Politics: Schock gets it, other GOPers don’t want to
While many GOP supporters are loving the heck out of Roland Burris’s attempt to get himself seated as Illinois’s junior U.S. Senator, Congressman Aaron Schock (R-18th District) is having none of it. Some see it as a perfect way to create a wedge between black voters and the Democratic Party.* But Schock — who has made reaching out to black voters part of his appeal — sees this issue as about corruption: From the New York Times:
“You know, prior to this, I had a great deal of respect for Mr. Burris,” Mr. Schock said. “He served the state well.” But, he added, that the appointment not only called Mr. Blagojevich’s judgment into question, but that of Mr. Burris.
“I don’t think he should pursue it,” said the Illinois lawmaker, a former president of the Peoria Board of Education. “I’m disappointed that he is doing this.”
He added: “Most of my colleagues are not just fed up with Blagojevich, but also with Roland Burris.” This is “not the way you reinstill faith in the electorate,” he warned, adding that it helped explain why the state’s lawmakers are trying to expedite the impeachment process, with a vote in the Illinois House as soon as Jan. 15.
This morning, I heard some anchorperson describe Burris a “respected’ Illinois politician. No. He is not. Read this post at The Capitol Fax Blog about all the reasons Burris is not respected, from awarding contracts to contributors, using campaign cash to boost his state pension to helping Blagojevich’s wife land a full time job.
*Sorry Chris Nuir, but it’s true. They aren’t refusing to seat Burris because he is black, but in spite of that fact. And if Senator Reid is racist, so is Barack Obama and Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White. By defending Burris, you are saying that a governor charged with selling a seat in the Senate should should be allowed to appoint someone to the Senate who may very well have helped put money into the pocket of that same governor and his wife. By accusing Reid of being a racist, you are playing the race card. Isn’t that someone that conservatives are supposed to oppose?
January 6th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
I’m not accusing Reid as being racist so much as I am enjoying the Democrats being ensnared by their own tactics of pitting groups against each other so as to attain power at any cost. Whether these groups are race, gender, sexual preference, or fill-in-the-blank based, the actual qualifications of an office are seen as secondary to this Administration, and they richly deserve the Balkanization and conflict they will increasingly heap on each other, inasmuch as the Right, as a whipping dog, is not even in the picture this election.
As to playing the race card, I will note Burris has done so himself. I simply enjoy seeing the conundrum of such an illogical preference based system being played out by those who embrace it.
It is not ‘playing a race card’ to show such elements, indeed, to accept your logic on such is to accept the Left’s definition of how others may,or may not, speak.I refute their definitions of what may be said. You should,too.
January 6th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Under the conditions that Burris received the approval from the Governor to the Senate seat I don’t see how he could effectively help this state. He was already under a cloud having been appointed by Blagojevich. And talk about race card, Blagojevich did this deliberately. He ask another black man previously and was turned down so he went to Burris. This whole thing is no one’s fault but Blagojevich’s. He has screwed our state up one side and down the other. The minute he was arrested his powers should have been temporarily stopped until the mess could be sorted out. But it didn’t happen so here we are in this mess.
January 6th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
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January 7th, 2009 at 3:42 am
Chris: Of course a single strip (or even two or three in a row) cannot relay the entire history of the Democratic Party’s pandering to black voters during the last several decades. Nothing would improve the situation that to see black people less beholden to Dem politicians.
I understand your POV in the matter. In many ways I agree.
But I was commenting on a single strip suggesting Reid and Senate Dems in general were being bigoted in this specific case. Here in Illinois where we desperately, desperately do NOT want Roland Burris being our senator, resent those who seem eager to pressure the Dems to seat Burris because there’s a point to be made about past behavior. Right now, today, the best thing that can happen for for Burris to finally retire and let our future governor appoint someone else.
January 7th, 2009 at 11:52 am
Billy, were I in your shoes, I would concur exactly with your take on this! I’d rather have a patch of brown liquid instead of Burris as my Senator.
But,I gotta do the POV from a generalist POV,is all.
Good luck there in Illinois. Down here, FL went blue. Crap.
January 7th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Yes, it is about corruption. All you have to do is google Fred Lebed, Burris’s lobbying partner and become nauseated.
Then of course, you’ve got to give Mr. Muir his forum. I found his previous work in portraying Hillary in blackface to be in poor taste as was the object of his satire the Lieberman photoshop pic. But then again St. Bob enjoyed “Amos and Andy” and bemoaned the fact that in the late 1980s one couldn’t use the original lyrics to “Old Man River.” Not that there aren’t a lot of sundown towns in IL-18. Why didn’t Richard Pryor come back to visit more often?
Lastly, in response to another post bemoaning the vise lock African-American commitment to the Democratic party, Do you honestly think they would vote for the party of “Barack the Magic Negro?”