Musing's musings

Sorry, Roland

The best possible spin I can put on the mess that is rising up around Roland Burris's neck is that perhaps he thought that he could "revise and extend" sworn testimony in just the same way that legislators can do with their remarks on the floor of Congress. It's a fairly common tactic in legislative debate, where time is usually pretty strictly rationed--to the extent that most of what any given legislator wants to say exceeds the time in which she has to say it by about a factor of five.

As the man I am at least temporarily forced to call my junior senator is finding out, however, the same privilege does not extend to sworn testimony. Doesn't matter whether the testimony was taken (or involved) a court of law, a legislative body, or whatever. Once you raise your right hand to God and swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, that's what you do--or else you're subject at the very least to legal penalties for your lack of honesty. My faith teaches me that there are other consequences to worry about as well, but I'll leave those for the competent Court.

As for me, I'm with the editorial boards of the Chicago Tribune and the Washington Post. Roland Burris should resign from the Senate seat that I and others argued he should neither have been offered nor accepted in the first place.

I readily concede the possibility that Mr. Burris is entirely innocent of any wrongdoing in this matter whatsoever. That is irrelevant outside of a court of law. In the court of public opinion, and in the game of politics as it is played on this level in this country, perception is the only thing that matters. Burris's appointment was smelly, his acceptance of that appointment was smelly, and his insistence on defying the sound advice that was given to him by everyone in the Democratic Party from President Obama on down was smelly. That stench has now been magnified and amplified by the revelation that Burris was apparently less than fully truthful in his testimony before the committee in the Illinois General Assembly that was debating whether or not to impeach former Governor Blagojevich. That's at least two strikes against Burris, and in politics, unlike baseball, it only takes one before you're out.

It is certainly within the realm of possibility (and, given the size of Roland Burris's ego, I'd have to say I consider it quite likely) that Burris will absolutely refuse to do the honorable thing and resign quietly. And, given the political tenor at the moment, neither can I exclude from the realm of possibility the chance that the General Assembly, the U.S. Senate, or some other competent body will do to Roland Burris exactly what the Illinois legislature did to the man that appointed him to the office, and kick him out if he won't go of his own volition.

That would be an unfortunate eventuality for all concerned. It would absolutely doom Roland Burris, for the rest of his life, to being a late-night talk show joke. It would strip from him his dignity and, perhaps more importantly to Burris, any chance whatsoever of his being able to re-enter Illinois politics. As things stood before these latest revelations came out, it was looking increasingly likely that Burris would be primaried in 2010 and that he would lose. That's looking more and more like a certainty now.

And while I'm not a lawyer and I don't even play one on TV, I don't like Burris's chances of making this "it's OK as long as I didn't actually raise any money" schtick stick. I'm pretty sure that acts in furtherance of a crime or a criminal conspiracy are, themselves, still criminal. And I'm also pretty sure that the applicable Illinois law makes it a crime even to offer to exchange something of value (such as campaign contributions) in return for a political favor from a state official, even if the exchange of considerations never actually takes place. In fact, unless I totally miss my guess, that's one of the provisions of one of the first (and perhaps the only) good laws that Rod Blagojevich managed to get through the legislature during his first term in office: the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act.

Among the growing number of things that Roland Burris and Rod Blagojevich have in common is that neither one of them seems to be familiar with that particular piece of legislation. Not that that will in any way protect them from being prosecuted under its terms, if the facts warrant.

Blagojevich removed

The Illinois Senate has just unanimously removed Rod Blagojevich as the governor of Illinois.

They'll be voting next to determine whether or not he will be barred from ever holding public office in Illinois again.

Update 16:55. A motion to bar Blagojevich from holding office has been made and seconded, and the vote is now being taken. Thus far, we're at 24 yeas, so it looks like this one will pass as well.

Update 16:57. There are now more than 40 yea votes, which is the constitutional threshold. Blagojevich will be ineligible to hold public office ever again in Illinois.

Update 16:58. The vote to disqualify Blagojevich from future public office was unanimous. The chief justice has just pronounced the judgement of disqualification against Blagojevich.

Update 18:25. Pat Quinn was sworn in as the 41st governor of Illinois at 5:40 p.m. And I love that they've already updated the state website. I wonder how long it will take to get all those signs extolling the former governor's munificence in bringing us "open-road tolling" taken down or changed along all the miles and miles of tollway, and at the airports and state welcome centers.

Change we shouldn't believe in

I suppose it was only a matter of time before someone tried to make a little political hay out of the political mess that is Illinois politics right now. And Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold fired the opening salvo today at Big Orange, announcing his intention to sponsor a bill to amend the federal Constitution to require that all vacancies in the Senate be filled by special election, just as they are for vacancies in the House. Markos seconded the idea, and I see that the editorial board of the Washington Post actually beat both of them to the punch.

Well, since they're all for democracy and power to the people, this Democrat votes "Nay."

I think the Seventeenth Amendment as it now stands is perfectly adequate to our needs. If the Blagojevich mess requires any kind of constitutional remediation, I would argue that what needs amending is the state Constitution, not the federal one. If we'd had a recall provision in our state Constitution, Rod Blagojevich would almost certainly not have been in a position to attempt to barter an appointment to fill President Obama's vacant Senate seat for his personal gain--he'd have been tossed out on his ear at least a couple of years ago.

As it now reads, the Seventeenth Amendment leaves it up to the individual states to decide how they want to proceed when a Senate seat falls vacant for some reason. The amendment sets the default as an election, by requiring the state's executive to issue writs of election to fill the vacancy. But it then gives the states the option to opt out, by allowing the various state legislatures the opportunity to pass laws allowing that state's governor to fill such vacancies by appointment "until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct." I think the fact that only four states (Oregon, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, and Oklahoma--though there's an exception in the last-named state, such that if the vacancy occurs after March 1 of any even-numbered year and the term expires the following year, no special election is held; rather, the governor is required to appoint the candidate elected in the regular general election to fill the unexpired term) do not fill vacancies by appointment suggests that this is not an issue of particularly grave concern to the populace to begin with--and I would be enormously surprised if it were terribly high on anyone's list of things they would like to see the 111th Congress take up this early in its term as opposed to, say, economic stimulus packages, a new federal budget, or ending the war in Iraq.

Roland and Rod, sittin' in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g

OK, not really. And I apologize to all of my readers who may now find it difficult to get that image out of their heads. I sympathize, it's not one I want in my head, either.

But it looks as if we're going to be stuck with it for at least the next couple of years. And it looks as if I can add Roland Burris to the growing list of politicians I once had at least some respect for and who are now anathema to me.

Rod Blagojevich desperately wanted to change the subject away from all of his legal woes, and maintain a façade of normality while waiting for the General Assembly to get around to dropping the other shoe and impeaching him. Getting to appoint someone to fill Barack Obama's seat in the U.S. Senate allowed him to do that. But he couldn't appoint himself (or his wife), as he had been rumored to be considering. Neither could he appoint anybody who owed him favors, as that would just make his situation worse. Ditto for anybody he might be perceived as "getting rid of" by sending them off to Washington and out of Illinois for a couple of years. No self-respecting Democrat would take a phone call from him or accept an appointment from his hands.

And then along came Roland Burris. After wandering in the political wilderness of former politicians who've been down on their electoral luck for the last 13 years, Burris desperately wanted a chance to matter again. And he took the governor's phone call--and the appointment it offered.

Two men with monumental egos and equally monumental contempt for the wishes of the voters of Illinois, the wishes of the party of which they claim to be members in good standing, the wishes of the U.S. Senate, and yes, the wishes of our next president, who used to sit in that very seat in the Senate. A match made somewhere, but surely not in heaven.

Which of these two is not like the other?

Rod Blagojevich was arrested by the FBI and has had a criminal complaint lodged against him by the cognizant U.S. Attorney. Subsequent to both of those developments, the Illinois General Assembly has initiated impeachment proceedings against him. Doggedly proclaiming his innocence, despite a mountain of fairly immutable and unimpeachable evidence against him and contained within the aforementioned criminal complaint, Blagojevich continues to pretend that nothing is wrong and that he is entitled to all the perquisites and privileges of his position. He has repeatedly refused to step down, even temporarily, despite pressure for him to do so from politicians in both parties at all levels of the political hierarchy--from our president-elect on downward.

Bill Richardson, on the other hand, has neither been arrested nor charged with anything. A New Mexico grand jury is allegedly looking into allegations that there may have been an improper connection between contributions made by a California company to two political committees Richardson ran (neither of which was to benefit him personally, in distinct contrast to the Blagojevich mess) and the awarding of a state contract. Faced with that investigation, the merest suggestion that something might be amiss, Richardson graciously withdrew his name from consideration as Obama's secretary of commerce, despite some pressure from the transition team to stay the course.

That, Mr. Blagojevich, is what a public servant (as opposed to a politician or a political hack) does when there is even a suggestion of wrongdoing attached to his/her name. The contrast between Richardson's decision and yours is palpable. What a pity you wouldn't do the same favor for the voters of Illinois (and the Obama transition team). But of course your galactic-sized ego would never permit that.

One can only hope that the General Assembly will decide to impeach you post-haste, and that the Senate will convict with the same celerity. Unfortunately, I'm not holding my breath on either count, given the petty pace at which the GA has historically crept whenever there were serious or timely issues demanding their attention. On the other hand, the one good thing you've done for us is in managing to unite both Democrats and Republicans in the state legislature in a desire to do the same thing--get rid of you.

'Twere best done quickly.

Spare us the crocodile tears, thanks

The Republican Party would like to have us believe that it only has the best interests of Illinois voters at heart. Hence, it would also like to have us believe, its interest in pressing for a special election to fill the Senate seat vacated by President-Elect Barack Obama. So great is the Republicans' interest in getting that message across, they've started taking out ads on Facebook to get the word out--much to my disgust, since they interfered with an otherwise satisfactory conclusion to a game of Scramble recently.

Not to put too fine a point on it, I'm calling bullshit. The Republican Party doesn't give a shit about the best interests of Illinois voters (or any other voters, for that matter). The Republican Party cares about one thing, and one thing only: the Republican Party. Specifically, maintaining its grip on as much power as it can legitimately (or by other means when necessary) hold on to. They would, I'm quite sure, just as soon not have people thinking about the fact that a special election to fill Obama's seat would give them about the only decent opportunity they have (and it isn't that much of one) to take over a Democratic Senate seat. Nor that it would, if they were to prove successful in the special election, give them one more seat to ward off a Democratic supermajority. Since the outcome of the Minnesota recount is still up for grabs (and since their guy Norm Coleman--who couldn't get it done against Al Franken in anything like a convincing fashion--is apparently also under federal investigation for political corruption and just hired a team of high-powered lawyers to fight off accusations), Obama's seat represents a very precious thing to the Republicans, one that they would very much like to get their hands on if at all possible.

Too bad for them that their bench is so thin in Illinois. I'm quite sure our not-so-happy, five-times-unlucky warrior Jim Oberweis would love to give it a whirl, though doing so would only likely siphon off another few million bucks from his dairy company's profit margin and hand him his sixth consecutive electoral loss in Illinois. A couple of members of Illinois' dwindling Republican congressional delegation have been bruited about as potential candidates, but I fail to see them getting it done in a statewide race where they don't have much name recognition outside of their home districts (and almost all of those whose names have been floated are from the Chicago area, which isn't exactly a plus with downstate voters). If they were smart, they wouldn't be pressing quite so hard for an election that it's not at all certain they'll even be able to compete in.

Oh, the things that I know!

It's been quite the day here in the Land of Lincoln. Early this morning, federal authorities arrested Gov. Rod Blagojevich in connection with a lengthy probe of alleged corruption. Apparently the U.S. Attorney's office decided to move today out of concern that the corruption might extend to various quid pro quo scenarios for the nomination to replace President-Elect Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate. (I hasten to point out that, the guff from the Republican National Committee notwithstanding, there does not appear to be any connection between Obama or his transition team and Blagojevich. Indeed, it would be surprising if there were any such connection, given that the two men have never been close. You have only to listen to the tapes of the conversations that Blagojevich was having over the last few weeks to find out what he thinks of our soon-to-be president.)

While I'm sorry that we now have our second consecutive governor under federal indictment for corruption, and also that this time it's a Democrat, I'm perfectly happy with the process and I'm looking forward to sweeping the state and its government clean of the Augean Stable-esque mess that has been Rod Blagojevich. It's possible that the only thing known to science bigger than the macro-cosmic universe is Rod Blagojevich's ego.

If even a tenth of the allegations contained in the 76-page indictment (PDF link) turn out to be substantially correct, our sitting governor was not only a crook and a monumental egotist, but galactically stupid--on a level that comes awfully close to Worst. President. Ever. territory. I mean, really: if you're going to attempt to extort someone for a favor, most people of normal intelligence would probably figure that anybody who works for a major newspaper (let alone a major newspaper that hates your breathing guts and everything that you stand for) should probably not be at the top of your "To Be Bribed Today" list. But not our Rod. No, siree. He offered to help the Tribune Company (which cooperated with the investigation) with the sale of Wrigley Field if the company would fire members of the Chicago Tribune's editorial board who had been critical of Blagojevich. Given that I think that set is probably identical to the set of members of the Trib's editorial board, that's a pretty big request to make.

I quite agree with U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald's statement that Blagojevich's behavior would make Abraham Lincoln roll over in his Springfield grave--a location with which I'm sure Blagojevich is as unfamiliar as I am, given how little time he's spent in Springfield since being elected governor six years ago. (Despite living in Illinois for most of my life, I've never actually done more than drive past our state's capital city. One of these days, I've got to rectify that situation.) And I concur with Obama's statement that today's revelations are deeply saddening to any resident of Illinois.

However, despite the fact that this means yet another protracted court battle that will almost certainly end up with our second consecutive chief executive winning an all-expense-paid not-exactly vacation at federal expense in a nice medium-security prison, and the fact that there will be all manner of forgetting-the-planks-in-their-own-eye Schadenfreude from all manner of Republicans within and without our fair state, and the fact that Blagojevich is at least in theory a member of the Democratic Party, this was entirely the right thing to do and the right time to do it. Blagojevich may have ridden into office on a promise to clean up the scandals of the Ryan administration which preceded his, but it was apparent to most politically astute and observant folks that he was just as big a hack as his predecessor well before his first term came to a close. Long-term readers of this space will remember that I really wanted someone to put up a primary challenge to Blagojevich when he ran for re-election a couple of years ago. (I actually wrote in Pat Quinn's name for governor when that didn't happen, so maybe I'll finally get my wish.)

Forget his corruption (OK, "alleged corruption"). Forget his monumental ego and his equally monumental stupidity. Blagojevich has never been able to govern effectively, because it's always been his way or the highway. Meanwhile, we're stuck in a huge budget deficit and we still don't have an actual budget in place for the current fiscal year (which is half over), and our governor was apparently more interested in finding a way to duck out of his last two years in office here to actually carry out any of the functions of his office. I don't much care whom we get to replace this fatuous git, though I would like for it to be another Democrat, considering the Republicans in Illinois have been scraping the bottom of their barrel so long that it's worn through. But I absolutely insist on getting someone into the governor's mansion who will actually do the job s/he's getting paid to do.

Ironically, one of the first things Blagojevich did upon taking office was to mandate that every state employee, from himself on down to the temporary workers hired to clean snow during winter storms and the student workers in our state universities, had to take and pass an annual ethics test. We just completed our round for 2008 (for which, naturally, we get neither monetary nor personnel support from the state) six weeks ago. Judging from the complaints enumerated in the indictment against him, it seems fairly clear that Rod the Bod wasn't paying attention when he took his test this year. It would only be fair if, in addition to whatever other penalties he will have to accept, he also has to pony up the $5,000 fine for either failing to complete the test or doing so fraudulently.

Whom to pick?

Assuming, as seems likely from all the recent polling, that Barack Obama wins election to the presidency in 10 days' time, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is going to have a hard choice to make not long thereafter. Pursuant to the Seventeenth Amendment, the Illinois General Assembly (10 ILCS 5/25-8) requires the governor to make a temporary appointment when a vacancy occurs in the office of U.S. Senator from Illinois. The governor's appointee serves until "the next election of representatives in Congress"--which, in Obama's case, would be until the expiration of his current term, which still has two years left to run.

It's not likely to be an easy pick to make. Blagojevich is not well-liked even (perhaps especially) among the leaders of the Illinois Democratic Party. He is currently under investigation at both the state and federal levels for corruption, leaving open the very real possibility that he may not finish his second term in office. As of yesterday, Blagojevich's approval rating stood at 13%--five points less than the Worst. President. Ever., and on a rough par with Congress as a whole.

All of that is important, because it will, I believe, make it far more difficult for the governor to do what is often done in situations like these and appoint a friend or significant contributor to the post. In fact, I think the harder choice for Blagojevich to make is going to be which of his many detractors and political enemies he should exile to Washington for the next two years. I have a few ideas on that front below the fold.

Coming to terms with the "new normal"

So here we are, nearly at the end of the first week back in full swing. So far, things seem to be going well. Or well enough, anyway. It's definitely good to have the students back on campus, to see (and hear) people walking around, driving, chatting as they pass to and fro in the halls. It was about a week ago, I think, that I walked out of my building on my way to a meeting and heard...absolutely nothing. Not a single sound--no cars, no footsteps, not even a distant hum of machinery. And that was freaky.

The media has gone away, most of the counselors are on their way back to their homes and regular routines, God love them all, the police and security guards have more or less dropped out of sight (though I've no doubt they're still around), and everyone is doing his or her level best to pick up the pieces of the routines that we all dropped hastily two weeks ago.

People continue to be wonderful. The students and faculty at Virginia Tech have begun to send us cards expressing their condolences and offering their support. Members of the DeKalb and Sycamore communities donated something like 20,000 cookies to welcome the students back to campus this past Monday and Tuesday, and many volunteered to come and pass them out in person. We have a whole team of "crisis dogs" on campus, whose job it is to stand or sit or lie someplace and let people pet them and say admiring things about them--and it was wonderful to get the chance to do so.

I'm on a campus-wide search committee this term, and we were in the process of interviewing a candidate when the shootings took place--not a hundred yards from Cole Hall, and nothing between the candidate and the members of the campus community who were at that particular forum but a pane of plate glass and a slight hill. That candidate came back to campus and finished the remaining part of the interview yesterday. All the other candidates we invited either rescheduled their interviews or agreed to come when we contacted them. It did feel a little strange, though, to see both of the candidates we've interviewed so far wearing the cardinal-and-black ribbons that have become the latest fashion accessory on campus. I'm not sure why it felt strange to me--perhaps because they aren't quite members of our university community yet--but it did.

And, of course, the governor came back to campus yesterday, to announce that he was going to ask the state legislature for $40 million to demolish Cole Hall and to construct a bigger, better edifice somewhere else. For once, I find myself in agreement with the editorial board of the student newspaper, who opined today that with Blagojevich, talk is cheap. I'm waiting until I actually see the money before I take that as a done deal. I concur with the university president, the governor, and the editorial board that demolishing Cole Hall is the right decision--I'm just not as sanguine as the governor is that he's going to be able to pry that amount of money out of the legislature when we're already nearly a billion dollars in the hole for the next fiscal year. Not to mention the fact that as long as he's finally interested in giving us some money, it would be wonderful if he'd ante up for our lengthy--and ever-growing--list of capital needs that have been going begging for want of funding, in some cases for a decade and more.

It's too early to tell just how the campus as a whole is going to respond to this situation. Right now, the standard greeting is still "How are you doing?" and people do seem to be going the extra mile to be friendly and supportive. Will that continue as part of the "new normal," or is that attitude going to fade away as the semester wears on and the stresses of exams and job hunting and the like start to kick in? Are we going to be able to keep up the sense of comity and community that has been in evidence the last two weeks, or will that give way to the more usual wrangling over resources, fighting over privilege, sniping, and innuendo?

The signs are generally positive right now--but the shock is just now starting to wear off, and people are starting to get back in the usual groove again. Check back in a month and we'll have a better idea.

Give it up, governor

I believe the time has come for Illinois voters to explore the option of amending the state's constitution to allow for a recall process for elected officials. At the very least for the governor.

As long-time readers of this site know, I have not been a big fan of Rod Blagojevich since he decided to raid state employees' pension funds (already among the worst-funded in the United States, and already the subject of legally mandated contribution plans to redress similar raids made decades ago that have the potential to suck up virtually all of the state's discretionary income long before they're done paying back what they borrowed and the compound interest thereon). I was praying that someone would come along and challenge him in the primary; when that didn't happen, I wrote in a vote for Pat Quinn because I will never, ever check a box, pull a lever, or blacken an oval next to Rod the Bod's name again.

And that was before he sent the state of Illinois into a budgetary tailspin with his shenanigans. Given that those shenanigans have now resulted in the longest legislative overtime session in state history, and given that those shenanigans have brought us to our third day without a state budget in place, just a week before the state has to make payroll and send out the first of its annual payments to school districts so they can cover expenses needed to make sure that they open on time, I think it is long past the time that Rod Blagojevich was shown the door. I'm not in the mood to wait around for a federal investigation to produce an indictment that would do it for us, and I'm not sanguine about the chances that the Democratically controlled state legislature would actually consider impeaching him, so starting a drive for a recall is my only available option.

I found it both amusing and frustrating as hell to wake up the other morning and hear on the news that this governor, of all people, had the brass balls to point a finger at the legislators and try to blame them for this mess that he started back in February. Here's a bit of free advice for you, governor: when your budget includes so many new spending programs that you have to propose a complete overhaul of the tax code to pay for them all, it's not a good idea to make that a surprise you spring on the General Assembly at your (perennially late) budget address in February. At least not if you want there to be any kind of a reasonable chance they will be able to present you with a budget bill before the constitutionally mandated deadline at the end of May.

And any rational person, when faced with a unanimous vote in the House against that very budget proposal, would have the good sense to realize that it was dead and ought to be buried. Not Blagojevich. He's still flogging that dead horse, and he appears not only willing but positively eager to ride it into the ground. Better yet, he's not only still trying to make his dead-on-arrival budget come back to life, he's threatening to veto any budget that the General Assembly sends to his desk if it doesn't read exactly the way he wants it to.

I'd like to see him try. Because I'm not nearly as sanguine as he and his flacks seem to be that if he does veto the budget and a government shutdown is the result, that voters are going to put all the blame for that situation on the legislators' shoulders. I think, in fact, it is far more likely that voters will put that blame squarely where it belongs--on Rod Blagojevich's back. He has been the obstructionist in this fight, as he has been virtually every year since he was first elected. He seems to believe that being elected governor means that he can do whatever he wants and no one dares say him no. Unfortunately for him and his pretensions to grandeur, that kind of government pretty much went out in 1776--long before Illinois ever became a state, and at a time when Blago's ancestors in Serbia were most likely suffering under that very system, as peasants under any or all of the rulers of Austria-Hungary, Russia, or the Ottoman Empire.

This is not the time to play brinksmanship, governor. Nor is it ever a good idea to play games with the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of state employees, vendors, and pensioners--to say nothing of the education of the next generation of Illinois leaders. You've lost this fight. For once in your miserable political career, do the right thing and admit it with as much grace as you can muster. Sign the budget that the General Assembly sends you, and let's get on with the business of Illinois with no further interruptions. Because if you don't, I guarantee you're going to have a hell of a time getting renominated for a third term--if you make it that long without being indicted or recalled.