Rod Blagojevich's Delusional Senate Appointment or Invasion of the Pod People, Episode 82

The BuzzFlash Editor's Blog

By Mark Karlin

Although one of his attorneys said that Blagojevich, after his arrest, would not appoint a senate replacement, he did anyway. It's vintage Rod.

Trying to build a beach head of support beyond his single digit positive rating in Illinois, Rod -- who always thinks himself cleverer than the next dunce -- figured that if he appointed the first black to hold statewide office in Illinois, Roland Burris, he would rally blacks behind him. Blagojevich has always perceived that blacks in Illinois were his firewall, but there has never been any proof that this is the case. It is just Rod being delusional. And Roland Burris, who served as both comptroller and attorney general in Illinois, has his friends and enemies in the Illinois black political community.

Burris, 71, risked becoming the Harold Stassen of Illinois politics after losing Democratic primaries three times for governor and other elective offices, including mayor. In fact, Burris lost to Blagojevich in the 2002 Democratic primary for governor, coming in third.

Burris is most certainly "clean" as far as not horse trading for the senate seat. (Athough he has personally donated to Blagojevich’s campaign fund and is an active lobbyist.) He and Blago know at this point that every word is being taped, and Burris isn't an active politician with fundraising capabilities. But it was an appointment of mutual convenience. Burris gets the higher office he fruitlessly sought over many years, and Blagojevich believes that he will gain support in the black community and poke Harry Reid and the Democratically controlled Illinois State legislature who is trying to impeach him in the eyes. Blagojevich gets positively orgasmic when he thinks he is making a shrewd political move while knifing his enemies in their backs.

And what could be more maliciously joyous for Rod than essentially saying to President-elect Obama, "You want Harry Reid and the senate Dems not to seat the first black elected to statewide office in Illinois to fill your seat, then go for it. I got you cornered wise guy. That’s what you get for not horse trading with me."

When Burris was an active politician, the most widely spread joke about him was that the only thing bigger than the lifts on his shoes (he is short) was his ego.

Now, he’s reduced to trying to obtain a senate seat through the back door by currying favor with a crooked governor and having a congressman, at the press conference, admonish the press not to "lynch" Roland.

Good grief!

Blagojevich and Burris, a match of mutual desperation.

Many Democratic elected officials in Illinois and the U.S. Senate might wish that Blagojevich would be mysteriously abducted by aliens: but, alas, that happened a long time ago.

They just left his dimwitted brain and body on earth to entertain us.

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