Senate Democratic leaders today cleared the way for Roland Burris to be seated as a senator from Illinois, after his appointment by the state’s now impeached governor had turned into a weeklong spectacle shifting between the nation’s capital and the corruption scandal back in Illinois.
Now, it’s likely that Mr. Burris, 71 and a former state attorney general, may be sworn in to the Senate as early as later this week in a ceremony presided over by Vice President Cheney. His seating will bring the Democratic Senate majority to 58, including two independents.
Back story is given by Hot Air:
A refresher on the timeline. After Reid sends Blago a letter co-signed by every last Democrat in the Senate warning him not to appoint anyone, the state legislature huddles and decides it’s going to pass a bill making the seat subject to a special election. No bill emerges. Blago then flips Reid the bird by appointing Burris, drawing new warnings plus a rebuke from The One himself, who declares that Congress “cannot accept an appointment made by a governor who is accused of selling this very Senate seat.” Enter Bobby Rush, demagoging the hell out of anyone who so much as looks at Burris cross-eyed. Burris shows up to Congress and is turned away, supposedly because the secretary of state refused to sign his certificate of appointment. Then he meets with Reid, who, it turns out, has gotten a phone call from Obama urging him to make this go away. Suddenly the secretary of state has a change of heart, Reid and Durbin have a change of heart, and Burris is officially the senator-designate, insisting all the while that he’s never played racial politics even as he’s paraphrasing Malcolm X about being seated by any means necessary. Did I miss anything?
The clowns are truly running the show.
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