January 2009

Because He’s So Trustworthy

ArchPundit January 5, 2009 No Comments

Reid and Durbin tee up on Blagojevich’s claims regarding Reid’s conversations with Blagojevich:

Reid accused Blagojevich of “making all this up” and denied saying “who not to appoint.” Durbin, on ABC’s “This Week,” likewise pointed the finger at the two-term Democratic governor.

“It’s an outrage that the Blagojevich people, in the last days of their administration, facing impeachment in Springfield, are now flailing in every direction, trying to show defiance in the appointment of Roland Burris and attacking everybody in sight,” Durbin said. Such tactics, Durbin said, were “just plain wrong and the people of Illinois see through it.”

Blagojevich has said he is innocent of the criminal charges against him and that his actions do not warrant impeachment by the legislature.

BootBlago

ArchPundit January 2, 2009 No Comments

It’s been busy so I keep forgetting to highlight BootBlago by the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform’s new site.

I love the effort though I have a few criticisms of the implementation.  Either way, a worthy effort.

Denial Isn’t Just a River in Egypt

ArchPundit January 2, 2009 No Comments

It’s arguable about how the Supreme Court will rule on Burris’ appointment when the Senate refuses to seat him.  I think the Senate does have the power, but after reading the Powell decision and analysis of it, I’m pretty sure the Court will force his appointment on the Senate.  IOW, I think the Court will be dead wrong, but given the decision and the current court’s deference to executive power which would extend to a Governor, I’m not terribly optimistic.  I hope to be proven dead wrong.  Nothing would make me happier.  However, it’s  a gamble, and one that didn’t have to be taken:

With Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White refusing to sign papers authorizing Blagojevich’s appointment of Roland Burris, and Senate Democratic leaders refusing to seat anyone appointed by Blagojevich, House Speaker Michael Madigan’s spokesman Steve Brown maintained that the appointment is moot.

Asked why Democratic leaders didn’t foresee Blagojevich naming a senator, Brown essentially said there is no appointment. “It hasn’t happened. That’s only happened in some dark corner of the governor’s mind. It hasn’t been certified, so that makes it null. There was nothing to anticipate.”

Steve Brown is smart and a very good spokesperson. That, however, is Orwellian.

It’s fair to say Blagojevich wouldn’t have really signed a special elections bill–because Blagojevich says he would have signed something hasn’t exactly been a standard worth hanging your hat on for the last six years.  However, impeaching him fast would have done it.  Might have Emil done nothing?  Sure–and his Senators would have rebelled.  Maybe for no effect, but it would have been the best shot to avoid this fiasco.

Friday is a Travel Day

ArchPundit January 2, 2009 No Comments

I’ll be off line all of the day most likely.

Inevitably Rod will invade Missouri or something.

Senator Burris

ArchPundit January 2, 2009 No Comments

His aides are calling him Senator already.

Mr. Burris, 71 years old, brushed off the opposition in a 25-minute interview during which aides called him “senator” and he argued that he would represent his state well. “From South Beloit to Cairo, from Galena to Zion, East St. Louis to Lawrenceville, I know this state. I know its people,” he said.

He also questioned — as have several legal scholars — the Senate’s right to keep him from taking the seat, asking, “By what authority can [Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid] deny a governor carrying out his constitutional duty?”

“I am the senator, and it sounds good,” said Mr. Burris, now a lobbyist and lawyer. “I’m giving up a lot of money to go to the Senate, OK? I’m taking a pay cut,” he said, referring to a U.S. senator’s salary of about $169,000 a year.

“…and it sounds good.”

The unfortunate thing is that no one was blogging when Burris was in office and ran so many times. I forgot how much fun he is.

The Amazingly Sluggish Impeachment

ArchPundit January 2, 2009 No Comments

The Illinois people have wanted impeachment to begin since May 2008. From Rich:

A new statewide poll has found that 59 percent of Illinois registered voters want the Illinois Legislature to begin impeachment hearings against Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

The Glengariff Group poll had Blagojevich’s job approval rating at 26 percent, while his disapproval rating was a mind-boggling 65 percent. The number of voters supporting impeachment is somewhat striking since the “I Word” has not been discussed much in the media.

* The governor’s own party has turned against him…

Even a plurality of Democrats supports holding impeachment hearings. Democratic voters said they supported the idea by a margin of 49.4 percent to 41.5 percent. Independents overwhelmingly like the proposal, backing it 63 to 24. And it’s probably no surprise that Republicans love it. A whopping 73.5 percent of GOP voters said it was a good idea, compared to just 16 percent who said it wasn’t.

* While a clear majority of Illinoisans supports holding hearings, they’re not yet convinced that Gov. Blagojevich should be removed from office, although they do appear to be moving in that direction…

A plurality of 45 percent said they supported “impeachment of Gov. Rod Blagojevich forcing him to leave office,” while 35 percent said they were opposed. Eighteen percent didn’t know.

House Republican Leader Tom Cross has gone out of his way to downplay impeachment talk in the past few weeks. Yet, 57 percent of Republicans and 55 percent of independents want the governor removed. Those numbers ought to give Cross serious pause.

Anyone who thinks Rod Blagojevich is in any position to weather this is delusional.  The people of Illinois have been ahead of the Lege for months on this issue and I think I can safely say most of them are wondering what the hell is taking so long.

Let Me Disabuse Everyone That Blagojevich’s Move Was Genius

ArchPundit January 2, 2009 No Comments

Few who read AP regularly need any convincing, but a variety of national reporters and bloggers have suggested the Burris appointment is genius because it puts everyone else back on their heels since it’s a relatively clean black appointee and so white politicians have to worry about backlash from the black community.

That’s BS.  Rod Blagojevich often makes a show and declares himself victorious, but tell me what he has actually gained from this manuever?

If the argument is that he is playing to jury pool, it’s a bit late.  His approval rating amongst African-Americans (though note federal juries aren’t as imbalanced as state juries from the Chicago jury pool) was 32 percent before the indictment.  Roland Burris isn’t a guy with a large following of African-American supporters and while Bobby Rush can carry his Congressional District, he is an abysmal failure when it comes to challenging white politicians.  He barely got a majority of the black vote against Daley.  He and Roland Burris cannot attract a big portion of the black vote.  They have virtually no organization, little money, and few allies.

This leads to a close second point, Rod Blagojevich probably did appint a black man to help him in impeachment hearings as well thinking it would put pressure on African-American legislators or white legislators with significant black populations in their district.  Simply not true.  There is no movement supporting him by black legislators and some like Monique Davis want him out just as much as before.  Those allied with Jesse Jackson Jr. have no reason to suppor the clown.

Rod Blagojevich always has a stunt to pull, but the not so secret thing about those stunts is that they almost never work.  They worked for a couple years and then failed consistently since.

Distracting attention from him is a strategy to improve his standing, but the problem is there is no way to distract from a charge of trying to sell a Senate seat.  He’s not improving his position at all. He will be impeached and removed from office sooner or later whenever the Lege decides they have pretended to deliberate long enough and he’s going to prison.

Will he get Burris in the US Senate?  Maybe, but so what if he does? It doesn’t improve his political or legal situation regardless of how delusional he is that doing so will help him.

He can make this more difficult and he’ll  probably a few more ways to do that along the way, but he’s going to lose–nothing he is doing changes that fundamental fact.

Who is Rod Talking To…?

ArchPundit January 1, 2009 No Comments

One of the interesting bits about Sam Adam approaching Davis and Burris about the Senate seat is that it wasn’t done by someone from the Governor’s office.  Several theories abound about why he might do that with mine being that any discussion with a personal lawyer is more protected from being taped while others see it as a move to affect the jury pool and the entire appointment was part of Genson and Adam’s strategy.

My primary problem with the latter is that I don’t think Rod believes he’s going to be convicted so he’s playing to the public–largely because he doesn’t fully understand that the public hates him.

Now, the scuttlebutt I’m getting is interesting in how it might fit in—note this is scuttlebutt and only things I’m putting together from a variety of people. I’ll start with the caveat that this is scuttlebutt and the amount of good information coming out of the Governor’s office is about zero as far as I can tell.

It’s unclear that Rod is talking to anyone in government—other than his spokesperson, Lucio.  Reports are that he hadn’t talked to Quinlan (counsel who just quit upon the announcement of Burris) since the arrest.  Rumors are that when Harris went to the senior staff meeting after the arrest, he was told to leave by the deputy chiefs.

As I said, don’t take any individual story as truth and perhaps all three of the above are off.  However, consistent with what I’m hearing in general and those stories above appears to be that Rod isn’t talking to anyone in his own office other than his spokesperson and may well be more isolated than it was even thought.

He has lost Harris. Several of his next layer of authority appear to be hanging on to simply continue running the government and see the writing on the wall.  A man who was never interested in governing is now fighting to keep the job while not actually doing it other than a few press release and visual appearances at the office to pretend to be working.

It may well be that Blagojevich’s inner circle consists of his lawyers, his wife, and his spokesperson.  I’ve long heard that his staff is able to keep him from doing too stupid of things by just changing the subject and he forgets what the hell he was trying to do and moves on to the new shiny object.  Right now, there’s no one to do that and we saw the effect on Tuesday.

People said I was either crazy or divinely directed. I accept the latter

ArchPundit January 1, 2009 No Comments

Sun-Times

The choice of Roland Burris for Illinois’ open U.S. Senate seat might surprise some — but not likely Burris himself, a man whose unfailing confidence could not be dimmed even by losing elections.

“I am a visionary,’’ he declared in Chicago Sun-Times interview in 2002, when he was running for governor, his third unsuccessful try at the job.

In another interview with the paper, Burris said his past success — election as state comptroller and attorney general — was “divine providence” that began as a teenager when he decided to become a lawyer and officeholder.

“People said I was either crazy or divinely directed. I accept the latter,’’ he said. “I believe without a doubt that I am predestined to be a role model.”

In 1979, he raised eyebrows when, during his inauguration as comptroller — the first African American elected to statewide office — he related how he had “heard” Abraham Lincoln during a visit to his tomb in Springfield. “I know who you are and I am pleased at what’s taking place in Illinois today,’’ Burris said Lincoln told him.

Burris, 71, once mused that while Illinois is known as the Land of Lincoln, “Maybe someday it will be known as the Land of Burris.’’

Burris — who sometimes refers to himself in the third person — has never been shy about broadcasting his ambitions and unabashedly celebrating his achievements.

Speaking of himself in the 2002 interview, Burris said, “Roland Burris, who started way down here, in the segregation of a southern Illinois community, was able to set goals, plan and strategize and make it.”

Burris vs. Keyes in a debate.  Discuss.

Roland Burris Behind On Lobbyist Filings

ArchPundit January 1, 2009 No Comments

I’m as shocked as you are.

Roland W. Burris, the former state attorney general picked by Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich to fill the Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama , is a registered lobbyist who appears to be out of compliance with federal lobbying laws.

In April, Burris & Lebed Consulting registered with Congress to lobby the federal government on behalf of MicroSun Technologies on defense, manufacturing and science issues — with Burris listed as one of the three lobbyists.

The required second- and third-quarter reports detailing how much Burris and his two colleagues were paid are not available for examination on Senate and House Web sites. Nor are there campaign contribution reports required twice a year of all lobbyists.