Most of the news commentaries on Rod Blagojevich’s appointment of Roland Burris to the U.S. Senate deals with what a rotter the governor is. Yes, he is—but the bigger point is how stupid the entire Democratic party is allowing itself to look through all this…from Barack Obama to Harry Reid, to Jesse White to Bobby Rush to--. Who? Seemingly everybody of authority in the Democratic party! Blagojevich has…quite by design…given a major impetus to the Republicans statewide and nationally—and to everyone else who is appalled at the stupidity of the situation.
The way to get out of the trick bag is obvious for no one in the party has the intestinal fortitude to swallow hard and take the bitter medicine. Blagojevich, in full control of his legal faculties, has nominated a thoroughly respectable candidate for the job. He has intensified the drama by naming a black who has had a long record of public service. Everybody in the party started behaving like juveniles: starting with Jesse White who knee-jerkedly refused to certify the appointment…a ridiculous decision to appeal to the retardate instincts of his higher ups.
Thus Bobby Rush intervened to play the race card. That he is playing the race card is outrageous but not surprising to anyone who knows Rush’s opportunism. Rush, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, has put it up squarely to his party to confirm or deny a man simply because he has been nominated by a governor who continues in full possession of his powers.
Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) the majority leader has never been one who has demonstrated much sense—and he has knee-jerkedly followed through by insisting that the Senate will not confirm Burris. That will assuredly lead to a law-suit in behalf of Burris: first going to the state Supreme Court to force White to do what his job entails and certify…then to the U.S. Supreme Court to argue that precedent for the Senate’s rejecting a potential member has always involved breach of ethics. Now the U. S. Supreme Court may not accept the case because of separation of powers, but if it does it would only have one recourse: in the absence of anything demonstrably wrong with Burris’ character, to order the Senate to accept him as a member.
The amazing thing is that this Democratic party is so egomaniacally hell bent on nailing Blagojevich that it cannot see what it is doing to itself. The answer is clear: Reid should announce that the Senate will drop its ban on Burris and allow the Senate to accept him. The Democratic majority will thus be strengthened by one member and there will be no constitutional crisis. The news focus will go back to Obama’s accession and to the Blagojevich impeachment and conviction.
It is certain in my mind that Burris will run for the Senate at the next go-round so as to fill out the epitaph on his gravestone which holds open space for other political jobs…an indication of how almost pathologically insecure this minor league player is. But he is not the first minor leaguer to go to the Senate from Illinois (his colleague Dick Durbin is right there beside him). The Democratic party can easily run someone to oppose Burris for renomination…and if it chooses wisely, that person will be nominated and Burris will return home.
So what’s the big deal? The big deal is that this national confederacy of dunces called the Democratic party cannot bring itself to act like adults.
The benefits to the Republican party so far have been unimaginatively great. When George Ryan was being probed, tried and convicted there was not a news story filed either from Chicago, Springfield or Washington, D. C. that did not state repeatedly that Ryan is a Republican. Over and over. “Republican ex-governor George Ryan.” At the beginning when the Blagojegich hassle began, the Associated Press quite self-consciously refused to list Blago’s party affiliation. All we heard of was “Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.”
Well now that the state’s Democrats have refused to honor Burris and have been ratified by Obama, the secret kept so long by the media is out: It’s a Democratic dereliction. Democratic governor fighting with a Democratic legislature…being attacked by a Democratic lieutenant governor…the possibility of a special election ditched by a Democratic legislature…the Democratic lieutenant governor fudging on the issue—first in favor of a special election, then in favor of an appointment by himself, then favoring a combination of appointment temporarily and an election…no-no in favor of an election…now at the last go-round returning to an interim appointment of a Democrat by himself and a special electin.l
The Democratic brand is trailing in the mud. A Democratic secretary of state refusing to certify…the possibility of the question going for adjudication to a Democratic-controlled state Supreme Court…the Democratic Senate Majority Leader saying he will refuse confirmation to Burris…the Democratic president of the United States agreeing with the Democratic majority leader. The Associated Press and other news organs are still dragging their feet to identify Democratic auspices of this mess…but increasingly they cannot.
As a veteran Republican, I cannot believe my party’s good fortune to have this happening. Nor can I believe my party’s good fortune to have the Democratic party from top to bottom composed of so many dunces, falling all over themselves to remain consistent.
The news that this is a Democratic foul-up from top to bottom is still being withheld by the cross-eyed news media in this town (with one exception) which cannot see straight because of their one-party affiliation…but gradually the folks are coming to see the extent of this ridiculousness. And the extent that Barack Obama has been riding along with it…without realizing as an Illinoisan how ludicrous he is appearing. And the blindness goes to David Axelrod the supposed omniscient guru and to snotty little Rahm the so-called enforcer.
Pretty soon the American people are going to understand what we have learned the hard way in Illinois. The Democratic party is, from top to bottom, so controlled by fixed, slavish control of regularity that it cannot govern. How can it manage a near-depression, a White House confronted with insurgent challenges from overseas, when it cannot solve the Roland Burris problem…despite the fact that Burris is an acceptable nominee?
That object lesson…that the Democrats are a Confederacy of Dunces… has been delivered by Rod Blagojegich and Roland Burris for everyone to see…
Everyone that is except the preponderance of the cross-eyed news media and, of course, the Democratic hierarchy.
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