Please Be Seated
I don't think much of Roland Burris, but I believe the Senate should seat him. I don't like to see a precedent where the sins of the governor are visited on his nominee. The best argument against him is people like Bobby Rush are playing the race card to get him in, and though that's worth resisting, it's not a good enough reason to deny Burris his place.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:23 AM
2 Comments:
Reasons to seat him: he's otherwise a well-respected guy who's qualified; he is willing to swear under oath that he never spoke to Blago about the job until after the indictment; he didn't pay for it or even offer to pay for it; until convicted or impeached, it remains Blago's job to appoint someone.
Reasons not to seat him: some truly horrendous race-baiting coming out of the congressional black caucus; the Senate looks like he's caving in to that same race baiting, encouraging it for the future.
I'm with you LAGuy, the former are better reasons. However, the real deciding factor for me is so that his name no longer appears in the news crawl, making me have to figure out whether each story is about this guy or Plaxico.
Let me append:
Reasons not to seat: Said they wouldn't, might encourage other bad actors they wish would resign, stinks of corruption (by virtue of Blago's involvement) and impartiality (adds another sympathetic vote)- I didn't say they were good reasons.
Reasons to seat: Adds another sympathetic vote, shows willingness not to be obstinate in sin (i.e. by correcting initial over-reaction), tampers down tendency to convict/remove/disempower by prosecutorial press release (I suspect Blago is guilty of something but we need more than the US Attorney just saying its so)
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