• Barack Obama,  Rod Blagojevich,  Roland Burris

    Roland Burris – I Am NOT Seeking to Be Confrontational But I am the Junior Senator from Illinois

    Blagojevich Bobby Rush and Roland Burris

    Rep. Bobby Rush speaks after Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich announces his choice of former Ill. Attorney General Roland Burris, right, to fill President-elect Barack Obama’s Senate seat

    Would Harry Reid REALLY have the balls to block Roland Burris from taking his seat in the United States Senate chambers?

    No, he wouldn’t and the Illinois Secretary of State will not be able to legally block Hot Rod’s appointment.

    So, break out the champagne and celebrate with Roland Burris when he says: “I Am the Junior Senator from Illinois.”

    Roland Burris suggested he would challenge an effort to block his appointment to the Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama, but said he’s confident that Senate Democrats will back down and allow him to take the job.

    “We think they will come around and recognize that the appointment is legal and valid and I am the junior Senator from Illinois,” he said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal at his office here.

    Flap wonders when Illinois voters will say they have had enough and initiate some election reforms like a voter initiated recall, referendum and/or initiative process like in California?

    In the meantime, Illinois folks, including the Illinois GOP can bellow all they want about a special election but Burris is appointed and he is an Illinois Senator whether they like it or not.


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  • Barack Obama,  Harry Reid,  Rod Blagojevich,  Roland Burris

    Harry Reid Ain’t Going to Block Roland Burris from Taking Obama’s Senate Seat

    Rod Blagojevich and Roland Burris

    Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and former Illinois Attoreny General Roland Burris

    Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s arguments that he and the Democrat Caucus will be able to block Hot Rod Blagojevich’s apointment of former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to Barack Obama’s former U.S. Senate seat are laughable.

    Responding to arguments that the Senate can only rule on narrow issues of qualifications, and not refuse to seat a member based on some broader judgment, Harry Reid’s spokesman, Jim Manley, emails over the argument of the Democratic leadership:

    In response to those who are asking how this is different from Powell v. McCormack, in which supreme court said House could not refuse to seat a member based on his alleged corruption and said only qualifications to be considered are those listed in the Constitution:

    [W]e are not making a judgment about qualifications of appointee, but about whether appointment itself is tainted by fraud, which we believe we are entitled to do under Art. 1 s. 5.

    This is like judging the integrity of an election, free from fraud or corruption. It’s the process that led to the [appointment], not the appointee’s fitness.

    Hot Rod Blagojevich is NOT a convicted anything and has NOT EVEN been indicted. The Illinois Governor has ONLY been charged for crimes related to the Senate appointment. Flap doubts that there will be any quick impeachment of the sitting Governor based on non-indictment charges.

    Now, Patrick Fitzgerald, the United States Attorney has requested a 90 day extension to bring forward an indictment.

    U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has filed a motion seeking a 90-day extension to return of an indictment against Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

    Federal prosecutors normally have 30 days to file an indictment against a defendant. That deadline would have been Jan. 7, and the extension would give prosecutors until April 7 instead.

    Authorities arrested Blagojevich on Dec. 9 on corruption charges that accuse him of trying to sell President-elect Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder.

    Blagojevich has denied any wrongdoing.

    So, what is to prevent Roland Burris, duly appointed by a lawfully elected Governor of Illinois from taking his seat in the United States Senate in January? Harry Reid?

    Flap welcomes the images from the Senate Chamber as Reid orders the Senate Seargent of Arms to physically bar an African-American former Illinois Attorney General from taking a seat. Anyone think this will happen?

    But, should Reid order Burris off the Senate floor, the United States Supreme Court will issue an immediate injunction ordering the Senate to accept the appointment.

    Whatever the process, Hot Rod will not be easily or quickly impeached and Roland Burris will be a United States Senator from Illinois.


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    links for 2008-12-31

    • Blagojevich's choice of Burris "is emblematic of the old-school, pay-to-play culture that has plagued Illinois for generations and this appointment is another embarrassment for the people of Illinois," said Illinois GOP Chairman Andy McKenna.

      National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn (Texas) laid the blame for the current problems in Illinois at Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (Nev.) feet.

      "Senator Reid and the Democratic leadership in Washington and Springfield decided to play politics with this Senate seat and unfortunately, the people of Illinois are now paying the price," said Cornyn.
      +++++++
      Burris will be seated because the Senate Democrats and Harry Reid have no legal authority to bar him.

    • Former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, standing beside a damaged yacht, Tuesday accused the Israeli navy of ramming the vessel to halt the delivery of medical supplies to the embattled Gaza Strip.
      ++++++
      Israel showed McKinney, now didn't they?
    • But Supreme Court precedent suggests "no": The Court held in Powell v. McCormack (1969), that "in judging the qualifications of its members Congress is limited to the standing qualifications prescribed in the Constitution," such as age and citizenship. Now perhaps the Senators are right and the Court was wrong, and perhaps today's Court would overrule Powell. But at least at this point, Powell seems to make clear that under Article I, Section 5 the Senate may determine whether the Senator should be seated solely based on the objective qualifications that the Constitution prescribes, and not based on its judgment whether Gov. Blagojevich ought to be entitled to make the appointment.
      +++++++
      If Reid et al proceed to exclude Roland Burris from the Senate there will a challenge before the US Supreme Court.
    • Washington lobbyist Vicki L. Iseman has filed a $27 million defamation lawsuit against The New York Times for a February article about Iseman and her relationship with Sen. John McCain.

      The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Richmond on Tuesday, alleges the article falsely communicated that Iseman and McCain had an illicit “romantic” relationship in 1999 when he was chair of the Senate Commerce Committee and she was a lobbyist representing clients before Congress.

      The suit also names the executive editor of the Times, its Washington bureau chief and four reporters who wrote the story as defendants.

      William Keller, the paper’s executive editor, did not respond to an e-mail requesting comment on the suit.
      ++++++
      The New York Times will pay out over this one.

    • Mayor Bloomberg's top political aide is pulling back on his lobbying campaign to propel Caroline Kennedy into the U.S. Senate because "it wasn't working," according to sources.

      "Everything was backfiring," said one source of the intense behind-the-scenes effort by Deputy Mayor Kevin Sheekey.

      "He's not out front any more."
      +++++++++
      Caroline Kennedy has sunk her own ship. Back to the rich lifestyle…..

    • The former U.S. special envoy to the Middle East said Tuesday that President-elect Barack Obama should engage with Hamas under certain conditions, and sooner rather than later.
      ++++++
      So far, Obama has played golf and refused to committ on the Israeli War on Hamas. Is Obama lazy or just supporting Israel?