from Harper's Weekly: >Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich nominated Roland Burris, the state's former attorney general, as senator. "I've enjoyed the limelight the past couple of days," said Blagojevich, who is currently under indictment for seeking to auction off President-elect Barack Obama's vacated Senate seat. "Please do not allow the allegations against me to taint this good man." Said Burris: "We are the senator."<
Blagojevich's appointment of Burris reminds me of Bush père's appointment of Clarence Thomas to the Supremes. If you don't remember, the first Bush League used the fact that Thomas was Black as a way to get him life-tenure in one of the most powerful organizations in the world: some civil rights leaders and liberals held their noses and accepted his atrocious politics as a cost of doing business. So we see a almost-permanent malevolence sitting in the middle of the supreme web. (Thomas, I'm told, agrees with Alan Keyes that Obama can't be President since he wasn't a US "natural born citizen" (since he has dual citizenship). Can Thomas be that bad??) Unlike Bush, Blagojevich seems to be mis-using affirmative action not to attain any specific political goal but instead to simply thumb his nose at those who see him as corrupt (i.e., almost everyone). It seems more of a "yah yah yah, yer mother wears army boots!" moment. Luckily, Burris seems as qualified as any other senator for the job, perhaps more qualified than Caroline Kennedy. Thomas didn't seem to be qualified for the Supes when appointed and doesn't seem so now. By the way, I'm really happy if Al Franken is really going to be a senator. The Senate needs a sense of humor. He may also be as leftist as Paul Wellstone. One of his books had a long long paean of praise for Wellstone. -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
