Obama Senate seat belongs to everyone, not just black politicians from Illinois

A black Senate seat?

That's what Laura Washington of the Chicago Sun Times calls the seat vacated by President elect Barack Obama. Well if that's not a fine reversal of racism. And here I thought the Senate seat was open to anyone seeking that office. Silly me. So much for the bridging of a racial divide with the election of Obama.

Like a politic Black Panther, Washington laments that the criminal troubles Gov. Rod Blagojevich is finding himself in will likely end the chances of a black holding that seat.

Washington says Illinois deserves a black senator. Really? I think we deserve an honest senator in office regardless of his or her race.

Washington's rhetoric is eerily similar to the calls from racists who wanted to prevent blacks from voting. But this time it's the reverse.

What it gets down to is Washington doesn't trust in the people to decide for themselves who they want to be senator. She states that white voters can't be trusted to support a black candidate. But Washington is forgetting the overwhelming support white voters showed to Obama - in electing him to the U.S. Senate and to the office of President of the United States.

The seat should be opened up to the voters and remove the taint of Blagojevich and the lawmakers indebted to the Chicago Machine. That's what the people of Illinois, of all races, deserve.