Harry Reid still seems to think that the Senate can refuse to seat Burris. Nyet, say I; see also this. I will emphasize anew that we would not have come to this impasse if the Illinois state Democrats agreed to change the law so that a special election would have been required to determine the identity of the next Senator from Illinois, instead of keeping the power to appoint in the hands of the Governor merely because Illinois state Democrats did not want to risk losing the seat in an election.
How very un-democratic this decision was. And in the end, how very typical as well. Those who are rightfully upset about the fact that the Illinois Senate seat is being held hostage to the partisan whims of Illinois state Democrats should ensure that they express their anger in the next election cycle. And by the way, voters in Nevada ought to pay close attention to this issue as well–the behavior of their Senator, while entirely in keeping with one’s expectations of him, has been anything but upstanding in this entire story.
Moe Lane
Steve Maley
Dan McLaughlin
Neil Stevens
Daniel Horowitz
I'm torn.
liandro (Diary) Monday, January 5th at 7:58PM EST (link)IL can’t afford a special election at the moment. If you do any research at all on the state of our budget, and current back-log of unpaid bills, and the number of businesses that deal with the state and are going under, you’d see what I mean. OTOH, Blago should NEVER have been allowed to make that appointment. The proverbial rock and hard place. I hope that laws are ajdusted to deal with these kinds of scenarios, and (as you mention) I hope that voters punish the Dem’s hardcore in IL.
For now, I’m hoping they can find a way to knock down the Burris nom.