Well, finally, the U.S. Senate is going to do the right thing, and more importantly, the only thing it had the right to do: Seating soon to be IL Senator Roland Burris. For those of you who have not followed the story, a summary of it can be found here: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-12-30-gov-illinois_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip Also, the Senate's response to the appointment of Burris can be summarized here: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-12-30-senate_N.htm .
There have been a lot of calls by people all over the country and within both the Illinois and U.S. government for the appointment of Burris to be blocked. On the surface, this sounds good. I mean, who wouldn't want to block the appointment made by a man who did the unthinkable, trying to use the power given to him by the people of Illinois for personal financial gain. However, there is a deeper issue at stake here. Blagojevich had every right and capability to appoint Burress. He was still the governor when he made the appointment. In fact, he had not yet even been indicted. All that had been done against him was a criminal complaint. He had just as much right and obligation to fill that seat and ensure that the State of Illinois had equal representation as he would have had he not been accused of the crimes he has. Obviously the man is very corrupt, but if the people of Illinois wanted Blagojevich out, they should have pressured their legislature to take action against Blagojevich when they had the chance. The Illinois legislature had several weeks of opportunity to take the necessary steps to prevent Blagojevich from appointing Burris.
However, the people of Illinois do have every reason to be upset with the fact that Blagojevich was left in a position of being able to make the appointment. Maybe this event will open their eyes to the level of corruption that has sullied the government of Illinois. Even if it doesn't prevent them from electing corrupt politicians in the future, this event should and rightfully does anger many citizens of Illinois.
The people who have no right to be involved in this process were those on Capitol Hill. Once the state of Illinois went through their pre-set method of determining president-elect Obama's replacement, the U.S. Senate had no obligation or right to do anything other than seat the man or woman sent to represent Illinois. In my opinion, the Senate overstepped its authority in refusing to seat Burris, and it committed one of the greatest sins that it can commit: It purposefully acted in a way that prevented the people of Illinois from having equal representation guaranteed it in the Constitution (albeit for a very short amount of time). The time frame matters not. Illinois sent somebody to represent the state, and Harry Reid denied the people of Illinois just representation. I firmly believe if Reid felt he could successfully deny Burris his seat, he would have, and the people of Illinois would have just had to suck it up and deal with it.
Nobody is outraged by this injustice for two reasons: 1.) Blagojevich is a corrupt guy (does anybody else think that he sounds a lot like the corrupt mayor of Springfield from The Simpsons?), and so the focus is on the fact that the seat may be tainted. 2.) We as Americans have begun to think of the Federal government as a cohesive body, and forget that the rights of States should come first and foremost. Those elected to the U.S. Legislature should make the needs of the country a high priority, but the needs and rights of the state that elected them should be the highest priority. To deny a state that representation like Reid and Durbin tried to do is a travesty, but the American people largely fail to look at it this way. 100 years ago, this would have been inconceivable.
I hope this has provided an alternative viewpoint to the events that have transpired over the last few weeks. As always, comments and discussion are always welcome.
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I have to admit that at first I was one of the people outraged that Blagojevich had the opportunity (and gall) to appoint someone to the Senate seat which lay at the heart of so much controversy. But Levi, as always, has a good point--if the people of Illinois really wanted action to be taken, they had avenues available to them to do so. Because they (or, at the least, their elected representatives) did nothing, the inaction must stand as their seal of approval upon their governor's actions. The federal government does not have the legal *right* to intervene here, even though it may seem to hold the moral high ground. We are a nation of laws, and EVERYONE must respect that fact--from the lowest citizen to the most influential senator (or President).
ReplyDeleteLevi, get this...Burris and his wife came to Rach's and my wedding. Seriously...his wife works at Moody with Rach's dad...cool huh?
ReplyDeleteThat's amazing. Did you have any serious interaction with him?
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