Uh-oh. The Obacrats, with their shaky grasp on the law, coupled with their pre-school level truculence are going down on the Roland Burris appointment. Burris, who seems to be a mild-mannered, harmless enough sort, nonetheless, also seems to have the ramrod backbone of any narcissist personally challenged. None of this matters one whit, however, the bottom line is, Roland Burris is the duly appointed, by the sitting governor, replacement for Barack Obama’s Senate seat. Period. And, there’s nothing in the law that says the Obacrats have to like it.
It’s not like they weren’t warned. Blagojevich made it clear that he was the governor, exercising his duty in making a appointment. Rep. Bobby Rush helpfully pointed out, that contrary to the misguided wishes of the clueless political allies of Barack Obama, black doesn’t cancel black, whenever you have black people involved, you have a racial element to consider. And deal with. Now, Roland Burris is channeling his inner Malcolm X. In an appearance on Face the Nation, Burris, a relatively savvy politician, had a lot to say, and let it be known that with the inauguration coming up, the president-elect doesn’t need this sort of “distraction,” that contrary to the Obacrats’ earlier stated position, things were now indeed about him, and he planned to be seated. One of the more interesting statements was the invocation of the spirit of the man whose memory still causes sphincters to clinch and spines to tingle in certain segments of American society:
“Well, don’t you feel you’re being used by someone who is just trying to save his political skin?” Schieffer asked.
“Whatever means necessary,” Burris said, paraphrasing the 1960s radical Malcolm X. “I have nothing to do with the governor’s motives. What we needed was something to be done for the people of Illinois. That was his constitutional duty. That was his responsibility. The Illinois Constitution does not say the governor ‘may’ or the governor ‘might’ or the governor ’should.’ Bob, it says the governor ’shall’ appoint a person to fill the vacancy. That’s what happened.”
Now, the Obacrats who refused to act to nullify the powers invested in re-elected Governor Rod Blagojevich upon the event of his arrest, presumably because an accusation of criminal activity is not enough to empower them to do so, are desperately trying to erase the line in the sand they insisted upon drawing and trying to hide behind.
It didn’t have to be this way, President-elect Barack Obama could have held on to his Senate seat like Vice President-elect Jo(k)e Biden, and Secretary of State-designate, Hillary Clinton held on to theirs. PUMA sites, among others, including this one, have questioned this particular move since Day One. Why the rush to distance himself from his own Senate seat? Are we supposed to believe the Smartest President In the Room didn’t know that the governor of his state was under investigation? Everybody else did. Why give him yet another, irresistable opportunity to implicate himself? Or, was that the point? And if so, to what end? Is Obama so high above the kind of “pay-to-play” corruption seemingly so rampant in his home city and state that he need fear no blowback from any possible investigation, or, might he be motivated by a desire to deflect attention from himself by shining the brightest light imaginable on an inconvenient rival? Had Obama not relinquished the seat, there’s no guarantee Blagojevich would have been arrested before the inauguration, (and U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s traditional replacement) if at all, since he had already been under investigation for 5 years without indictment.
Despite all their combined years of political experience, the Obacrats, under their rookie leader, seem to have forgotten one of the basic tenets of politics and life; when you play with fire, you’re gonna get burnt. Yet, that is precisely what the Obacrats tried to do with the Blagojevich situation, fan the flames ignited by a random spark from their deliberately dropped match, then attempt to juggle the embers. Too bad the fact that it is a fire of their own making does not render it any more safe.
That something so obviously a no-brainer is being seriously debated by lawmakers is so beyond the pale as to be unfathomable. If the Obacrats already had power to nullify Blagojevich in any way, why would they be so adamant about him resigning? Besides, what on earth about a Blagojevich resignation now would invalidate Roland Burris’ appointment? And, more importantly, does anybody really want to open the door to allowing the Senate to legally deny Americans employment simply because the person who lawfully hired them has been convicted only in the court of public opinion, without benefit of indictment or trial?
Talk about guilt by association.
