own whacked out non-reality based world.
Excerpt from Obama’s statement:
“Roland Burris is a good man and a fine public servant, but the Senate Democrats made it clear weeks ago that they cannot accept an appointment made by a governor who is accused of selling this very Senate seat. I agree with their decision,”
Leaders in the Senate pretty much shat their pants and got on the horn post stat for a conference call. A few people involved in that call expressed concerns about how it would look if they denied a black man this Senate seat. After all, there are no black Senators now that Barack moved up in the world.
One brave soul who spoke to the media (anonymously, of course ) after the conference call said this:
“We say this without prejudice toward Roland Burris’ ability, and we respect his years of public service,”
“It is about the integrity of a governor accused of attempting to sell this United States Senate seat.”
Rep. Bobby Rush decided to be a badass like Blagojevich by daring congress to block Burris’ appointment. I think that is absolutely hilarious. The fact that everyone is trying to tip-toe around this confirmation because of a man’s skin color rubs me the wrong way. This is what Rush had to say:
“There is no rhyme or reason why he should not be seated in the U.S. Senate. I don’t think any U.S. senator … wants to go on record to deny one African-American from being seated in the U.S. Senate.”
He told reporters that Senate Democrats should not “hang and lynch the appointee as you try to castigate the appointer.”
HAHAHA LYNCH! Get it! I love how Blagojevich set this thing up to be about race and not about him. Then Bobby Rush using the word lynch and appointee (referring to Burris) in the same sentence! I love it!
Meanwhile Blagojevich’s own lawyer said that there would be no point in the governor naming someone to the Senate because leaders there would reject his appointment.
There’s more to the story but thats the basic overview. My governor has got some pretty big balls. He definitely proved that today. I don’t know wether he’s guilty or not and frankly, I don’t care. I just love the way he made this appointment about race suddenly instead of his own corruption.
His detractors are going to try to make it about the corruption of course but what gets more play in the media? Corruption or charges of racism? I tend to go with racism.
