Ben Smith at Politico.com reports: Burris ‘unacceptable’.
There isn’t much to report save that an aide provides the following:
Majority Leader Harry Reid views Burris as “unacceptable,” the aide said.
One presumes that the Major Leader will attempt to reject a Blagojevich appointees based on the following language from Article I, section 5:
Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members
Whether that means that the Senate can reject any Senator they simply don’t like, however, remains to be seen.
On a related note, it occurred to me a bit after I initially blogged the news of the appointment that anyone who would take a Blagojevich appointment has got to be nuts, because no matter what may be true about one’s record, once touched by Blagojevich in this way, one is automatically tainted.
Update: TPM Election Central reports that the Senate Democratic Leadership has issued a statement asking Blagojevich not to make an appointment. The statement included the following:
Under these circumstances, anyone appointed by Gov. Blagojevich cannot be an effective representative of the people of Illinois and, as we have said, will not be seated by the Democratic Caucus
That, of course, simply means that Democrats will not recognize an Blago-appointed Senator as part of their party in the Senate. This issue of whether Burris would be seated at all is a matter for the Senate Leadership to deal with, in conjunction with the entire body. Of course, the fact the Senate is led by the Democratic Caucus is no insignificant matter here.
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December 30th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Nah…
I assume that Reid tried to carry water for the Chicago machine (or possibly even Obama) and got his bluff called. I think there’s a very low probability that Reid will attempt anything, not wanting to be seen as a modern Bull Connors, standing in the door of the senate to keep out the lone Black member.
December 30th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Except, of course, they have already issued the statement in question, which doesn’t comport with your theory. And I really can’t see how seating a Blago appointee serves Obama’s interest one whit.
However, the bottom line is that I don’t think that the Leadership has the legal authority to reject Burris.
December 31st, 2008 at 11:54 am
Regardless of the legal technicalities of what Reid can do, it seems to me that he’s been checkmated here. I’m not informed on IL politics in general, but the fact remains that no one seems to be seriously questioning Burris’ qualifications or integrity; opposition to him is solely based on the grounds that Gov. F-bomb is involved. The problem is that even if barring Burris can legally pass muster, Reid and the Democrats lose.
If I understand the math given the MN toss-up, any votes that the Senate undertakes before that race is settled would have a filibuster threshold of 59 rather than the usual 60. That puts Burris in a unpredictable linchpin position, whereas the Democratic Senator from IL should (let’s face it) be a fairly ironclad party-line vote. Depending on Burris’ ideological leanings and personal temperament, he might well decide:
* Since he has explicitly stated that he will only serve the remainder of Obama’s Senate term and not run for re-election in 2010 (at age 73), no electoral considerations need apply.
* If he ends up in the Senate anyway but will not be seated by the Democratic caucus, he may be open to becoming the Midwest’s version of Joe Lieberman - simultaneously distrusted and courted by both sides.
* Depending on the level of pariahship imposed upon him, and considering the weird math involved (especially with MN still in the toss-up column), he may enjoy siding with the GOP caucus (or at least threatening to) in order to extract concessions - a threat that a Democrat from IL couldn’t credibly make under ordinary circumstances.
The racial argument (which essentially dares Reid to bar potentially the only African-American Senator from the seat vacated by the first African-American President) is cynical, spurious and insulting but not inconsequential. An immense amount of political Kabuki can be extracted from this theme alone, and we all know how popular Kabuki is on Capitol Hill. How will that work out with the so-called “no-drama Obama” administration trying to get its agenda enacted before the “honeymoon” is over?
I hate to say it, but at this stage the Mighty Hairdo appears to have picked a bulletproof appointee, and I think Reid knows it.
December 31st, 2008 at 3:48 pm
I agree with commenter #3. One of the real problems here is Reid. He should have kept his mouth shut about a possible appointment and just waited to see who F-bomb appointed. Seeing how Burris won’t run again, he’s actually a good appointment. Illinois gets a vote in the Senate and then a competitive open-seat election in 2010.