Burris: ‘I AM the senator’
By Jennifer J. Foster
Published: January 5, 2009
You’ve got to hand it to Rod Blagojevich.
Never mind all the awful corruption allegations against him, he says. They’ll be worked out. And in the meantime, he says, he should keep doing his job.
Perception isn’t reality, he says.
But in doing his job—in appointing Roland Burris to succeed Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate—Blagojevich is placing all his eggs in the perception-is-reality basket.
Burris is holding a news conference right now at an airport in Chicago. He’s holding court with the press and frantically repeating over and over again, “I am the junior senator from Illinois! I am the junior senator from Illinois!“
It’s as if repeating it enough will make it true.
But this isn’t Oz.
Burris added another refrain, for variety, I guess: His appointment by Blagojevich was and is “legal.“
Legal, yes. Ethical/moral/a good idea: Not so much.
Burris is peppering the press with a question about whether they believe Blagojevich’s other actions—i.e., the bills he has signed—are legal. Burris presumably believes that his appointment is a valid comparison with legislative actions.
It isn’t. And it isn’t clear to me why none of the gathered reporters there at the airport don’t throw that analogy right back at the former attorney general of Illinois.
Under Illinois law, Blagojevich is still the governor. He still retains all the powers of the governor’s office, including the ability to sign bills into law. So, yes, Burris is right; there is no legal problem with Blagojevich siging bills into law.
But it is a false comparison Burris makes with the Senate appointment process. Whereas in the state legislative process, Blagojevich can sign bills into law without anyone else’s consent, he’s not the end-all, be-all when it comes to Senate appointments. According to the U.S. Constitution, the Senate holds final word over who serves in its body. (This has come up in the context of the Minnesota Senate contest between GOP incumbent Norm Coleman and Democratic incumbent Al Franken; more on that later.) In other words, yes, the governor makes the appointment. But to be complete, Blagojevich’s appointment must also be: 1) Certified by the Secretary of State; and 2) Accepted by the U.S. Senate.
Burris has problems on both counts.
The Secretary of State has refused to certify Burris’s appointment, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said from the beginning that, perception being reality and all, that lawmaking body will not accept any appointment made by Blagojevich.
But that didn’t stop Blagojevich from making the appointment, and it isn’t stopping his appointee from hopping on a plane and flying to D.C. to try to sashay into the United States Senate for the swearing-in ceremony tomorrow.
This is setting up the potential for a very nasty showdown at the doors of the Senate: Democratic leadership aides have indicated that Burris will be stopped by the doorkeeper and/or the U.S. Capitol Police if he tries to enter without the proper paperwork (i.e., a certificate of appointment signed by both Blagojevich and the Illinois Secretary of State—see above).
Burris says that he accepted the appointment and he’s pursuing it against his own party’s opposition because he believes the people of Illinois deserve to be represented in the Senate.
He’s right—they do.
But Burris had the right idea a couple of weeks before his nomination, when he was calling for Blagojevich’s resignation as the allegations against the governor tumbled out in the press. Why the change of heart? Might it have anything to do with the person Blagojevich chose? Could perception be reality here?
There’s an easy way out of this mess. Blagojevich should resign. The lieutenant governor, who would replace him, should nominate a senator to immediately go to Washington and serve until the time that the people of Illinois can properly elect Obama’s successor in a special election.
The interim senator should be someone who would agree 1) not to run for the office in the special election; and 2) to step down to make room for the winner of the special election.
In this way, Illinoisans would be rid of the “taint” of their governor—not only in the Senate appointment process, but in everything else—and they would have representation in the Senate in the short and long terms.
Burris says he will meet with the state’s senior senator, Dick Durbin, to try to work out his installation in the Senate.
Perhaps this could be his compromise position, that he would serve only until the special election is held and a duly elected successor to the new president is elected.
But then again, Burris may have other ideas for his Senate tenure. And perception could be reality.
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