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He did no less on last year's ethics bill.
Under the Constitution, yes. Under Emil Jones' leadership, no. You should know that by now. If not, you're needlessly ignorant. If you do know it, then you're just dreaming an impossible dream.
===now it looks it may take months===
RRB will be gone in about a month. Be a little patient.
He has shape-shifted and morphed through more versions of himself than pop-rocker Madonna, and after years of getting away with it, doesn't know when to stop. He is so comfortable being spineless, he has forgotten that others find spinelessness distasteful and unethical.
Durbin is an Illinois creature and reflects another unsettling truth of this state's disfunctional politics. Not only does Illinois have a corrupted political culture that produces a Blagojevich, a Ryan, a Rezko, and an entire genre of Chicago machine politics run amok, our culture is so corrupted that our "good" politicians feel a need to endlessly compromise their credibility and change their political positions endlessly.
Durbin deserves Burris because they are two sides of the same limp legal tender that passes for currency in Illinois. Compare them to Paul Simon or Everett Dirksen and you see the differences between today's Care Bears and yesterday's Grizzlies and Kodiaks. Simon and Dirksen had teeth and took disciplined stands, while Durbin and Burris present themselves as cuddly play toys with smiles and hearts.
It is no surprise that politicians without conscience did not fear the Illinois Care Bears. It took a real bear from New York City to threaten Pay to Play politics with Blagojevich's arrest.
Like many other modern politicians, Durbin came up in an earlier age and still may not realize the effect of the 24/7 news cycle and the blogs. You can't say something one day and contradict yourself the next without having someone put all the clips together and show them on the Daily Show.
Hopefully, he can come back and he has four years in which to do it. In the meantime, however, he needs to be a powerful spokesman for the Obama administration, and he has hobbled himself a bit with this fiasco.
As an aside, Durbin's good buddy, Chuck Schumer of N.Y., needs a good dusting up over his role in the financial collapse. But, these guys seem to be immune to much criticism in the press or by their own ranks in the Mutual Protection League (aka US Senate).
Love your analogies.
My guess is that Reid himself didn't have strong opinions on the electability of those three, and that instead, the conversation reflected Durbin's opinion, channeled through Reid since Blago wasn't listening to Durbin.
And that conversation was pretty damaging in the way this played out, since it took some focus particularly in the black community off the idea that they didn't want anyone sent by B-Rod, and made it at least a plausible talking point on black talk radio that the Senate didn't want anyone black.
While we only have that alleged conversation from Rod's perspective, was Durbin suggesting anyone African American instead? There was some talk of his support for Duckworth, who is Asian.
“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, and it is extremely disappointing that Governor Blagojevich has chosen to ignore it." -- Barack Obama
May the president-elect and our senior senator dine TOGETHER on waffles and crow.
There is one point that I think has been overlooked here and that is; when Durbin tried to hang this issue on Jesse White by suggesting that his signature was the hold up, he knew this matter was already before the Illinois Supreme Court; and that Lis Madigan was defending Jesse White in the litigation.
At the same time that he was placing the onus on Jesse White, he was in effect doing the same thing to the Illinois Supreme's prior to their ruling and to Lisa Madigan. In order for the court to have ruled requiring Jesse White's signature on the Certificate of Appointment, Lisa Madigan would have had to have lost at the Supreme Court for the second time in less than two weeks on this matter as well.
The voters who overwhelmingly reelected him 2 months ago? Seems to me he's very much in touch with the electorate.
Durbin's actions show that he only cares about the IL voters when it is politically expedient.
Rob_N: Did you get that right from Michael Madigan's talking point memo? That's the line he's been trying to sell to try to duck the inevitable backlash from the voters for not even attempting to stand up for the people of the state. As Rich indicated when all this was unfolding, some anticipated that Blago would indeed sign the bill just so that Quinn could not appoint someone when he got in.
The point is that the Dems in the legislature didn't even try... if they'd tried and Blago had acted as you said, they could at least have said they gave it a shot. Now that can't say anything except that they were impotent in the fact of Blago. Not a great situation for the next campaign cycle.
If anything, a Blagojevich veto would have given the Senate some additional arguments to avoid seating a Blagojevich appointee.
But the Democratic leadership of the Illinois General Assembly elected to avoid the high road. And they have no one to blame but themselves.
Those who called for a special election then backed away from it (such as Durbin and Quinn) too had a chance to take the high road by sticking to their initial positions no matter what. They backed away and elected to travel down a different low road.
Only Democrat Jesse White stuck to his guns by refusing to sign a single piece of paper. He kept his word.
And for his principled stand, Jesse White got thrown under the bus by his fellow Democrats. Blagojevich style.
Oof!
Not a R here, but the fact that the seat was very likely to be up for an appointment for a year prior to the arrest gave the GA plenty of time to toss this one out there. Would EJ have blocked it? Would Blago have signed it? When asked, he said he would, man of his word that he is. The only thing we know for sure is that we'll never know.
For some of us that's a virtue.
If Durbin, Quinn, the two Madigans, and White (and maybe Cullerton, Giannulias, and Hynes) had taken a day to get together and develop a plan, they would have been much better off. As it was, they were talking across each other and never caught up to the running man who had only to consult with himself. Notice that no one is criticizing the Gov. for contradicting himself, it's expected.
An expensive political lesson; I expect they learned a lot from this fiasco.
I'd be surprised if they have. Right now, they're goal is to get him out of office. The side show RRB's creating is expected....
And he should have appointed someone without asking for ransom, too. It probably wouldn't have been protocol to announce Obama's replacement until November 16, the day Obama officially resigned his Senate seat.
But if the GA had concerns about Blago's near-certain ability to appoint Blago's successor, they had ample time to start the process allowing for a gubernatorial veto, before November even came into play. After all, articles of impeachment were being drafted and such. Maybe his appointment power was an afterthought, with other issues that were considered bigger at the time.
As long as he does not run for relection,I don't foresee huge political repercussions for the Democratic Party or in 2010. However, if Burris and Stroger both run for reelection in November 2010. I won't vote for Stroger under any circumstances, and I am unlikely to vote for Burris. I think Blago's conviction and removal from office and indictment/conviction could constitute a major resurrection opportunity for Republicans if they are sensible enough to nominate social moderates for Governor and especially U.S. Senator.
You can't beat somebody with nobody, and I'm not sure yet that anybody will run against him.
Fingers pointed at Senator Durbin are misdirected fingers, indeed. Faced with a mess of Blago's making, he has been whip-sawed by the crazy situation. No one in the party at this point is gleaming with pride about the Blago mess. Singling out Durbin is unwise and unfair.
Please.
He came up with the idea of a special election, convinced the legislative leaders to support the idea, then backed off.
As for Durbin, I still think he's safe. Illinois voters don't pay too much attention to the inside politics that get debated on this blog.
Nope. Early February. Less than 13 months away.
That comment doesn't show much understanding of Democratic Party primary politics.
A special election is what the state needed. Everyone knew that the minute Blagojevich was arrested, hence the initial statements from Durbin and Schatkowski (sp?)among others.
The legislature should have stripped Blagojevich of his power to appoint Obama's replacement, however, the democrats, including Durbin and Schatkowski, panicked when they realized they could lose the seat. At that point, they dropped the effort to do the right thing in favor of maintaining their political power, and Blagojevich took advantage of their crass and self-serving decision. And then they had the nerve to complain about Blagojevich appointing Burris as if they weren't complicit in his action.
So now Illinois has two senators who aren't the brightest bulbs making decisions for both the state and nation. What a disaster!
If Joe Stalin were the incumbent, he would get 99.99% of the vote, and the other 0.01% would be in the Gulag.
In any event, I would like to have seen Patrick Quinn make the appointment, then seen a constitutional amendment resolution pass both chambers that required a special election rather than gubernatorial appointment for U.S. Senate. Good luck with all that, though!
Burris takes victory lap at City Hal
Waiting to be sworn in later this week as the new junior senator from Illinois, Roland Burris spent an hour today at City Hall soaking in praise from aldermen and Mayor Richard Daley.
The City Council approved a resolution lauding Burris for having "the intelligence, character and reason that are the attributes of a great leader."
"I am speechless, honestly. I am just moved by the actions of this great City Council body and the comments from all the aldermen and the mayor. It's just wonderful," Burris said...
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/20...
Reid looked like an egotistical powerbroker -- smugly wanting to negotiate the terms of Burris' acceptance to benefit his own objectives. I have never paid attention to him before, but now I know I would never vote for him. Meanwhile, Burris perfectly played the cheshire cat in Illinois in Wonderland. Intriguingly irritating.
And Obama? Well, he came off as a conflict avoider of sound principles with no bite, and overall a less-than-effective leader. So far, Obama reminds me of Jimmy Carter. I'm hoping to see much more of Obama's skillset when he finally takes the oath of his office.
Are they planning to cross over in the primary and vote for Burris, Stroger and Quinn, or are they just assuming that Quinn will be the Democrat nominee for Governor after the primary?