Obama Weighs In

In a surprising, nay, shocking, even jaw-droppingly so, development, President-elect In Training Wheels, Barack Obama, has actually interrupted his well-earned? vacation activities of surfing, golfing, annoying the troops, pec-flexing and getting p.o.’d with the omnipresent press for unabashedly loving him so, to comment on a matter of obvious grave import to him, the latest chess move in the power play he helped orchestrate against embattled Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.  Disobeying the impotent Democratic Senate Caucus led by Harry Reid, Blagojevich defiantly appointed Roland Burris to the Great Hype Hope’s vacant Senate seat.  From the Associated Press:

President-elect Barack Obama says he supports the decision by Senate Democrats to deny his vacated Senate seat to an appointee of embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. On Tuesday, Blagojevich appointed former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris. He would be the nation’s only black senator.

Democratic leaders in the Senate are rejecting the appointment, arguing that because of accusations that Blagojevich tried to sell the seat to the highest bidder, any appointment by him would be tainted.

In a statement, Obama called Burris a fine man but said he agreed that the Senate cannot accept an appointment from Blagojevich. Obama repeated his call for Blagojevich to resign and allow the seat to be filled by other means.

However, Politico pointed out that the Senate’s big talk amounts to just that:

It’s unclear whether Reid has the power to block Burris’ appointment. Senate leaders discussed the impending announcement on a conference call Tuesday afternoon.

John Fortier, a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote in a Politico Ideas piece this month that the Senate doesn’t have the power to reject the appointment.

“The Senate would have little recourse but to seat Blagojevich, as he meets the minimum constitutional qualifications for office,” Fortier wrote of the possibility that the governor might appoint himself. “But after seating Blagojevich, the Senate could then expel him by a two-thirds vote. The seat would be vacant again, and the new governor could make an appointment. Or by then, the Legislature might have changed the law to do away with appointments, in which case the seat would sit vacant until a special election was held.”

Obama, desperately trying to shape the Senate in his image using his typical passive/agressive, envelope pushing, playing dirty by the book, “what who me?” hardball with clean hands tactics, is learning quickly that bringing a gun to a knife fight only works if your opponents are reluctant or unable to pull the pistols they keep tucked in their own belts.  To portray Barack Obama as a good guy in this Blagogate mess, is akin to calling Al Capone a reformer for ridding the North Side of Bugs Moran’s gang in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.

Blago’s “Screw You” Monkey Wrench

Ha, ha, ha…I’m sorry, I can’t stop laughing.  “Crazy ol’” Rod Blagojevich, the embattled Illinois governor currently being impeached for everything from supposedly trying to sell a Senate seat to people who claim to have no idea such a seat was being offered for sale, to being declared certifiably insane based upon his enemies’ dislike of his Bob’s Big Boy hairdo, has just flipped a monkey wrench of enormous proportions off of his middle finger and into the game.

In late October, rumors began to fly about who would assume Barack Obama’s Senate seat should he be elected president.  In the following days, according to media reports, parties in both the Obama and Blagojevich camps began to toss names around among themselves and with each other.  There had also been talk from various factions that the seat should be filled by a black butt, since Obama was the lone African American in the Senate, one of only five in American history, three since Reconstruction and two from Illinois.  Given all that, Valerie Jarrett, being both black and Obama’s “big sister” and neighbor, soon became the front-runner in the mind of the media (assuming there is such a thing) largely due to the efforts of Rahm Emanuel.   Then, curiously, in early November, Valerie Jarrett removed her name from contention for an office she now claims she never sought, and Barack Obama officially resigned his Senate seat earlier than any other president-elect in history for no apparent reason.  Soon, thereafter, if memory serves, Jesse Jackson, Jr. became the media’s odds on favorite.  Interestingly, all names being considered in the press at that time were folks likely to be sanctioned by Team O.

Once Blagojevich was arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and solicitation of bribery, not specifically for trying to unload the Senate seat, btw, all bets were off;  people began to call for Blago’s head, impeachment was placed squarely in the center of the table, outraged howlers demanded that Blags give up his right to name a Senate successor, Harry Reid and the Senate Democratic Caucus even weighed in saying nobody Blago selected from that point on would be confirmed, and all the horses in the race began to jockey for position in public and in earnest.

While all this was going on, however, Blagojevich went to work.  Oh, sure, he proclaimed his innocence, blah, blah, blah, he went for runs, he passed some bills, whatever, but basically, he just kept on being governor.  As part of his duties, he still has the right, and some might say, obligation, to appoint Barack Obama’s Senate successor.  And, at 2:00 today, it seems Rod Blagojevich is going to do just that:

Gov. Rod Blagojevich is expected today to name former Illinois Atty. Gen. Roland Burris to replace President-elect Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate.

The action comes despite warnings by Democratic Senate leaders that they would not seat anyone appointed by the disgraced governor who faces criminal charges of trying to sell the post, sources familiar with the decision said.

Shortly after Obama’s Nov. 4 victory, Burris made known his interest in an appointment to the Senate but was never seriously considered, according to Blagojevich insiders. But in the days following Blagojevich’s arrest, and despite questions over the taint of a Senate appointment, Burris stepped up his efforts to win the governor’s support.

Though he is 71, Burris has said that Obama’s replacement should be able to win re-election and he has noted that despite a string of primary losses in races ranging from Chicago mayor to governor and U.S. senator, he’s never lost to a Republican.

Blagojevich, who has sole authority to name a replacement senator, scheduled a 2 p.m. news conference at his downtown Chicago office.

It bears noting that while a lot of people in Illinois politics hate Blagojevich’s guts and will go to great lengths to defeat him by any means necessary, the fact that he is or is not a crook has absolutely nothing to do with anything.  Everybody in Illinois politics is a crook, crookedness even trumps party affiliation in the state.  As I’ve said before, indicting any one Illinois pol on corruption charges is like trying to point out the one sinner in Hell.  What’s going on with the hue and cry surrounding Blago is pure, down and dirty politics, all protestations of ideological and moral consternation nothing more than dramatic fuel for the elbow throwing fire. And, in this game of hand crushing ladder climbing, the too complacent enemies of Blags, believing their opponent to be sufficiently neutralized, just got punked.

Burris, who officially threw his hat into the ring after Blags was arrested, is going to be hard to assail, Harry Reid’s premature saber-rattling notwithstanding.

Reid had said when the Blagojevich scandal broke earlier this month he would ask the Senate not to seat any Blagojevich appointee, in order to make sure the seat is free of taint. All the Senate Democrats concurred. Manley said Reid’s position has not changed.

Reid’s position may not have changed according to his aide, but most assuredly, the game now has.