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twirling his nightstick as he encourages the street bloggers to get on to more important things, i.e. how can we ditch Blago in the alley legally.
As for Burris: how about asking the question of your bloggers, since Roland has his headstone marked with his career positions, what should his last one be?
The main effort here is to set the bar as high as possible to not affect the ability of future governors to act with reasonable executive autonomy. The temptation to make the office pay for the sins of its current occupant, and for the machine to muzzle the next occupant, must be great.
As far as the next US Senator, the $64k question is whether PQ and Burris will cut a deal - to put the current matter to rest with the least mess possible - with the glare of the national spotlight and perception having ramifications beyond the state. Not an easy task.
After serving his jail term he followed this up by being elected to the U.S. Senate. Not only was he seated, but he eventually became Chair of the Judiciary Committee and, after being re-elected a couple of times, finally ended his career by dying in office.
What did Burris do to compare with that?
Given Blago's "fight, fight, fight until my dying breath" speach, maybe we are in store for some of that here.
Mike,
Don't give Rod any ideas!
Highly doubtful. Remember who runs the Senate until the 14th.
Seems to me, though, that an actual House impeachment vote would have to wait until the 14th or later because the action can't cross over to the Senate after both houses adjourn sine die.
Well declaring the Republic Of Illinois is the only way that Blago is ever going to get to be President of something, unless it president of the moonbats.
It would be interesting to hear if any of the big churches/ active pastors are talking up action on helping Burris.
Just wondering...
Favorite Roland Burris moment:
In a Senate primary debate, he claimed that "nuclear fusion" would solve our energy problems. It was clear that he had absolutely no idea what "nuclear fusion" is. It was one of those debate moments where you look at somebody and say "OK, we can rule out this guy for the office."
Population projections 2008 2050
Non-Hispanic whites 68% 46%
Hispanic 15% 30%
African Americans 12% 15%
Asian American 5% 9%
In addition, women make up more than 50% of the population, but only 16 current Senators are women.
To that end, if Rush and Burris are truly interested in real diversity in the U.S. Senate, the call should go out to the Governors of New York and Colorado to appoint under-represented groups to fill their respective vacant Senate Seats. Oddly, I have heard nothing of the sort from either of these distinguished champions of diversity.
I had hoped that the election of Obama would have finally put all of this to rest.
He's like the local kid who made good, made it to the top, in fact. Everyone back home's proud of him and his new, successful friends are about to throw him a swell, swinging party.
But all the resentful cousins from the shallow end of the gene pool show up wearing lampshades, stinking of corn liquor, and bound and determined to ruin everything.
It just goes to show, you can make it out of the barnyard, but you can never get it all off your shoes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot_Hearings
They would appear to be treating Burris, an African American, in a manner similar to the late 19th / early 20th Century treatment of Mormons. Not a good PR position.
About all they were able to accomplish in their very short time here was to start a free breakfast program. They were squeezed on one side by the FBI and CPD and on the other by Jeff Fort and the Blackstone Rangers.
Some CPD members thought they were responsible for the shootings of a couple police officers, but others blamed the Rangers. Anyway, after Fred Hampton and Mark Clark were killed by the police, they were done in Chicago.
What are we talking about today? Slow news nationally, but still the ILGA goodies locally.
Danny Davis takes 48 hours to turn down Governor Blagojevich's offer to appoint him. But he turned it down thankfully. Burris, as far as we know, accepted on the spot.
There had to be another emissary from the Governor besides Sam Adam Jr. Would a fellow bar member really accept the Governor's legal defense counsel as an emissary on his behalf to offer the open Senate seat?
This is madness.
Bennett is white if you're race scoring the US Senate.
...
On another note, I'm starting to be against this releasing of tapes by Fitz... If this is criminal evidence, what precedent is there for the prosecution to leak evidence before even the indictment? This is a circus... The ILGA should just do a "no confidence" impeachment vote and move on. Ÿeah, votes of no confidence are European, but not everything out of Europe is trash... ;)
The whole Burris kerfuffle just shows why it's best to comment as little as possible in the days immediately after something like Rod's arrest. I think Speaker Madigan probably did the best in that area.
I just wonder what Rod will do next. His next act/press conference should be Monday or Tuesday.
Burris can be seated. Blagojevich is then impeached. Then he's removed from office. Quinn ascends. Special Election is called. Voters choose the more permanent temporary substitute Senator Burris.
The Illinois Democratic Party has put the national Democratic Party in the position to defend the insanity of Governor Blagojevich. Quinn cannot appoint another replacement. The only out is the special election.
In court, Gensen will first say they cannot be released because they are illegal (as he has said in the hearings). They second argument he has used with the House Committee is that Rod wasn't doing anything illegal. In court, if he argues that the release will bias the jury pool, that won't play well in the media and might look contradictory to the "nothing wrong" argument he is making in the press and the House.
No this is Springfield (well actually it isn't but it makes the reference work)
Then the House could act on the impeachment now, and so could the Senate, before the new session begins? Let Pat Quinn preside over the Senate opening on the 14th, instead of You Know Who...
President Obama's rejection of the Burris appointment will give every legislator all the cover they need.
My head is just spinning!!!!
Under the 17th Amendment, appointments are only temporary until an election is held. This usually means until the next election cycle, but a special election would end the appointed term just the same.
Capitol View, that's a good idea about Emil. I wonder if it's been discussed? It's probably unlikely, but heck, I'd give him a new building at Chicago State for it :)
By the way, in Chicago, having a gravestone didn't necessarily mean you couldn't vote but they usually didn't appoint you to be Senator. Having a gravestone should be the new litmus test for has been status.
I believe he is claiming Hawaiin political roots right about now, lol
(15 ILCS 305/5) (from Ch. 124, par. 5)
Sec. 5. It shall be the duty of the Secretary of State:
1. To countersign and affix the seal of state to all commissions required by law to be issued by the Governor.
Nothing in that little morsel (or the rest of the statute) gives JW any discretion in the matter. "Shall" and "duty" are pretty clear.
If this little Blago/Burris/White love triangle storyline of Illinois' daytime drama "One Term to Fill" isn't legally put to bed according to the S.O.S. statute, what other kind of hijinks could a future S.O.S. play? Could s/he refuse to accept/stamp Executive Orders, agency appointments, vetoes or other gubernatorial actions s/he disagrees with? One might argue that an S.O.S. (ironic acromnyn given the status of Illinois' ship of state) could legally do so based on this precedent, no?
I don't like what is going on but I think that the Governor and his people are pretty politically savvy. (I am not convinced that the State Senate will vote to impeach. And the Federal court case may be going on long after the Democratic primary in 2010).
Based on the public information, it is questionable whether he can be relied on to breath reliably.
Using a non registered voter(or existant?) person in a lawsuit should be enough to disqualify him from pursit of any public office.
Unbelievable!
(Heck, once the the Speaker is out of office, you know, 30 years from now, the GA will probably name CSU after him anyways.)
Continue to hate the messenger, not the message.
And, Rich, it would be great if you refrained from making a caricature of former Attorney General Roland Burris.
The Gov (and his lawyers) will never allow an impeachment conviction before going to a criminal trial on many of the same charges. The quicker the GA ends their little freak show and grandstanding the faster the Gov will resign.
According to the below-linked federal document, it takes 5 years to be vested in the Congressional pension system. So Burris doesn't collect unless he were to serve the remaining 2 years of Obama's vacated term and was re-elected and served for at least another 3 of the next 6 year US Senate term.
http://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/R...
Oakparker, how could any Senator vote against impeachment and have any chance at getting reelected? You're not thinking politically.
You're correct. The fact that the Senate is made up of white people, predominantly white males, is a serious problem, one that can only be addressed with the fullness of time. You can't go to half the Senate, say "you're white", and kick them out. But if you're going to be happy because there is ONE black person in the Senate, then your goals aren't set high enough. And if you believe that a black person is entitled to the Senate seat because of their skin color, how does that make you any different from the Bull Connors that Rep. Rush discussed on TV the other morning?
Illinois has elected -- without real controversy -- two black people to the United States Senate. The rest of the 49 states have elected one, in the modern era. I feel very confident that Illinois will elect another black person soon, based on their merits, not on the color of their skin. I would hope you feel the same.
But I wonder how you feel about the other 49 states? It occurs to me that those states are the true battlegrounds, not Illinois. Illinois has no shortage of qualified African-Americans who would make fine Senators (and yes, a case can be made that Roland Burris is one of those candidates). But what about New York, which has a Senate opening and more African-Americans than any other state in the country? What about Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, South Carolina, and Alabama, all of which have African-American populations of more than 25% (Illinois, by the way, does not).
And what are you, or your friends in those states, doing to help change the "appalling" lack of diversity among their candidates?
You and I would certainly agree that the lack of minorities in the Senate is an issue. Absolutely. But it will not change overnight, and right now we need to deal with the immediate problem -- Rod Blagojevich. That's the focus here, and it pains me to watch people try and paint this as a racial issue. There are way too many legitimate racial issues in the US. A corrupt governor is not one.
We must deal with the immediate before we can deal with the sweeping. When your house is burning down, you don't worry about global warming. Illinois' house is burning. We must put out the fire.
===
Please show me where I've done that.
And then bite me.
Toni H.: I wondered the same thing. It looks like he'd have to serve 5 years to be eligible. Here's the link:
www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/RL30631.pdf
Yeah, that's more what I was trying to say. I need an editor.
Very unlikely, The year of the rat does not end until Jan. 26th
Triumphing doesn't even makes sense. Maybe you meant trumpeting.
It was? How?
It was pandering, nothing more, nothing less.
Oh, well...
Former Attorney General Roland Burris doesn't need Rich's help in being caricature.
With all due respect, Roland Burris has been making a caricature of himself for a very, very long time all by himself.
Let's take the tomb (see link) he has built for his own self-aggrandizement. The perennial candidate thing. The always referring to himself in the third person and naming his children Roland and Rolanda.
Oh yeah, and it kind of makes a mockery of his tenure as AG that he is collaborating with and enabling the most corrupt governor in Illinois history; a governor he only two weeks before had called "appalling" and "reprehensible". So he accepted an appointment from this governor who he had said could no longer do his job when he applauded the AG for attempting to remove Rod from office.
Cmon Ivy, Rich isn’t making Roland a caricature. Roland is.
http://wonkette.com/405196/roland-burris-has-al...
I suspect that this appointment was a thank you to Burris for his help in engineering a victory for Blagojevich.
Burris contributed to Blago, so he got the appointment. i.e.Burris payed so he gets to play. The existance of the contribution by Burris, together with the Govs conduct of requiring donations for jobs, should cause more then calling the Gov tainted. Burris bought this job; Blago looked through the list of people who had paid to find a canidate, the very heart of the allegations against him. No canidate who has given money to blago should ever be a viable choice from Blago in light of the indictment for pay to play.