Blagojevich Rolls the Dice With Roland Burris Pick

By announcing his intention to appoint Roland Burris to President-elect Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is dangling dual temptations above the noses of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his Democratic colleagues.

First of all, it will be painful for Democrats to reject a man who would be the Senate’s only African-American.

Secondly, it will be even more painful to reject a reliable Democrat for the seat, which could end up being filled by a Republican if the matter ends up being settled in an election.

Blagojevich rolls the dice with a bold move.

Of course, Blagojevich knows all this, which is why he is rolling the dice with such a bold move. He is keenly aware that if the political establishment were to somehow end up accepting Burris, it would also be a tacit acceptance of Blagojevich’s legitimacy as governor. It’s hard to impeach a governor whose Senate appointment has been accepted as legitimate.

This is all part and parcel of Blagojevich’s strategy of making himself more palatable by taking only those actions that, under normal circumstances, would be hard to oppose. For example, his first official act after being accused last month of trying to sell Obama’s Senate seat was to sign a bill combating autism.

Blagojevich knew that no one in their right mind would object to such a bill which, by extension, could be interpreted as an affirmation of his legitimacy. That legitimacy would grow only stronger if the Senate were to accept Burris, who was once Illinois’s attorney general.

Blagojevich was careful to choose someone outside the group of names initially mentioned for the post, including Valerie Jarrett and Jesse Jackson Jr., both of whom were tangentially caught up in the federal pay-to-play probe. Instead, Blagojevich chose the 71-year-old Burris, who has already indicated he would function as a caretaker of the Senate seat, stepping aside in 2010 for others to run. Yet another reason not to oppose Burris for the time being.

Will Blagojevich’s gambit succeed? Perhaps not. But it could result in a protracted legal battle, which would have the effect of leaving Obama’s Senate seat vacant indefinitely.

That could leave Democrats yet another seat short of their filibuster-proof majority of 60 seats in the Senate. With a host of close votes looming on such divisive issues as card check, that vacancy could make it all the more painful for Reid to reject Burris.

As reported on the Fox news blog.
http://foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/12/30/sammon_blagojevich/