[BRIGADE] PJB: Blago Raises the Stakes
Published: Sat, 01/03/09
By Patrick J. Buchanan
On the eve of the New Year, Gov. Rod Blagojevich, charged with
conspiring to sell the Senate seat of Barack Obama, put the ball
back squarely in the court of a Democratic Party that had disowned
him.
Blago named Roland Burris, former attorney general of Illinois and
first African-American ever to win statewide office, to fill the
vacated seat. National Democrats and their media auxiliaries went
berserk.
This governor, thundered The New York Times, "has taken his hubris
to new heights and the misery of Illinois citizens to new lows."
This appointment "will not stand," raged Majority Leader Harry Reid.
If the distinguished 71-year-old lawyer arrives to take his seat,
Reid threatened, the Senate will slam the door in his face.
But who is truly showing hubris here? And under what authority and
with what justification would Reid deny Burris his seat?
There is not the slightest hint Burris did anything unethical or
illegal to win this appointment. Nor is there any doubt as to Gov.
Blagojevich's right to make the appointment. He is still governor
of Illinois. He has not been convicted of anything. And he not only
has the right but an obligation to carry out his duties, one of
which is to appoint candidates to fill empty seats in the U.S.
Senate.
As for Burris, his qualifications are surely superior to those of
Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, whom Democrats have been pounding New
York Gov. David Paterson to appoint to Hillary Clinton's seat.
Before now, Kennedy has shown zero interest in public office or a
public life. She has been lax in voting and shown nothing in the
way of political substance since being hailed as the next senator.
Who is to say Paterson's motives in considering Kennedy are
superior to Blagojevich's motives in naming Burris?
Blagojevich must not appoint anyone, we are told, because he is
charged with conspiring to sell Barack's seat, and the evidence is
on the wiretap tapes cited by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.
But here in America, even a governor is innocent until proven
guilty. And what exactly do those tapes show, other than that Blago
and his chief of staff engaged in crude and corrupt talk about
getting rewarded with campaign contributions or high office for
Blago in return for giving someone the Senate appointment?
Using vile language and ruminating on selling a Senate seat may be
sins, but they are not necessarily crimes. Moreover, there is
evidence Blago may have been engaged in boastful beer talk and
little more.
Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. says he talked to the governor for 90
minutes about the Senate seat but was never solicited. Nor did he
offer anything. Obama aides Rahm Emanuel and Valerie Jarrett both
talked to Blagojevich about the seat, and Rahm talked to his chief
of staff.
Neither claims to have been solicited for any kind of bribe.
Yet, if Blago were going to sell the seat, the obvious party to
sell it to is the man with the power to appoint ambassadors and
Cabinet officers, or to convince others to hire Blago:
President-elect Obama.
Yet, from all we know, nether Barack nor anyone on his staff ever
offered anything illicit to the governor, nor were they asked for
anything. Where is the body of the crime?
If Blago and Burris hold firm, this is going to get interesting.
Here we have an African-American elder statesman of the Democratic
Party, an honorable and distinguished man, appointed by the
governor according to law and the Constitution, to fill a Senate
seat. There has been no hint of illegal consideration asked or
given by either the governor or Burris.
Yet Harry Reid, who presides over a Democratic caucus of some 60
senators, with not a single black member, is going to refuse this
black man a seat to which the law entitles him?
One hopes Burris will stay firm and march up to that Senate, and,
if nothing else, expose the hypocrisy.
Our president-elect is from a party that champions busing to
integrate public schools but bypasses D.C. public schools to send
his girls to exclusive private schools in far northwest Washington.
We have a Democratic Senate that champions affirmative action. Yet
not one white male Democratic senator, in a caucus that has not a
single black member, has ever volunteered to step down and let the
governor of their state replace him or her with an African-American.
Not one. That would be liberals leading by example, not exhortation.
If Democrats believe our institutions of power should look like
America, why don't they make their Senate caucus look like America?
Why do not a dozen Democrat senators resign, to be replaced by 12
appointed black Democrats, giving one-fifth of all Democratic
Senate seats to a minority that gave Barack 97 percent of its vote
and Barack and Joe Biden one-fourth of all the votes they received?
Why does not Gov. Paterson follow Gov. Blagojevich's lead and name
an African-American of Burris' stature to the U.S. Senate?
Fellas, let's start practicing what we preach here.
SOURCE: http://buchanan.org/blog/2009/01/pjb-blago-raises-the-stakes/