Senators should announce they’ll refuse any Blagojevich appointee to Obama’s seat
By John Burke | Related entries in News
It’s unthinkable that Gov. Rod Blagojevich, under indictment for trying to sell President-elect Obama’s Senate seat, among other offenses, would name Obama’s replacement — but he can and he might.
The only way to be absolutely certain that such an appointment will never be made is this: the Senate leadership of both parties should announce that they will recommend against seating any such replacement — no matter who it might be — and as many Senators as are willing to do so should publicly join in their leaders‘ declaration. Then, no one in his or her right mind would accept Blagojevich’s appointment, and Blagojevich would be deprived of the ability to make more mischief. (Keep in mind that he can legally appoint himself!)
Political leaders are already grappling with ways to head off a Blagojevich appointment. Senator Richard C. Durbin has called on the Illinois state legislature to pass a bill stripping the Governor of the appointment power (which he holds under state law, as permitted by the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution) and calling for a special election instead. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said he supports the move. And state legislative leaders are set to convene a special session to take up such a bill as early as next week. The trouble is that after they pass such a bill, Governor Blogojevich would have to sign it into law, and he can take up to 60 days to sign or veto any bill. That’s a long time for this deeply tainted Governor to keep the appointment power and wield it in his own interest.
What’s more, not all Illinois political leaders are happy about a special election. Rep. Bobby Rush, a Chicago African-American, has already said he will fight to block a special election on two grounds: it would limit the prospect of Obama’s place being taken by a minority candidate; and it would take too long, leaving the state without one of its Senate votes as major issues are taken up in Washington. Others besides Rush have expressed the view that, since Obama was the only African-American in the Senate, it would be fitting for the vacancy appointment to go to another Black person. While it’s not clear whether other major political figures, if any, will oppose a special election, Rush’s stand by itself gives Blagojevich a card to play.
An alternative is impeachment by the legislature. But again, this is not a timely solution, since the impeachment process might take even longer than 60 days before Blagojevich could be removed from office.
Constitutionally, the Senate is the sole judge of the qualifications of its own members to hold office and also has the power to expel members. Although rarely used, these powers are widely considered to make it possible for the Senate to refuse to seat a new member. But the Senate would be foolish to wait on the assumption that Blagojevich cannot or will not appoint someone. If he named, say, Rep. Rush or Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., some Senators would likely find it very awkward, if not impossible politically, to vote to reject such an appointee, solely because of the taint attached to Blogojevich. By declaring in advance their intention to reject anyone appointed, that potential hurdle would be cleared.
Of course, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald might relieve everyone of this burden by persuading Blogojevich to resign, but that’s unlikely to happen soon. The Governor will hold onto his office as long as he possibly can. It’s his most valuable bargaining chip.
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December 10th, 2008 at 7:42 am
This is stunning story about a guy who has turned about be a shameless scumbag, And who has been apparently been caught red-handed. That means everyone and his brother are rushing in to express concern, disgust, amazement, etc. It also means that I personally am going to get very sick of and very bored by this story pretty quickly, except for the part where Blago starts trying to drag-o down other pols with him.
I really can’t get worked up about who gets appointed to the senate seat now and how folks have to rush in to ensure this and that. Why? Because I simply take the following as virtually foregone conclusions:
• Blago won’t make the appointment, or if he does it won’t stick
•The very public unfolding of this scandal will make it virtually inescapable that a special election be held, regardless of who is unhappy about that
There’s a 3rd foregone conclusion here, too:
• most of the noisiest people in this will be the opportunists
This bullet point 3 will be the most useful one for folks trying to understand this story as it unfolds. There is going to be public dogfighting over the unexpected tasty scrap that has dropped to the floor, a senate seat.
And there is also going to be a determined attempt to tie Prez-elect Obama to whatever malodorous components of this he can be tied to. It’ll be 6 degrees of Blago and Rezko and the appearance of impropriety. I suggest a simple policy regarding such efforts: SGOSTFU, or essgo estfoo. Show me the smoking gun or… .
December 10th, 2008 at 9:45 am
F-that, Kranky. No smoking gun necessary – at some point a critical mass of circumstantial evidence exists that some a-hole, at the very least, needs to spray disinfectant before jumping in bed with his scumbag friends. Obama was a senior advisor for Hot Rods campaign in 2002.
Here’s the deal: Obama doesn’t need to be “tied” to any particular act of corruption for one to make a perfectly valid assessment of his willingness to associate & support criminals. This is who we have elected and honestly, I don’t mind.
The GoogleBoyz can yack on about the transparency because they put some low level staff meetings on the net, but the fact is — this Administration is going to be greased and wired for action. They probably won’t put those meetings on the web.
Don’t be a hater, its just the way Chicago pols work and it generally gets things done.