KING HARRY SAYS "HE’S NOT WELCOME" (UPDATE 1X) Burris Stopped by “Paperwork”

~~By American Lassie

It isn’t very often that I find anything amusing in the news anymore, but I find the situation in Chicago very entertaining and I am loving every minute of it.

Governor Blagojevich of Illinois has the bull by the horns and he is not letting go.

By appointing Roland Burris to the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama he has that opportunistic bunch of Illinois (and Washington) Democrats all reaching for their Immodium AD.  They all have their bowels in an uproar.

Especially Bobby Rush, Lt. Governor Quinn, and both Jacksons – Sr. and Jr.

Bobby Rush has started playing the race card, Lt. Governor Pat Quinn is salivating for the Governor’s job, and both Jacksons are in a frenzy over just what exactly is in those tapes that U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is holding.

A filing from Fitzgerald’s office requesting an extension of the time to prepare the case against the governor states “The government has been conducting a diligent and thorough investigation in this case, but the investigation includes multiple defendants and potential defendants.”

Patrick Fitzgerald says more time is needed because of the complexity of the corruption case against the Illinois governor who was arrested on a criminal complaint. Fitzgerald’s office said “multiple witnesses have come forward in recent weeks to discuss their knowledge of criminal activity.”

Everybody is getting nervous.  Illinois Secretary of State, Jesse White,  says he will not sign the requisite papers to approve the appointment of Roland Burris, or of any other person Gov. Blagojevich might appoint.  Harry Reid says that any appointment by Gov. Blagojevich would be tainted by fraud and would not be seated by the Senate.  His words pertaining to Roland Burris appearing in the Senate – “HE IS NOT WELCOME.”
King Harry is forgetting that in America you are presumed innocent until found guilty.  Until there is a trial and he is found guilty Rod Blagojevich is still the legal governor and entitled to make appointments and sign legal papers.

A Constitutional fight could loom over Roland Burris’ appointment.  The fight may go to the Supreme Court as Burris intends to fight for his right to the seat he has been appointed to by Gov. Blagojevich.

Under the 17th Amendment to the Constitution, governors alone have the power to appoint a replacement to complete the term of senators who are expelled, resign, or die.

AMENDMENT XVII (1913)

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each state shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislatures.

When vacancies happen in the representation of any state in the Senate, the executive authority of such state shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, that the legislature of any state may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.

The governor’s power to fill vacancies is granted by Illinois election law.  If the legislature writes a new law and takes that power away from him, Blagojevich could VETO the legislation to remove his appointment power.  CATCH 22 !!!

“The governor has the Constitutional and statutorial authority to make the appointment,” Burris said.  “We are certainly going to make contact with the leadership of the Senate to let them know that the Governor of Illinois has made a legal appointment, and that I am currently the Junior Senator  from the state of Illinois”.

Harry Reid is twisting the Constitution to make it sound as though the Senate has the right to deny anyone they wish.  Not so:

Article 1, Section 5 of the Constitution gives Congress the  power to be “judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members.”

Article 1, Section 3 says “no person shall be senator who shall not have been attained to the age of 30 years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States.”

Roland Burris meets all those qualifications and has been a life-long citizen of the State of Illinois.  He is 71 years old.

Harry Reid says it is not about Mr. Burris, but about Rod Blagojevich’s integrity.  Senate leadership spokesman Jim Manley said,  “This is like judging the integrity of an election, free from fraud and corruption.”  GIVE ME A BREAK !!!!!!  Free from fraud and corruption?  After this past election cycle, he has the nerve to say that?

Trying to thwart Mr. Burris from being seated in the senate because of their opinion of Gov. Blagojevich is like (in Mr. Burris’ words) comparing apples and oranges.

In 1967 the House of Representatives refused to seat Adam Clayton Powell, D-NY, during a corruption investigation.  The Supreme Court weighed in on the side of Mr.Powell stating  “The house is without power to exclude any member-elect who meets the Constitution’s requirements for membership.”

The Illinois State Supreme Court refused to grant Lisa Madigan’s (Illinois  Attorney General) attempt to stifle the governor’s authority.  As long as he hasn’t been tried and convicted it is his duty to perform the duties of an elected governor (which he is).  And the  duty now before the Governor of Illinois is to appoint a member to the seat vacated by Barack Obama (which he has).

In Chicago’s Oakwoods Cemetery Burris has erected a granite mausoleum listing his many accomplishments, including being the state’s first African-American Attorney General  and the state’s first African-American Comptroller.

The Illinois House has bumped up its schedule and will meet several days this week.  A spokesman for Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (father of the Secretary of State Lisa Madigan) says the chamber may vote on a recommendation from the special committee studying whether Blagojevich should be impeached.

The Democrats (once the party I supported) are in a pickle; there’s Minnesota (decided but facing lawsuits), New York and Illinois, bringing their dream of a 60-seat majority into sight.  They thought they had their hand-picked members all line up and now they are hoisted by their own petard.  The rejected the idea of a special election to replace Obama in Illinois and now it seems the governor has more guts than they thought and their plans have gone astray.  He has outfoxed the foxes, and I am enjoying every minute of it.

I hold no sympathy for Blagojevich if he is guilty of the things they say he is guilty of, but I say let the courts play out their hand and let’s see the evidence.  In the meantime he is still the governor with all the powers of a governor and, as I said, if they pass a law in the Illinois Legislature, as governor he has the right to veto it.

I know nothing about Roland Burris other than what I have read and heard recently.  He seems to have a clean record of accomplishments by all accounts, except by the Chicago Tribune and I wouldn’t  put much stake in anything they have to say.

I think it is very suspicious that they pulled the rug out from under Fitzgerald before he was ready to take action.

What goes around comes around, and it’s about time some people got hit by the boomerang.

***

NOTES:

Burris Drama Plays out as Senate Set to Begin Work (January 4)

Reid said he expected to meet with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky on Monday evening in hopes “we can solve this issue on a bipartisan basis.” Reid added, “I’m on old trial lawyer. There’s always room to negotiate.”

(Negotiating with the Republican Senate leader?  WHY???? Other than to screw a Democrat who isn’t in the Obama crowd??)

Cornyn rips Reid on Blago calls (January 3)

Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee get into the act…

document.write(cnnRenderTimeStamp(1231194131650,[‘January 5, 2009 — Updated 2222 GMT (0622 HKT)’,’updated 5:22 p.m. EST, Mon January 5, 2009′]));

UPDATE 1

Secretary of Senate rejects Burris, aide says

(CNN) — Secretary of the Senate Nancy Erickson has rejected Roland Burris’ appointment to the Senate, an aide to the secretary told CNN.

Erickson rejected Burris’ appointment because his certificate of appointment was missing the signature of Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, the aide said Monday.

Rule 2 of the Standing Rules of the Senate states that the secretary of state must sign the certificate of election along with the governor. (MORE)

The Past Week: December 28, 2008-January 3, 2009 (Court Dates; Barnicle on Bloggers; Burris-Delmarie Cobb Connection [Clinton Supporter]; Economic Collapse; The Feeding Machine)

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

As we regroup for the REAL onslaught of Obama et al in a couple of weeks, let’s catch up on a few items of unfinished business.

First of all, if you’ve lost track of the court cases involving Obama’s eligibility to be President, check out this section of the January 1 post  from Truth Is Gold entitled New Years Blessings:

On the political front, much history continues to be made, despite media’s refusal to report any of it. Rather than report that 54% of the American people now believe there is reason to be concerned about Barack Obama’s eligibility to occupy the Oval Office, http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=84990 or that Supreme Court of the United States has now scheduled two conferences on Philip Berg’s cases, Jan. 9th and 16th; [Mr. Berg has now entered an interpleader naming Barry Soetoro himself as a defendant, thus shifting the burden of proof to Soetoro/Obama, also naming a member of the military as a plaintiff, which satisfies the standing issue]; or that, although Congress is scheduled to count the electoral college votes which were due by December 15, 2008, [December 24th was the deadline for receipt of electoral votes at NARA], Public Law 110-430 changed the date of the electoral vote in Congress in 2009 from January 6 to January 8, [again for the first and only time in history], and that a presidential candidate has only 180 electoral votes, with 26 states not yet reporting despite the fact that the deadline for receiving votes was over two weeks ago. http://larrymwalkerjr.blogspot.com/2008/12/electoral-college-update.html , http://archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/2008/ Some of the states have not yet responded and some have refused to vote for Soetoro/Obama. In any event, he is still one hundred votes from the 270 required to get elected. [It has been touch and go from the beginning, so why should it be any different now? Don’t blame us, we tried to warn everyone that he was unelectable!] It is surely the first time in history that our country has been faced with a candidate about whom nothing is known except for the fact that he is most certainly not eligible to be president because he is not a natural born American citizen, and yet all we hear about is Barry’s fondness for wearing his hat backwards and playing with his Blackberry while complaining about his security detail as Middle East conflicts continue to escalate.

In short, we are facing a number of historical firsts, NONE of which main stream media has seen fit to report.

And what’s this about a Kenyan birth certificate?

***

Speaking of the “main stream media,” one of its stellar representatives, the delightful Mike Barnicle (the guy who told Joe Scarborough a few weeks ago that Obama wasn’t vetted by the media because we all “knew him” and that it was all about having a “feeling” about him) –THAT Mike Barnicle– paid homage to the blogosphere the other day by uttering this astute analysis:

“I’m sure, and I know, that there are some terrific bloggers, and some legitimatge bloggers. But I think by and large, a huge percentage of people who are blogging, are doing it for self-therapy.”

What this barnacle affixed to the bottom of the media garbage scow, of course, fails to mention that any such need for “self-therapy,” if it even exists, is there because of the pain caused by watching the media bend over to enable the creepiest candidate in my lifetime, Barack Obama.

***

Meanwhile, as the Blagojevich-Burris saga remains alive the folks at The Chicago Reader give Blago the win so far (Thanks to our Chicago Correspondent Leslie for this item)…

Meet Senator Burris

by Mick Dumke on December 30th 2008 – 7:48 p.m.

(SNIP)

The governor has an obvious gift for helping other politicians look decisive, thoughtful, and bright, even some of those who are currently sitting in jail. But I’m afraid I’m with those who think he won this round of politics.

“I think it was a very smart decision on the part of Rod Blagojevich—it was ingenious,” political consultant Delmarie Cobb said in an interview this afternoon. “Who better than Roland could rise above what’s going on? His integrity is unassailable…. If there’s anybody you could put in who doesn’t draw lightning, it’s him. I think Roland can ride it out.”

To be sure, Burris has been involved with his own business and political dealings, and Cobb, who was one of his top advisers during his 1998 and 2002 runs for governor, clearly remains a fan. But after talking with several other elected officials, I think she’s right: Burris may just make it into the U.S. Senate.

The above piece fails to mention that Delmarie Cobb was a Clinton supporter. But, if you click on her name  in the above excerpt, you’ll come to a a story from April 2008 entitled “Race in the Race.”   Interestingly, Cobb had no problems with Jeremiah Wright. But she really was very strong on taking issue with the tactics of the Obama campaign.  She pretty much nailed him to the wall back then. Pity that Clinton “pulled her punches and that we didn’t see Cobb on TV at the time.  According to correspondent Leslie, she was a delegate for Clinton at the convention and was “threatened” because of it, which was not unusual. (When I hear the current blabbing about how “good” it was of Obama to appoint Clinton as SOS, it makes me want to gag all the more.)

Cobb has long and strong ties to Burris… you have to wonder if Clinton is enjoying Cobb’s praise of Burris!! This is an excerpt from a long interview which is well worth reading in it’s entirety, as it touches on so many of the issues that still bother us today. (Note: Italics are mine.)

Race in the race

by Mick Dumke on April 2nd 2008 – 7:08 p.m.

Democratic consultant Delmarie Cobb is a veteran–in 1996 she was the press secretary for the Democratic National Convention, and over the years she’s managed campaigns and dispensed advice to a long list of local and national politicians, including Jesse Jackson, former Illinois gubernatorial candidates Roland Burris and Dawn Clark Netsch, and congressmen Jesse Jackson Jr. and Bobby Rush.

(SNIP)

What [the media has] decided is that [Obama] is a new black person who doesn’t make race an issue. This is someone we can accept. But this is a fight in the black community—it’s between the black people who’ve been fighting their whole lives for civil rights and the people who’ve been the beneficiaries of that fight.  (MORE)

In the full interview,  Cobb makes some very strong statements about the treatment of Hillary Clinton and other female candidates and use of the term “bitch” to describe strong women as well as other interesting comments about other aspects of the primary race.

***

OF SPECIAL NOTE: Watch for a piece on Monday by American Lassie on the Burris appointment!

***

Trot on over to Logistics Monster if you want to worry more about the economy:

America’s Economic Collapse: An Intricate Web Of Money, Power, and Political Agendas, Part I

America’s Economic Collapse: An Intricate Web of Money, Power and Political Agendas, Part 2

***

As I finish compiling this post, Chaplin’s Modern Times has just ended.  That “feeding machine” for the worker on the assembly line reminds me of how we’ve all been force-fed Obama for the last year…What AGITA!!

***

THE PAST WEEK

*By Kenosha Marge

*The Squirrel in the Driveway

Why Chris Matthews Has Nothing to Worry About…

7. The Man Who Paints Street Numbers…(Final Installment in Our “Season of the Heart” Series)

December 31st–World Healing Day: Locate a Labyrinth or Find Your Place, Wherever You Are

Revisited: Seeds Planted in 2004, a Suicide in 2008 (And a Few Other Stops Along the Obama Way)

A Party Held HOSTAGE: Michelle Obama Wasn’t Alone in Her Hostility at the Rainbow/PUSH Conference in 2004–Protests Against Jesse Jackson, Threats Against Democrats/Kerry By Ministers in an Eerie Preview of the Rev. Wright Episode

BREAKING: El Paso Man Commits Suicide, Leaves Note to Obama “Take Care of My Family”; Other NM News–VOTING Problems, Giuliani in So. NM Tonight (Saturday)

*On Being “Disagreeable”

The Past Week(s): December 14-27, Recaps and Random Thoughts (”Heart” Series; Betty Currie Returns; “Money as Debt”; FDA Caves to Pressure, Antibiotics Back IN Food Animals as of 11/30)