Illinois Democrats claim they’re beside themselves over the latest antics of Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who this week went ahead and defiantly named a successor to fill Barack Obama‘s US Senate seat – even after having been arrested for trying to sell it.
They ought to look in the mirror.
Because these Dems pointedly refused to deny Blagojevich the right to pick that successor when they had the chance. And now there may be little that either they, or their colleagues in Washington, can do about it.
Blagojevich on Tuesday tapped former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to fill the seat, as he was legally entitled to do. Yet he wouldn’t have been able to do that had the governor’s party sided with local Republicans, stripped him of his appointment power and called a special election to pick a successor.
Reports from Illinois said the Democrats feared the rapidly metastasizing political scandal might cost them the election, so they chose instead to pursue lengthy impeachment proceedings.
Indeed, Blagojevich rightly crowed over the Dems’ dawdling, even as he announced Burris’ appointment.
“When the legislature didn’t act on the legislation they said they were considering, which I supported, which would have given the people the right to be able to elect the next senator,” he declared, “then it’s the governor’s responsibility to fill the vacancy.”
Burris, to be sure, is a widely respected political veteran; Illinois’ first elected black statewide official, there has never been a hint of scandal attached to him.
But the very fact that he was selected by Blagojevich, who’s rebuffed even Obama’s calls for him to resign, unavoidably poisons his appointment – notwithstanding the governor’s right to be presumed innocent until proven otherwise.
Nor is he helping matters by playing the race card, echoing the call by Rep. Bobby Rush that no one “go on record to deny one African-American from being seated in the US Senate.”
Nonetheless, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, backed by his Democratic colleagues and Obama, has vowed not to seat any Blagojevich appointee.
Yet it’s not clear whether he has the right to do so. In the ’60s, the House refused to seat New York’s Rep. Adam Clayton Powell because of allegations of corruption. But the Supreme Court overturned that vote, saying Congress cannot refuse to seat any qualified person who’s been legally elected or appointed.
So thanks to the Democrats’ political paralysis, sleazy Rod Blagojevich may get the last laugh – and Illinois and the nation may be stuck with the consequences.