The Constitutional Requirement to Seat Burris

For those on the right and on the left who think that Roland Burris should not be seated, the Heritage Foundation has a few words for you!

The most important factor that distinguishes the United States from many other countries around the world, both today and in comparison to civilizations long gone, is that it is a republic based upon the rule of law. It is precisely when upholding the rule of law is unpleasant or unpopular that the rule is sorely tested. The refusal of the United States Senate led by Harry Reid to seat Roland W. Burris fails that test. Burris was appointed by Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich under the authority of the 17th Amendment to replace outgoing Senator Barack Obama.[1] It is clear from a review of the applicable constitutional provisions, Supreme Court case law, and the history of the Constitutional Convention and the Constitution's subsequent ratification that the Senate does not have the constitutional authority to exclude Burris. There are no political or other objectives that the Senators opposing his seating could possibly have that would in any way justify such a stark and direct violation of the Constitution.

The mistaken belief of Reid and others such as Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) comes from their complete misreading of Article I, §5, cl. 1, which provides that "each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members." This provision does not give Senators the power to apply any "qualifications" they arbitrarily create and refuse to seat Burris because of unproven allegations of wrongdoing against the governor or for any other concerns that the Senators may have over the governor or his actions in office. They are ignoring the provisions of Article I, § 3, cl. 3, which state that the only qualifications under the Constitution to be a Senator are to be 30 years old, to have been a citizen for nine years, and to "be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen."

Read the whole thing, it is a lesson in Constitutional Law...one that Constitutional lawyer and President Elect Barack Obama has apparently forgotten.

I think we can all agree that Rod Blagojevich is a crooked politician. However, that does not negate the fact that he is still Governor of Illinois and as such he is Constitutionally authorized to appoint Senator Obama's replacement. Period, end of discussion.

More Defending Blago

The Wall Street Journal has an op-ed today that takes Senator Reid to task for his refusal (so far) to seat Roland Burris as the appointed replacement to Barack Obama.

An Illinois court will eventually decide if Governor Rod Blagojevich is guilty of corruption. But on at least one issue he is more law-abiding than Majority Leader Harry Reid and fellow Democrats: the seating of Roland Burris to replace Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate.

Mr. Blagojevich appointed Mr. Burris to represent Illinois on Tuesday, ahead of the official start of the 111th Congress next week. This was certainly an act of brash defiance given that nearly everyone had warned the Governor not to do so after he was heard on tape contemplating the sale of the seat for personal gain. But under Illinois law, Mr. Blagojevich had every legal right to do so...

Meanwhile, Mr. Reid and Washington Democrats are refusing to seat Mr. Burris, never mind their lack of authority to do so. As an initial matter, they're hiding behind the Illinois secretary of state, who is refusing to certify the appointment. But Mr. Burris has asked a court to order the secretary of state to carry out what under state law would typically be a nondiscretionary duty. In any event, Beltway Democrats can't inject themselves into what is clearly a matter of Illinois law.

It then goes on to cite (as Jazz did) Powell vs. McCormack.

Now it is coming out that in the days prior to Governor Blagojevich's arrest that Senator Reid was trying to dictate to Governor Blagojevich what candidates "were" acceptable in Senator Reid's mind. (H/T AP)

Days before Gov. Blagojevich was charged with trying to sell President-elect Barack Obama's U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder, top Senate Democrat Harry Reid made it clear who he didn’t want in the post: Jesse Jackson, Jr., Danny Davis or Emil Jones.

Rather, Reid called Blagojevich to argue he appoint either state Veterans Affairs chief Tammy Duckworth or Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, sources told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Sources say the Senate majority leader pushed against Jackson and Davis — both democratic congressmen from Illinois — and against Jones — the Illinois Senate president who is the political godfather of President-elect Barack Obama — because he did not believe the three men were electable. He feared losing the seat to a Republican in a future election.

This information was confirmed by the Governor's spokespeople.

Honestly, his working against Jackson, Jr. and Jones shows how little Reid knows about Illinois politics. Jones has been around long enough that he does have a name for himself outside of both Chicago and Springfield (reminder - I moved out of Illinois almost 20 years ago and a pay only passing attention to Illinois politics and I know who he is!). Jackson, Jr. has instant name recognition (thanks to his Daddy) and a passable record as a member of the House of Representatives that will help ease the transition to the Senate.

However, Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass has a reminder for all of this on who could have prevented all of this Blago-drama.

President-elect Barack Obama was not found as an infant, floating in a reed basket along the banks of the Chicago River. He is not the gentle faun, the Mr. Tumnus, of the Daley machine. Obama could have forcefully and publicly demanded that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and fellow Illinois Democrats support legislation for a special election to fill his vacated Senate seat. Obama had a responsibility to the people of Illinois to do so. But he kept his mouth shut. As always, he avoided conflict with machine political bosses, a consistent character trait stubbornly ignored by his media cheerleaders.

His top White House strategist and his chief of staff are creatures of the Daley machine, and Democrats didn't want to risk the Senate seat. What happened to the promise of transcending the old politics?

So when the freak show comes to Washington next week and political hack Roland "I'm a tool of the people" Burris is denied entry to the Senate, and the national political class shrieks in fake outrage and Blagojevich surrounds himself with African-American ministers and he sings "Let my people go!" remember who could have stopped all this: Obama, Madigan, Daley and the Illinois Democrats.

Emphasis mine.

THIS is the "change" we voted for.

This Is The Post In Which I Come To The Defense Of...

...Rod Blagojevich. I'll give my liberal leaning members a moment to pick their jaws up off of the floor before I continue....

Ready - OK here is the deal. Blago is STILL the governor of Illinois (last I looked) and as Governor of Illinois he IS charged, allowed, enabled...pick your descriptor...to appoint a someone to fill out the remainder of Barack Obama's term (two years in this case). Until he is replaced he has every right, given to him by the people of his state, to appoint someone - just as Governor Patterson of New York and Governor Pawlenty of Minnesota or any governor in the US are entitled to do!

The US Senate, on the other hand, does NOT have the right to deny the people of Illinois their Constitutionally guaranteed representation. I agree that having Blago make the pick is a bad idea (in light of what got him arrested and all) but as Jazz pointed out on Wednesday, until the PEOPLE of Illinois do something to strip him of that power (and remember the Legislature had the opportunity to do so last week and declined to do so) there is little that Senator Reid can do.

So while the partisan in me is giddy over the prospects of the pending confrontation, the pragmatist in me can not help but wish that Sen. Reid would just butt out! The people of Illinois are CONSTITUTIONALLY ENTITLED to two Senators and you do not have the authority to block an appointed Senator just because you don't like who made the appointment. It does not work that way.

Blago Update

It's been a while since my last Blago update mostly because there was a lot of smoke but not much heat in recent weeks. However there were a couple of interesting developments in the last couple of days. First off, Blago made the decision to appoint the designated seat warmer.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich is expected today to name former Illinois Atty. Gen. Roland Burris to replace President-elect Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate…

Honestly Burris is not a bad pick. He is an unambitious career lower level politician. One of the few somewhat decent Illinois pols left in either party. The usual suspect chimed in. Including the Secretary of State who has decided that he can over-ride Blago. That led Burris to go before the Illinois Supreme Court to get the appointment certified.

Blago's appointment of Burris led to much speculation about whether the Senate can (or can not) block Burris from taking the seat.

Lastly, Fitzy has asked for a 90 day extension for his indictment. Generally when that happens it is because the prosecutor still does not have the evidence to build a case. That is not the case this time...

In the motion filed Wednesday, prosecutors ask for more time because "multiple witnesses" have come forward in recent weeks and investigators have to review "thousands of intercepted phone calls."

Oh yeah and Tony Rezko is STILL singing to the feds.

As my friend Rick Moran said on his Blog Talk Radio show a couple of weeks back - who needs soap operas in Illinois. Not when you have "As Blago Turns"....

UPDATE: My friend Gary has the latest and oh is it a doozy!

Democrats like portraying themselves as the African-American community’s best friend. That image will take a hit next Tuesday when Roland Burris will attempt to be sworn in as senator. The Democrats’ image will take a hit because Democrats won’t permit Burris to enter the Senate chamber:

Senate Democratic leaders think Roland Burris, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s pick to fill President-elect Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat, will likely show up on Capitol Hill Tuesday for the opening day of Congress, according to a Democratic aide familiar with Senate Democratic leaders’ plans.

They have prepared a contingency plan in case he does, the aide added. Burris will not be allowed on the Senate floor, according to this aide and a Senate Democratic leadership aide.

The aide familiar with Senate Democratic leaders’ plans said if Burris tries to enter the Senate chamber, the Senate doorkeeper will stop Burris. If Burris were to persist, either trying to force his way onto the Senate floor or refusing to leave and causing a scene, U.S. Capitol Police would stop him, said the aide. “They (police) probably won’t arrest him” but they would call the sergeant-at-arms,” the aide said.

Frankly, the Democrats’ strategy sounds eerily similar to when Gov. George Wallace stood in the doorway at the University of Alabama in a symbolic attempt to block two black students from enrolling at the school. The world has changed but the Democrats’ racist tendencies still exist. In fact, it doesn’t sound like their strategies have changed since June, 1963.

Pass the popcorn please!

Blago Round-Up

Well the Blago news keeps coming fast and furious. The Speaker of the House has moved quickly to start impeachment proceedings when it became apparent that Blago was not going to go quietly. The soon to be state Senate president, however, thinks that this is all embarrassing news is a bit "unfair" and today, Chicago Sun Times political gossip columnist Michael Sneed (who has some killer contacts to be sure) reports that the Federal Attorneys office has Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel on tape a whopping 21 times talking about the vacant seat. That is certainly a lot of time on tape for conversations that supposedly never happened. Meanwhile another Blagojevich adviser is set to plead guilty and Tony Rezko is STILL singing like a bird.

Finally for a lighter look at the "BlagoBust", Rick Moran has a hysterical post up today that is sure to leave you ROFLOL! It's funny because it is so very true.

Who needs soap operas when you have Illinois politics for entertainment!

Connections

Bekkieann wondered (in the comments to my first post on this subject) why the picture of President Elect Obama with Governor Blagojevich if I was not trying to tie the two together. Mostly because I suspected/feared that the other Chicago shoe (concrete?) was yet to drop and dropped they have. First came the revelation that Rahm Emmanuel (the soon to be President's Chief of Staff) spoke REPEATEDLY to Governor Blagojevich about who would inherit the Obama Senate Seat.



I paid very close attention to President elect Obama's press conference when he stressed that HE had not had discussions with the Governor's office. Although I have to admit one thing. In a conversation with my good friend Gary Gross, Rahm Emmanuel's name came up and I stated that I thought he was too smart to get caught up in something this stupid. It appears I was woefully wrong.

Then came the this post by my good friend (and fellow Chicago escapee) Rick Moran who dug up an old interview with David Axelrod (the man behind the Obama campaign). The subject of the interview was the Fitzgerald investigation into Chicago political corruption.

Then in 2005, the Chicago Sun Times broke a fairly routine scandal involving the use of (or, in this case, the non-use) of city trucks – contracts to politically connected (and sometimes mobbed up) trucking firms that paid millions of dollars for little or no work. The city was entertained for weeks with stories of bribes being paid by city employees to steer truck contracts to specific firms, ghost payrolling, lolligagging truckers drawing taxpayer monies for going golfing, and other examples of extraordinary venality on the part of city politicians.

Once Fitzy got involved, the investigation expanded to include the entire patronage system in Chicago. And what prosecutors found was simply astonishing; 30 city pols who routinely violated the patronage law by doctoring documents to show interviews with candidates that never happened, resume tampering, and other fraudulent actions all to get loyal campaign workers city jobs. Fitzy’s investigation eventually reached deep into Daley’s office as two of his closest aides – including his patronage chief Robert Sorich – were convicted in the case.

Here’s how it worked:

In February 2005 a grand jury indicted Sorich for devising a scheme to “provide financial benefits, in the form of city jobs and promotions, in exchange for campaign work.” As part of this scheme, it charged, Sorich and other officials “corrupted the city’s personnel process” by awarding “jobs and promotions” to preselected candidates “through sham and rigged interviews.”

At the Sorich trial Kozicki, then in the buildings department, testified that as managing deputy commissioner he had altered 19-year-old Andrew Ryan’s interview rating to ensure that Ryan scored high enough to get a building inspector’s job for which other applicants were more qualified. Andrew Ryan is the son of Tom Ryan, secretary-treasurer of Carpenters Local 13, a union that was a major financial contributor to Daley’s 2003 reelection campaign.

And Axelrod? Here’s what the new Senior Advisor to the President had to say about it: back in 2006:

As Axelrod has said, a too-zealous prosecutor can look at normal political behavior and suspect impropriety. In a 2006 Vanity Fair interview, the Obama aide complained about Fitzgerald’s scrutiny of Chicago politics.

“He goes after fleas and elephants with the same bazooka,” Axelrod said. “At some point there’s a line … where you begin criminalizing politics in its most innocent form.”

Emphasis mine. Graft in Chicago has long been a practiced art form. Those that are good at it (the first Mayor Daley comes to mind) never put themselves in a place where they could get caught. Oh sure you could see that there was "something" going on there, but there was never enough there to warrant prosecution. Take a look at Paul Powell. There were multiple investigations into his corruption but nothing stuck and it was not until he died that we learned the depths of his corruption

That is, to me, the thing that makes this whole thing with Governor Blagojevich so laughable. It was the ham-handed nature with which he did business. It was the brazen nature of his corruption that gives pause. It was almost as if Governor Blagojevich wanted to get caught.

I still don't know what impact this will have on Team Obama, but if there are many more ties to this scandal in his transition team it may make his first hundred days in office very uncomfortable.

The Blago Update

Democrats across Illinois are scrambling to distance themselves from disgraced Governor Blagojevich and the calls for his resignation have come from all quarters as news of more shake downs arise. Momentum for his impeachment builds and AG Madigan finds a way where she can step in (to the benefit of her daddy who is speaker of the House?). A move for a special election to fill President elect Obama's seat (which is against the Illinois constitution) springs to life, much to the chagrin of Senate Majority Leader Reid and the deputy governor (as opposed to the Lt. Governor) resigns....and former Illinois residents (like myself) are talking about their favorite Illinois corruption stories (I have to admit I am partial to Paul Powell).

all of which is leading people outside of the state to ask "Why Is Illinois So Corrupt?"....which is something I was warning about before the election!

Before Obi Wan and Jason start in...it's not just the Democrats in Illinois - although the stories are more prevalent because there are more elected Democrats IN Illinois. There are crooked Republican politicians in Illinois as well. If Barack Obama had been the Republican nominee for President I would have said the same things. I will never vote for another Illinois politician. At least not until they clean up the culture of corruption that runs rampant in that state! We do NOT want Illinois politicians in charge in DC. There is too much money and opportunity for corruption in DC and in the long run the people of the country would be the ones to suffer...just as the people in Illinois are suffering today!

Stupid Is As Stupid Does - Illinois Division

Well my phone has been buzzing all day with calls and texts from friends and all of them start out with "Did you hear about Blago?". Blago is Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich who was arrested today on charges of selling the US Senate seat that is about to be vacated by Senator Barack Obama. You just can't make this up!

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested Tuesday on charges he brazenly conspired to sell or trade President-elect Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder as part of what federal prosecutors called a "political corruption crime spree." A federal judge later ordered Blagojevich released on his own recognizance.

Even more surprisingly stupid is that Blago threatened the biggest newspaper in the area because they were actually sniffing around the story and making his political life miserable.

A criminal complaint filed in federal court outlines wiretapped conversations between Blagojevich and his chief of staff—who also was arrested Tuesday—in which the governor said he wanted the Tribune to fire its editorial board, which has called for the Illinois House to explore impeaching the governor. In one wiretapped comment in the complaint, Blagojevich is quoted as saying the Tribune's owner should be told to "fire those [expletive]."

The Chicago Sun Times was not as delicate in quoting the transcript and the transcript is a profanity laced tirade that lashes out at not only the Tribune and their reporters, but President-elect Obama as well.

Rod Blagojevich said that the consultants (Advisor B and another consultant are believed to be on the call at that time) are telling him that he has to "suck it up" for two years and do nothing and give this "motherf***er [the President-elect] his senator. F*** him. For nothing? F*** him." Rod Blagojevich states that he will put "[Senate Candidate 4]" in the Senate "before I just give F***ing [Senate Candidate 1] a F***ing Senate seat and I don't get anything." (Senate Candidate 4 is a Deputy Governor of the State of Illinois). Rod Blagojevich stated that he needs to find a way to take the "financial stress" off of his family and that his wife is as qualified or more qualified than another specifically named individual to sit on corporate boards. According to Rod Blagojevich, "the immediate challenge [is] how do we take some of the financial pressure off of our family." Later in the phone call, Rod Blagojevich stated that absent getting something back, Rod Blagojevich will not pick Senate Candidate 1.

Governor Blagojevich has been under investigation (for corruption) practically day one in office so the fact that this was coming was no surprise. In fact, the Tribune recently reported on the fact that the federal government might be tapping the governor's phone calls which lead to this comment.

"It kind of smells like Nixon and Watergate," the governor told reporters. "But I don't care whether you tape me privately or publicly, I can tell you that whatever I say is always lawful."

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, not surprisingly, disagreed with the governor on the "lawful" nature of his conversations.

"The conduct would make Lincoln roll over in his grave," Fitzgerald said, quoting Blagojevich as saying the Senate seat is "a bleeping valuable thing. You just don't give it away. ... I've got this thing and it's bleeping golden."

Fitzgerald called the corruption charges against Blagojevich "a truly new low."

Blagojevich wasn't against the corrupt deal for the Senate seat, he was against "being stiffed in the corrupt deal," Fitzgerald said.

The FBI Special Agent in charge of this case had harsher words for Blago in particular and Illinois in general

"If it isn't the most corrupt state in the United States, it's certainly one hell of a competitor," Grant said. "Even the most cynical agents in our office were shocked."

And out of that political climate comes our new President-elect. Now I am not in any way suggesting that Senator Obama had anything to do with this particular story - he didn't. However, the electorate would indeed be wise to keep a very close eye on what comes out of the White House. We don't know how far from the tree that this apple has fallen. Until we do know that, it is in our country's best interests to be watchful.