Dude should have MILQUETOAST tattooed on his forehead.
For a guy who has represented Las Vegas in Washington since the dawn of time, and who used to be head of the Gaming Commission to boot - the man sucks at bluffing.
There wasn’t a vote, but the entire caucus signed a letter telling Blago they’d reject any appointment he made.
Yeah - they’re backing that rhetoric up, I see. Seems there wasn’t much backing it besides hot air and yellow spines.
Don’t be so sure about that. I think people are misreading what Reid is saying.
As I noted over at Daily Kos, one of LBJ’s sperm would have more spine than Reid.
Heh.
If you consider that the only reason not to seat Burris was so that the public wouldn’t think any slime from Blago somehow got onto the US Senate, then bluff and hot air was all that was really needed. No spines required.
No, the reason not to seat Burris was because his appointment (and ANY appointment) was tainted by association with Blagojevich. Allowing an appointment to a seat that the governor was trying to SELL just a couple of weeks ago throws mud onto Burris’s motivations in accepting. Any person in Illinois who has spent any time in politics would have realized that the acceptance of that appointment would instantly mark them as being involved in that somehow.
I agree. I had never heard of Roland Burris before this whole mess. The fact that he would accept this appointment from a tainted governor shows a horrible lack of judgement on his part; one that should make him unfit to be a U.S. Senator.
I can’t believe the GOP is staying quiet on this. Here is a huge opportunity for them to step up fight for some integrity…
+1
Rule one in politics: When your adversary is busily stomping on his own dick, don’t get in the way.
Or, as Napoleon put it, “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”
Just a note - the Illinois House committee recommended impeachment by a vote of 21-0. Twenty one to nothing.
I agree with Mr. Moto, by the way, and with jtgain’s first paragraph as well. Reid et al are showing no backbone at all.
I do hope Quinn has someone picked out so he can fill the seat immediately in case Blago’s impeached.
Under the circumstances, he might decide the most gracious, or at least graceful, thing is just to go with Burris.
Blagojevich has just been impeached by the Illinois House, with only one representative voting against. The Senate will presumably take this up Monday.
Now that’s what I call swiftness.
The Illinois legislature only has one rep who stays bought? 
Possibly not until Thursday. The terms of the General Assembly expire on Wednesday. There will be some membership turnover. I doubt they will want to start the trial until after the new Senate assembles and organizes itself.
Could be interesting. Imagine this: Blago is impeached and convicted, and the new governor rescinds Burris’s appointment and picks someone else. The Illinois SecState happily signs that appointment. Burris insists he’s still the pick of the Governor of Illinois (albeit one no longer in office). With the help of a crack team of orthopedic surgeons, Harry Reid locates his backbone and decides to seat the new guy or gal.
Don’t what Federal or Illinois law is as to the property right, if any, to a senatorial appointment, but I suspect Burris would be out of luck.
That doesn’t sound right to me. If it were, then any appointed Senator would be the governor’s bitch. Separation of powers isn’t supposed to work that way.
Obviously, I don’t know the law either.