Bloodthirsty Liberal

Or just the usual pork?

Senator Roland Burris is claiming credit for a provision in Harry Reid’s “manager’s amendment,” unveiled Saturday morning, that could funnel money to ACORN through the health care bill.

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Burris told THE WEEKLY STANDARD: “It was the disparity provision that was put in, which we had something to do with, in terms of making sure that diabetes and the other diseases that are affecting minorities are really studied by HHS in all of these pilot programs.”

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According to a Senate legislative aide, the scandal-plagued Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now could qualify for grants under this provision. ACORN would also qualify for funding on page 150 of the underlying Reid bill, which says that “community and consumer-focused nonprofit groups” may receive grants to “conduct public education activities to raise awareness of the availability of qualified health plans.”

Burris, Reid, ACORN, Obama—there are so many clowns in this story, maybe I should have titled the post “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.”

At his blog, Legal Insurrection, William Jacobson notes the cluster[bleep] of epic proportion (he uses the expression “perfect storm”, doubtless out of modesty) that got us here:

How amazing is the number of circumstances which caused this perfect storm, without any one of which we wouldn’t be on Obama’s precipice: Massachusetts changes its rules for a second time to allow appointment of a Democrat in Kennedy’s place rather than having to wait for the special election; Al Franken outmaneuvers and out-litigates Norm Coleman to steal the Minnesota race; Rahm Emanuel recruits “blue dog” Democratic wolves in sheep’s clothing and people fall for it; the media covers up the Obama agenda during the campaign, portraying Obama falsely as a moderate; [added] George Allen says “Macaca,” and so on.

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Update: A couple of commenters correctly have pointed out that I should have included Ted Steven’s defeat as another element in the perfect storm. Remember that Steven’s conviction later was dismissed due to prosecutorial misconduct, but the Democrat who won the election remains in office, as I posted previously….

None of these events is an “accident”: all required anti-democratic maneuvering, especially in Alaska, Massachusetts, and Minnesota. Obama and Emanuel didn’t just win an election; he committed a putsch.

This may turn out to be merely a guilty pleasure—with an emphasis on guilty:

A month before his appointment to the U.S. Senate, Roland Burris agonized with the brother of then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich about how to raise campaign cash for the governor without creating the perception he was buying his way into Congress, according to a federal wiretap unveiled Tuesday.

Burris said he would make a personal donation but worried that both he and the governor could eventually “catch hell” for any campaign help Burris gave as he lobbied for Blagojevich to choose him.

“And if I do get appointed, that means I bought it.”

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“God knows number one, I, I wanna help Rod,” Burris said on the recording. “Number two, I also wanna, you know, hope I get a consideration to get that appointment.”

The entire transcript is here, starting on page 12.

It’s entertaining, sure, but merely an hors d’oeuvre to the anticipated main course of the Rahmbo-Blago transcripts.

Or these transcripts:

While the sitcom that is Chicago politics continues to generate belly laughs, the spin-off set in Washington is a real downer:

The son of embattled Sen. Roland Burris is a federal tax deadbeat who landed a $75,000-a-year state job under former Gov. Rod Blagojevich five months ago, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

Blagojevich’s administration hired Roland W. Burris II as a senior counsel for the state’s housing authority Sept. 10 — about six weeks after the Internal Revenue Service slapped a $34,163 tax lien on Burris II and three weeks after a mortgage company filed a foreclosure suit on his South Side house.

A spokeswoman for the Illinois Housing Development Authority indicated Wednesday there was nothing improper about Burris II’s employment by the agency, whose mission includes overseeing mortgage programs for low-income home buyers and anti-foreclosure initiatives.

Burris II’s hiring, however, raises more questions about Sen. Burris’ interactions with Blagojevich and his inner circle at a time when the governor was soliciting Sen. Burris for campaign contributions and Burris was angling to have Blagojevich appoint him to the Senate seat once held by President Obama.

Burris II: The Son Also Slices.

I laughed as loudly as anyone at the pilot episode, but my mirth is passing. Hopes that the stench of sleaze would follow Obama to Washington have not come to pass. We may eventually learn what we already suspect (know, really): namely that Obama, Emanuel, Axelrod, and many more talked plenty to Blago about the senate seat and lied about it. It’s a much simpler explanation than anything they’ve come up with.

But it will be too late. About two or three trillion dollars too late. About socialized medicine too late. About the re-institution of welfare too late. About appeasing Islamic madmen and selling out Israel too late. About silencing dissent too late.

Credit Obama (or his Karl Rove, David Axelrod) for knowing that:

There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.

They took it at the flood, and the rest of us are drowning.

It used to be the stockyards and the slaughterhouses that stunk to high heaven.

Now it’s City Hall (Okay, techincally, maybe that should read Springfield and the State House—but give me that liberty.):

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s brother solicited U.S. Sen. Roland Burris for up to $10,000 in campaign cash before Blagojevich named Burris to the coveted post — something Burris initially failed to disclose under oath before an Illinois House impeachment panel, records and interviews show.

Burris acknowledges being hit up for the money in a new affidavit he has sent to the head of the House committee that recommended Blagojevich be removed from office.

The affidavit is dated Feb. 5 — three weeks after Burris was sworn in to replace President Obama in the Senate.

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Three weeks after taking office in the US Senate, Burris suddenly discovered that his previous affadavit and testimony were “incomplete”. On January 5th, Burris submitted a sworn statement to the Illinois House panel investigating Blagojevich that he had no contacts at all with the now-removed governor before his appointment in late December. When he testified at the end of January, he amended that to include two other contacts with former Blagojevich aides Lon Monk and John Harris — but he never mentioned Blagojevich’s brother demanding a payment.

There is no possibility that Burris simply “forgot” about such a demand. In the first place, that’s exactly what the House was investigating, a pay-for-play arrangement for the open Senate seat. In fact, one has to question why Burris himself didn’t report such a blatantly corrupt demand to state or federal authorities. He never paid the money, but the demand itself is explicitly illegal, and as a state lawmaker Burris had a higher responsibility than most to report the attempt.

I was all for seating Burris because I thought that would cause maximum embarrassment to Obama. Little did I know he’d be the gift that kept on giving (except for that ten grand Blago was looking for).

Now, I think he should be kicked out for lying to the very Congress he only recently joined. And for the very same reason: crooked politicians associated with Barack Obama can’t get enough publicity. And if they are black, and their persecutors are white, so much the better to embarrass the Democrats.

I would rather Reid and Pelosi were skewered on their merits (or very glaring lack of same), but if I have to settle for racial animosity and rank corruption, I suppose I’ll just have to live with it.

PS: And it looks like Lady Blago has problems of her own.

Who says the Democrats are hostile to the military? They’ve got the boot camp maneuvers down like a platoon of polished Parris Island recruits:

Illinois Senate-designate Roland Burris said Monday afternoon that he is “truly humbled and honored” to learn he will be seated in the Senate later this week.

Earlier in the day, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Illinois senior senator and Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin said the Senate would accept Burris’ credentials.

“The Secretary of the Senate has determined that the new credentials presented today on behalf of Mr. Burris now satisfy Senate Rules and validate his appointment to the vacant Illinois Senate seat. In addition, as we requested, Mr. Burris has provided sworn testimony before the Illinois House Committee on Impeachment regarding the circumstances of his appointment,” the two said in a statement.

How magnanimous of these white gentlemen to step aside for the colored man. I feel hopeful for our country.

Other doors are opening—and closing—all the time:

President-elect Barack Obama plans to order the closing of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay as early as his first week in office to show a break from the Bush administration’s approach to the war on terror, according to two officials close to the transition.

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“The president-elect has repeatedly said the legal framework at Gitmo has failed to successfully and swiftly prosecute terrorists,” said one of the officials close to the transition, who was not authorized to speak publicly about private deliberations.

Such a move would reassure those concerned after Obama’s recent public comments suggested he may not immediately shut the prison down.

“It is more difficult than I think a lot of people realize and we are going to get it done, but part of the challenge that you have is that you have a bunch of folks that have been detained, many of whom who may be very dangerous who have not been put on trial or have not gone through some adjudication,” Obama said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday when asked whether he would close the prison in his first 100 days.

Obama also said he was trying to develop a process that “adheres to rule of law” but “doesn’t result in releasing people who are intent on blowing us up.”

“I think it’s going to take some time and our legal teams are working in consultation with our national security apparatus as we speak, to help design exactly what we need to do,” Obama said.

“But I don’t want to be ambiguous about this. We are going to close Guantanamo and we are going to make sure that the procedures we set up are ones that abide by our Constitution,” he said.

So he is—and isn’t—and is—and isn’t—and is going to close Guantanamo. But it’s going to be difficult.

Hell, for this guy, making up his mind is next to impossible.

And that line about abiding by the Constitution is just a cheap shot meant only to deflect criticism. He’s just throwing red meat to the rabid mongrels among his supporters—and that’s just MSNBC. Tell me exactly when the Constitution hasn’t been abided by?

PS: Let me say it before anyone else does. “To the left! To the left! To the left, march, left!”

What does a black man have to do to get a seat in the US Senate?

Senate Democrats have said they would not seat Burris because he was appointed by Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who is accused of scheming to sell the Senate seat.

Burris has maintained that Blagojevich’s problems have nothing to do with him and the appointment is legal.

Nancy Erickson, the secretary of the Senate, rejected his appointment on Monday because Burris’ certificate of appointment was missing the signature of Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, an aide to the secretary said.

Rule 2 of the Standing Rules of the Senate states that the secretary of state must sign the certificate of election along with the governor.

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Pressed by reporters on what he would do if he is refused admission to the Senate floor, Burris said Monday, “If I am turned away, my lawyers will take it from there, and we’ll see what happens.”

“This is all politics and theater, but I am the junior senator according to every law book in the nation,” Burris said.

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“We know that under Illinois law and constitutional law that the secretary of state can in no way veto legal action of the governor,” Burris said. “So that signature is only perfunctory and ceremonial to put the seal on it for, you know, recording and filing purposes.”

One possible compromise being considered by some in the Senate Democratic leadership would be allowing Burris to be seated in the Senate so long as he agrees not to run in 2010.

How insulting! I confess I’m enjoying the hell out of this political theater (”Tragedy tomorrow, comedy tonight!”), but that suggestion is offensive to Burris, to the people of Illinois, to the Senate itself.

Perhaps if Burris had used the back door, this circus could have been avoided. How can the Democrats declare that the seat remain in black hands (as some have), yet not these black hands? If they were capable of feeling the sensation, I’d ask if they have no shame.

UPDATE
This just keeps getting prettier and prettier:

The Congressional Black Caucus must coalesce around Burris. Their response so far has been tepid.

While they have no official sway in the Senate, the CBC imprimatur carries clout. U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush was working the phones this weekend to line up their support. He hopes to make the case Wednesday at the caucus’ first meeting of 2009. He will argue that the Burris appointment was constitutional and legal and that Burris brings “impeccable” credentials.

“There have been three black senators in 150 or so years,” Rush told me Friday. When it comes to playing the race card, no one does it better than the United States, he argues. “The racial deck in America has been stacked against us.”

What self-respecting liberal (an oxymoron, I admit) would deny that truth? And what do they intend to do about it?

In Harry Reid’s country club, black people are distinctly unwelcome:

Roland Burris, appointed by Illinois’ controversial governor to fill Barack Obama’s Senate seat, planned to go to Washington on Monday as top Democrats and Republicans meet to try to work out a bipartisan solution to the Senate dilemma.

Some Senate Democrats say Burris should not be seated because he was appointed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who is accused of trying to sell Obama’s Senate seat.

But Burris insists he has the legal right to serve as senator. He told PBS he will appear at the chamber door Tuesday even though he expects to be denied entry.

Senate Democratic leaders have scheduled a meeting with him Wednesday.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says lawmakers have the legal authority to block Burris’ appointment, but Reid has also left open the possibility that Burris could be seated.

Maybe Reid should delegate to George Wallace. Also a Democrat, he has experience blocking doorways. (If he could stand, that is; if he were alive, that is.)

I love the Democrats. They accuse Republicans of all manner of scandal and malfeasance, but when they don’t like the rules, they are the first to ignore them.

But let’s say Reid has the authority to deny a seat to a duly appointed senator (a black senator, I emphasize). He’ll bounce Burris, but he’ll seat Al Franken? Or Caroline Schlossberg? I say seat ‘em all: the more clowns we can fit inside the Volkswagon, the better. Turn the US Senate into a vaudeville house:

Sen. Kennedy: Welcome to the chamber, Senator Franken. Can I give you a lift home?

Sen. Franken: Why thanks, Ted, but I didn’t bring my scuba gear! Nyuk-nyuk-nyuk.

Or:

Sen. Schlossberg: Oh, boy, could you carry my bags to the Senate cloakroom? Here’s five dollars.

Sen. Burris: Sure, sugar tits, if you fetch me some coffee. Here’s two-fifty.

Bada-bing! Bada-boom!