The Rule of Law
Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Tuesday appointed former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to replace President-elect Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate. The pundits are shocked, shocked, shocked. Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, who must certify the appointment, said Tuesday he will not do so. And U.S. Senate leaders reiterated that they won’t accept anyone appointed by Blagojevich, who was arrested Dec. 9 on federal corruption charges. President-Elect Obama, who is vacationing in Hawaii with his family, said he supported the Senate Democrats’ decision not to seat the Blagojevich appointee. “Roland Burris is a good man and a fine public servant, but the Senate Democrats made it clear weeks ago that they cannot accept an appointment made by a governor who is accused of selling this very Senate seat. (MSNBC).
Now I don’t know about the rest of you, but I find some of the above quite troubling, the least of which is Blagojevich’s appointment. What I find most troubling is that all of this is based upon charges by the U.S. Attorney based upon taped conversations that implied Governor Blagojevich would sell the office, but we have no idea whether this was just talk or not. In other words we don’t know if a crime has been committed or not. Let’s step back a minute and think. The U.S. Attorney has charged the Governor, but there is no proven crime. The State Supreme Court failed to act on removing him based on the evidence to date, and the impeachment process doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. So whether we like it or not he is the legally constituted Governor and his logic about having the State of Illinois properly represented is flawless. So just on what grounds is Secretary of State Jesse White not going to certify the appointment? Do we now have a government where you are guilty until proven innocent?
But even more troublesome is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s not well thought out refusal to seat Roland Burris. Just exactly on what grounds would he not seat him? He doesn’t like Blagojevich? The 17th Amendment to the Constitution allows 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.” So what law has been violated? What grounds, and I mean legal grounds here as we are a nation of laws, not preferences, should this person whose ethics are not in question, and was appointed by a legally constituted authority to appoint him, be rejected from taking his sear?
Worse is that unless there are real grounds to question the appointment on ethical or legal grounds, what kind of precedent does it set that the Senate will decide who the states can appoint to the Senate? We in the private club of the Senate don’t like your choice and so we will not grant him entrance into the club. I don’t think that is what was intended by the Founders.
Whether you like Governor Blagojevich or not, think he is a crook or not, think he is a fruit cake or not, he is still the Governor with all the vested powers of that office until he is lawfully removed. He has not been and he has carried out his duties to appoint a Senator. If you don’t like the process or the result, that does not give you the right to ignore it. I think we are still a nation of laws aren’t we? I think they may have a hard time proving Blagojevich guilty. If they can’t, on what grounds are you rejecting the appointment? We have had George Bush as President for eight long years and I think he is a moron, but he still is the President and unless we remove him, he is in charge unless we want to destroy our democracy.
Last but not least think about this: We have seen the Republicans use the U.S. Attorney’s office to play politics by falsely charging and prosecuting Democrats prior to an election to effect that election (and fire those who wouldn’t play ball). I am not suggesting that Patrick Fitzgerald did anything like that, but right now all we have are his allegations and some tapes. If we decide that is enough, then you are guilty until proven innocent and we have given tremendous power to prosecutors. The court of public opinion has become more important than the rule of law. We have legitimate processes for removing people from office or overturning their questionable appointments. We need to follow them or we might as well run our nation like American Idol. Call the 1-800 number if you think Governor Blagojevich is a bad guy and we should throw him out of office. That is not democracy, that is mob rule.