Politics: Burris is a hack
The Chicago Council of Lawyers and the Fund for Justice did a survey of the Illinois Attorney General’s office back in the 1990s. Then AG Roland Burris refuse to let his staff participate. The resulting survey found:
Based upon our judicial surveys and interviews with present and former attorneys within the Attorney General’s Office, it appears that personnel policies are nonexistent, the quality of lawyering is inconsistent, communication and cooperation are lacking, morale is low, and too much legal work is being given to outside counsel. Some employees of state agencies told us that they did not trust the AGO for reasons of both (1) politics (they felt the AGO put politics ahead of quality representation) and (2) incompetence (they did not believe the AGO provides quality representation).
Hat tip: Reverse spin.
Meanwhile, Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn has this to say about Burris:
Roland Burris is a disagreeable mediocrity as a politician.
Voters have rightly rejected him numerous times in his bids for higher office—governor, U.S. senator, mayor of Chicago—because he’s at least six parts ego to one part performance, a charmless, presumptuous irritant on the stump and at the debate lectern.
Zorn is still POed at Burris for turning a blind eye toward Rolando Cruz’s apparent innocence because he didn’t want to appear soft on crime.
Zorn still thinks that Burris will eventually end up getting a seat in the U.S. Senate. Rich Miller, who is almost never wrong about these sorts of things, says different. He thinks with Secretary of State Jesse White and the United States Senate throwing up too many roadblocks, Burris will never be seated.
The way I see it is this: Some time between now and when Blago is impeached, Burris will have to get BOTH the Illinois Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court to rule in his favor. Neither body is going to be eager to step in the middle of a process that is political by statute and is still ongoing. The U.S. Senate can simply refer the issue of Burriss’ appointment to a committee and wait until future Governor Pat Quinn’s appointment is certified by White.
And as to efforts to play the race card and guilt the Democrats into seating him, well let’s just say that little trick is not going to word. President-elect Obama is on record opposing Burris’s appointment. As that great philosopher Wanda Sykes said, “You can’t blame the man when you ARE the man.”
January 1st, 2009 at 10:35 am
What do you base this one. Blago, like it or not, has the authority to appoint. Like it or not, Burris meets the requirements. Under what legal grounds, beyond being PO’ed at Blago, can the Demos block this? I don’t think it’s the best move but I don’t see how it could get struck down by the Courts.
January 2nd, 2009 at 2:54 am
If Roland Burris doesn’t have the judgement to refuse a crass politcally expedient appointment from a Governor on tape discussing what he can personally gain from the appointment, then Burris doesn’t have the judgement to weigh in on the issues of the day as a United States Senator.
Yes the Governor of Illinois–including this Governor–has the right to make an appointment to fill a vacancy for one of our two US Senators. BUT the Secretary of State also has the right not to forward such appointment to the US Senate. It is clear in the law that the Governor makes a decision on who he wants to select, then the next step is for the Secretary of State to certify that appointment and forward it to the US Senate. Whether or not you agree with this last point, it is beyond incontrovertible that the US Constitution specifically empowers the US Senate to decide whether or not to seat any particular Senator. The US Supreme Court has no basis whatsoever to say the Senate must seat an appointee of the Governor of Illinois if a majority of the Senate for any reason feels that choice is not suitable.