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Whatever
Senate Democrats Plan To Accept Burris
Senate Democrats plan to accept Roland Burris for President-elect Barack Obama's vacant seat.
...Senate officials in both parties, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly for Senate members, said there is a growing expectation on Capitol Hill that the saga will end with Burris being seated.
...Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Rules Committee, told reporters Tuesday evening that Burris should be seated.
"If you don't seat Mr. Burris, it has ramifications for gubernatorial appointments all over America," the California Democrat said. "Mr. Burris is a senior, experienced politician. He has been attorney general, he has been controller, and he is very well-respected. I am hopeful that this will be settled."
This was a fight Reid could not win. He was stupid to pick it and grandstand on it the way he did. And he was stupid to drag Obama into it. (Obama was also stupid to get dragged into it. He should have stuck with his say-little approach here.)
Now what am I gonna do with all this popcorn? Well, I'm sure something will come along.
UPDATE: IOW, Sheriff Bart Senator Burris wins!
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He couldn't have botched this
He couldn't have botched this thing any harder. He is skating backwards so fast that an ice boat on Lake Michigan couldn't even catch him with a 45mph wind in its sails. He obviously got some kind of 'not-running' agreement out of Burris. Not that it matters if Burris decides to run anyway. Once they decided to grandstand the way they did using a completely bogus process instead of referring to the Rules Committee, it was obvious that Reid was looking for a way out. This will be Reid's last term in the Senate. I think his goose is cooked in the next election.
Heck, I would even adjust and call it a -1 for Reid. He lost so bad he lost a point.
Reid had much assistance. Of
Reid had much assistance. Of course, he compelled much of that assistance with power of party position, but he wasn't out there on his own. He over-committed and far overplayed his hand.
Hot Rod played them all like puppets. (I include Burris.) PWNED. Won't slow Fitzgerald down any, though.
May still have some game playing to go.
Politco is saying that Reid's office is denying the deal and (I can't believe I am linking here) The Note seems to hint that a review in the rules committee may still be coming. However, it seems more like a last gasp attempt at face saving now instead of any kind of real attempt to stop Burris.
However, this is still Illinois politics, Tully. I hope Fitzgerald has a good security setup. ;)
They're into straight
They're into straight face-saving and blame-storming at this point. I'm having trouble thinking of any way they could have played it worse other than openly embracing and defending Blago.
Burris says he made no commitments at all and accepted no conditions. Durbin came out to quibble over White's signature, and to make it sound like that was the only thing stopping them from seating Burris. Lotta finger-pointing going on as they all scramble to shuffle out their rationalizations and lay them off on others. And they're working very hard to get it out of the way well before the inauguration. Heh.
Who chairs the Rules Committee again? Oh yeah. I'm interested in who will replace her. Byrd is senior....
Hey, can you do that last line in a Sean Connery accent? ;-)
Blame game...LOL
Here's the Queen of blame. I am so tired of her. Even the BBC takes issue with her blame game. I pray Dingle can unseat her ass from that speaker chair.
Yep, Bush lead the world into economic depression. And as Rice declared, Bush lead the world into international chaos. Just once I would love Pelosi to declare that people who could not afford their mortgages, give them up. I suppose the government giving these people homes for free would have made better economic sense...LOL
And already the Democrats don't all agree that an Obama $3000 employer tax break for new hires makes sense.
that comedy value
Yeah, the way Blago played these guys was, if nothing else, comical. The truly mystifying thing to me is how Reid ever got to his position given how often he seems to be playing checkers when everyone else is playing chess.Or maybe trying to play football when the smarts guys new it was hot potato.
He was too stupid to, essentially, punt it back to Illinois straightway by accepting the seating and letting Illinois worry about how they were looking. This was the obvious play to me as soon as IL first punted. Instead, he rode in half-assed on his righteous white horse and got covered with poop.
If it hastens Reid's exit from the top rungs, then the Blago cloud has more silver lining that I could have imagined. Is Hillary kicking herself?
The other funny thing is going to be seeing how all the grandstanders from the past few days negotiate their own personal 180s. Scant toolbox there. the only ones I can think of are "wasn't me" and "off my meds." :-)
Called the bluff....
Reid and the Senate Democrats bluffed on a weak hand. They wanted to pressure Blago not to make any appointment, but they misread him and the situation... They had nothing to offer Blago, so what they thought was pressure simply wasn't. They didn't anticipate Blago appointing someone relatively difficult to publicly attack.
On the other hand, if they hadn't opposed Blago's appointment at all, they would have appeared to be tolerating his misconduct.
What they should have done was announce, soon after Fitzgerald's press conference, that they needed to "look closely" at all the issues involved. They could have taken the position that they did have the power to refuse to seat an actually corrupt appointment, and because of the "serious questions" raised by the charges against Blago, they would be referring any appointment to the Senate Rules Committee for close inspection.
Doing that would have allowed them to bloviate against Blago and demonstrate their sincere concern over the charges and the need to uphold the "integrity" of the Senate, without declaring an ultimatum which they inevitably would lack the will to enforce. They could have sat on the appointment for a week, held a token hearing (or even announced plans for a hearing, only to cancel after Fitzgerald asks them to not do so in order to avoid jeopardizing the criminal case). Then they could reluctantly determine that they have no choice but to seat him, without backing down from anything. And, by delaying seating him for a few days or a week, he's deprived of seniority and the point is made that they HAVE the power, but decline to exercise it.
I wonder who'll be the next Senate Majority Leader...
Read as a poker paradigm, a
Read as a poker paradigm, a very strong assessment. By attempting to bluff in against Blago with a strong bet but without the strong openers to back it, they set themselves up to be easily out-flopped and cornered by any playable hand at all, unable to play through on the raises. That approach can only work if you play the bluff completely through and somehow manage to suck out on the river--unlikely.
I'd extend the analogy: Instead of chasing Blago quickly out of the game when they easily could've on the previous hand, they folded and gave him a chance to play another hand, all because they were afraid someone else would collect the earlier raised pot. Had they gone ahead and busted Blago out then, they might have been facing a stronger opponent later on, but it would've been at a smaller table, and they wouldn't have lost their bluff money. As it played, they still ended up weakening themselves for no real gain. And Blago is still sitting at the table, even if he's down to his last set of blinds. Your slow-play approach would've been smart, but we're talking about Reid....
No bets on next Majority Leader. I already blew that prediction once. I saw earlier today that Jane Hamsher of all people expressed a great desire to play poker with Reid. One of the few times I've ever agreed with her. For a guy from Vegas he sure plays like a prime fish.
As did I...
As did I, in a major way. You know, this fiasco may turn out to be good for Obama. A weakened Senate Dem. Majority Leader means more leadership room for him, because there's no focal point for internal party opposition (in the Senate, at least). Also means more power for the committee chairs, of course, as power abhors a vacuum, but a President can take a committee chair more easily than he can a majority leader.
As a bonus, Reid's bumbling of Burris from the outset has been a well-timed distraction from Obama's bumbling of the Panetta nomination. Much of the ink spilled on the Burris controversy would have otherwise been put to use discussing the legislative naivete of Obama's team. We might have even seen the beginning of the "maybe he should have been seasoned in the Senate a bit longer" columns (probably not yet, but they'll be along soon enough).
I hear grumblings of Dingle
I hear grumblings of Dingle for Speaker. I think Pelosi is weakened. Reid took another self-induced hit and I was thinking the same thing. Obama first backed Reid, but then showed how quickly he could throw him under the bus. He dodged Blago.
I actually think Obama has been quite lucky and opportunistic. He has had time to reflect on his immediate national issues. Everyone around him politically has problems and amazingly, he has navigated the muddy seas without hitting a rock. As I said, he is in position to form a center relatively unaffected by the pressure from the Left or Right.
A Black Clinton with a muddled Congress.
What a minute
If Bill Clinton was our first black president and is the "black Clinton" is that a double negative and therefore means Barack Obama is "white" or does that mean he's "really Black" I'm getting confused with our new racial politics!
go find
If you've never seen it, go to youtube and find Dave Chappelle's skit on the racial draft. Brilliant comedy.