Personal Aside: What We’ve Learned from the Burris Farce…The Missing Rahm is Found

What We’ve Learned.

Several important things were learned from the Roland Burris farce. FIRST (well, we’ve known this before): Harry Reid is not just a Supreme Jerk but the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Supreme Jerks. The number of lesser jerks include his number one flunkey, Dick Durbin who backed Reid and opposed Burris … Jesse White who wouldn’t affix his signature on the proclamation…the “Chicago Tribune” editorialist who even yesterday advised Burris to step down…the “Sun-Times’” Lynn Sweet whose usually adroit sense of politics failed her when she straight-facedly tried to defend Reid on my radio show…followed by most of the Senate Dems, looking out the window embarrassed at all this, excepting Diane Feinstein (who had enough of the comedy and told Reid to seat Burris).

SECOND, (although we once knew this but some of his have forgotten), the farce reminded us that the news media is so biased, so cross-eyed, they can’t even pretend to calibrate honestly—and cannot account for their lamentable loss of a sense of history. Do you remember the furor when Republican Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) turned whimsical after a couple of drinks at a dinner in December, 2002, lionizing 100-year-old Strom Thurmond and said he regretted Thurmond wasn’t elected president in 1948? Liberal media threw their arms up and with the aid of a bicycle pump escalated it into a major historic re-fight of civil rights. You’d think George Wallace was back standing at the schoolhouse door and evil old Simon Legree Lott was chasing Little Eva over the ice flows—with the result that, incredibly, Lott lost the support of the White House and most of his fellow GOP senators and was forced to step down because nothing he would do as leader could be reported by the media without their screaming racist pig. Predictably, then the pander-bear “Tribune” thought it would be best for Lott to step down.

Well, now, you just saw the Democratic Senate Majority Leader usurp his position and transgress over state lines of propriety by telephoning Rod Blagojevich, telling the governor he shouldn’t consider three blacks for appointment to the Senate (Jesse Jackson, Jr.; Danny Davis and Emil Jones) but should focus on two whites (Lisa Madigan and Tammy Duckworth). Following that when Blago named Burris, Reid stated Burris wouldn’t be seated…adding maybe he would if he agreed not to run in 2010… and all but slammed the door on him yesterday. In fact Burris was outside the Senate in the rain under an umbrella. Can you imagine the furor that would have been created by the media if a Republican majority leader did what Reid did? Lynn Sweet would have had a seizure.

Lynn thought it very logical that Reid should do this to Illinois as a national party leader. She deserves the Croix de Guerre for distinguished service above and beyond all liberal journalist pander-bears in Illinois—even topping Mike Flannery. The media here didn’t raise a howl over Reid in the same way they did when Lott made his gaffe and was called a racist. None. Two pander-bears over at the “Sun-Times”…Mark Brown and the TV green room’s Richard Roeper…zinged Burris as an empty suit (he is, but so what? Any different from his colleague Durbin or Christopher Dodd whose report about Countrywide Financial’s ties is long overdue and forgotten by the pander-bear media?) The “Tribune”…institutionally weak, pander-bearish earlier had said Blagojevich shouldn’t have named anybody and that Burris should not have accepted it. Not a denunciatory word about Reid for trying to blackjack us into receiving a senator he considered appropriate.

Most of the go-along pander-bear media here followed mindlessly and skipped blame on Reid, concentrating on Blago and even Burris (calling him an empty suit). The reason they slurred Burris is that they fear Burris will run for election in 2010 and gum up the liberal Democrats’ chances of holding the seat. Not a word about the Democratic majority leader. That would look like they were slurring liberalism—oh, that would be too much.

THIRD, it is a dead level certainty that Burris will run for election in 2010. Put that down as a given. Running is what Burris does. The Democrats will have to decide either to run someone against him or lump it. Knowing the pander-bear Democratic party, it will endorse Burris. Thanks to Blago they just possibly may lose the seat. Although with the ineptitude of the Illinois Republican party, maybe not.


FOURTH, liberal pander-bear media usually touts Rep. Mark Kirk as the logical Republican to run for the Senate against Burris in 2010. If Republicans believe that, they’re even dumber than they have been reputed to be. Kirk is the one Republican who can survive in his North Shore 10th district. If he vacates it to run for the Senate…a gamble any way you look at it…even if he wins, you can kiss his House seat goodbye. No way will the base support the pro-abort, pro-gay rights Kirk. The logical guy to run for the Senate against Burris is Rep. Peter Roskam of the 6th. Again, while winning a Senate seat is a gamble, the Roskam seat should be able to be held by an equally conservative successor. Roskam’s the astute choice for the Republicans—not Kirk.


The Missing Rahm Has Been Found.

The missing Rahm Emanuel has been found. He went to Africa to escape the heat from the Fitzgerald investigation and the Pander Bear media scarcely reported on his departure and vacancy at all—covering for him. When I asked Sweet why he went to Africa at the precise time the new administration was preparing to take over…where he will be the presidential chief of staff…the answer was: oh, he had planned the trip for a long time. Oh. Give me a break. As presumptive White House chief of staff, you immediately decide to go to Africa despite the important work on transition…and are gone for many days—the Pander Bear media not making a big deal about it at all.
Well, when you look at a photo of Obama meeting with Leon Panetta yesterday in the “Tribune” you see the shadowy profile of Emanuel. Not a word about his return. Panda-bear media still covering for him.
Once again let us play reverse roles. Can you imagine what the liberal media would do to Karl Rove if he had a telephone conversation with a Republican governor who was arrested? And let us imagine that before inauguration, Rove decided to go to…of all places…Africa. Can you imagine what “The New York Times” would do…CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC? Can you imagine what Lynn Sweet would be writing? Each day that would pass, the media would have a calendar—four days since Rove has been seen…five days. “The New York Times” would send a few reporters to Africa to track him down and see if he was really there. Katie Couric would announce that for the first time in U.S. history a key presidential aide was missing two weeks before inauguration…having been listed by a federal prosecutor as having made a phone call to a disreputable governor.

Not here. Bland, passive media doesn’t take note even of Emanuel’s return. See what I mean about double standards? Had enough of it?