Roland Burris Should Be Seated in the U.S. Senate

I don’t usually get too political on my blog, but this issue has been bugging me. So, here are my thoughts on why Roland Burris should be seated in the U.S. Senate as Barack Obama’s replacement:

• The people of Illinois deserve to have full representation in the U.S. Senate as soon as possible.
• Power in the U.S. Senate is based largely on seniority. By not seating a replacement for Barack Obama, the Senate is depriving Illinois of its right to begin building seniority with a new senator.
• Rod Blagojevich is the sitting governor of Illinois and is thus empowered by law to fill the vacant Senate seat. He has appointed Roland Burris, as is his legal right.
• Like any American, Rod Blagojevich is innocent until proven guilty. Thus, there is no legal justification for limiting his gubernatorial power to appoint someone to the U.S. Senate.
  • This doesn’t mean Blagojevich isn’t a crook and a total asshole.
  • This doesn’t mean that Blagojevich won’t eventually be found guilty of the charges against him.
  • This doesn’t mean that Blagojevich won’t have to resign or won’t be impeached.
  • This does mean that we are a nation of laws. And, right now Blagojevich is a sitting governor who has not yet been impeached or found guilty of a crime.
• There is only one legal argument to not seating Roland Burris that would have merit. If the wiretaps had shown that Burris tried to buy the Senate seat from Blagojevich, then it would make legal sense to stop Blagojevich from profiting from his office. However, there is zero evidence that Blagojevich has ever tried to sell the seat specifically to Burris or that Burris has ever tried to buy it.
• The Secretary of State of Illinois has no legal standing to refuse certification of Blagojevich’s appointment of Burris. If a sitting, mentally-competent governor is willingly making an appointment without personal gain, certification by the Secretary of State is intended as a formality, not an option.
• Senate Democrats are hiding behind the Illinois Secretary of State rather than owning their decision to not seat Burris. There is no law that requires the Secretary of State of Illinois to certify Buriss’ appointment. The Senate can seat Buriss, it simply doesn’t want to because the situation is politically embarrassing for Democrats.

It’s a shame that Illinois state legislators didn’t impeach Blagojevich or change the law around filling Senate vacancies when they had the chance. But, they failed to act and now the law is the law. So, the Senate needs to seat Burris and it needs to do it now. Let’s move on.