What in the world is Gov. Rod Blagojevich trying to accomplish?
The Chicago Tribune is reporting that Blago is planning on naming former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to the U.S. Senate - the same seat that Blago has been accused of attempting to sell to the highest bidder. A press conference is scheduled for 2 p.m. today.
This will accomplish very little. The Democratic led Senate has already refused to seat anyone named by Blagojevich to that seat.
The new Congress will be sworn in in early January and Illinois will only field one senator until the seat held by President-elect Barack Obama is filled. Blago currently is the only one in the state who has the authority to fill that seat.
With all the legal trouble surrounding Blago currently, any candidate he puts forth for that seat will bear the taint of Blago's corruption.
Burris, who was the first black man to win statewide office in Illinois in 1978, would be wise to reject the governor's nomination.
And the state legislature would be wise to speed up their investigation into Blago and any impeachment hearings before Blago further drives the state into ruin.
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This could set up an interesting quandary on the Senate floor. Sen. Harry Reid, the Democratic leader, has vowed that the Senate will not seat Burris. Are the politically correct Democrats really capable of denying a Senate seat to a legitimately (so far as we can now know) appointed black man? And what will the Republicans do? Can they afford to prove their lack of racial bias by voting to seat a black man whose appointment comes from an apparently corrupt Chicago politician? And if Republicans vote against Burris, how many Democrats will accuse them of racial bias? Both parties may be damned if they do; damned if they don't.
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