Breaking News: Reid Denies Burris Seat in Senate
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said, “Mr. Burris is not in possession of the necessary credentials from the state of Illinois.” Harry Reid lacks the credentials to take out my trash. Harry Reid is an ass.
It makes me angry that they will probably seat Burris soon, but not Franken.
Franken was certified and Colemans’s office was cleaned out.
Don’t get me wrong, Blago is a bigger ass than Reid.
Why do I think that Reid and Pelosi will be a bigger thorn in Obama’s side than Boehner, Blunt, McConnell and Kyl combined.
interesting. I wonder when Harry Ried asked his colleague Ted Stevens to leave his seat…or Craig…
what a joke…
I can see both sides to this argument. Indeed, on New Years Eve, Truth Teller and I got into a little bit of an agrument live and in person over it.
I understand where Reid is coming from, in that we want to deny Blago the purview of his office. We believe Blago should have resigned or be impeached. We believe him to be a corrupt bastard and we do not want the Senate seat tainted by having him appoint Obama’s replacement.
But…
Blago is still Governor with all attendant powers since the Illinois Supreme Court denied AG Madigan’s petition to strip him of the power to appoint a replacement. And since the impeachment process is moving slowly in the IL House and Senate, Blago still retains the power to appoint.
He made that appointment. The Secretary of State of Illinois really cannot fail to certify it. He has done so, which has allowed the Secretary of the Senate and Reid to refuse to seat Burris at this time. But soon Burris or Blago will go to court and have that court issue a Writ of Mandamus ordering the Secretary of State to perform his administrative duty to certify the appointment. And once that happens, Burris’ appointment will legally be in order.
Still, under the Constitution, Reid can still refuse to seat Burris, but is it worth the drama and media attention?
I am sure that Reid is hoping that Blago is impeached and removed by the time he is faced with that choice.
Because they will be, Nemski. This is a stupid fight and distraction. Reid is an ass… and Blago has out played him. How embarrassing.
Yes, Burris should be seated, but at the same time, being the distinguished AG he was (I personally have no idea his record, but using the medias’ portrayal), you would think he would distance himself from Blago’s stink as far as he could. Instead, he jumped both feet into the offer, for a level of office he failed to acheive multiple times before.
Back to the legality, I don’t see how he can be refused. His character, though, in his willingness to go along with Blago in spite of all that is swirling, can and should be brought into question (although not deny him the seat).
Why didn’t the Illinois Secretary of State certify Burris?
Damn, one more piece of bullshit I have to go look up.
You’re forgeting why this is a problem. The state legislature had three weeks between the announcement of Governor Blagojevich’s indictment and his making the appointment of Mr Burris in which they could have passed a law setting up a special election to fill the vacant seat, but they were afraid that if they did that, heaven forfend, a Republican might win it. So, they counted on Mr Blagojevich to resign — despite the fact he said he wouldn’t — or the court would declare Mr Blagojevich incapacitated, so that Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn could make the appointment, and not risk having a Republican win the seat.
The appointment was made on December 30, with the legislature on holiday and the new Congress to open the following week; by that time, it was the governor’s duty to go ahead and fill the seat.
Anon…
He refused to seat Burris on principle, in that he disagreed with Blago being able to appoint. But he can’t really do that, and thus when a court orders him to certify he will have to.
You are partially right Dana, in that the Dems did not want to vote for a special election for precisely that reason. But they were not hoping Blago was going to resign. Everyone knew he wasn’t going to. So I think you are making that part up.
What the Dems were hoping for was that the IL Supreme Court would grant Madigan’s petition to remove Blago’s power to appoint, and they were also hoping that the impeachment process would move quickly. The petition was denied and the impeachment process is moving slowly, and I have read that state Republicans are happy to delay the proceedings and may even vote against impeachment (nice principle).
Thus Blago appointed Burris. His motivation was not to fulfill his duty as you say, but to screw the state and national Democrats over.
DD wrote:
The Republicans are in the minority: they can’t stop the impeachment from being voted by the House. They can, however, refuse to be railroaded into removing Mr Blagojevich from office if a Senate trial turns into a kangaroo court; they are in the minority in the state Senate as well, but the Democrats don’t have a 2/3 supermajority.
I did not say that was his motivation; I said that it was his duty to fill the seat; he did his duty regardless of his motivation.
DD also wrote:
Read the original again. I said, specifically:
I think that covers your point.
Reid was against a special election I read. I’ll bet he’s sorry now.
I definitely think Burris will be seated. I think Reid and Burris are probably in negotiations as to how it happens.
Yes, Senate Dems are prepared to be pains in Obama’s rear. Look at Jello Jay and DiFi.
Senator Dianne Feinstein head of the rules committee want to seat Burris