Now that the Illinois Supreme Court has ruled that Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White does not have to sign the Governor's Senate appoint, where does that leave Harry Reid? It appears that Sen. Reid (and his comrade in arms, Sen. Durbin) has backed himself into a corner regarding the seating of Roland Burris as the next Senator for Illinois. When Gov. Rod Blagojevich first announced the appointment of Mr. Burris to the Senate seat, Sen. Reid decided to play tough-guy. He announced that the Senate would never allow Burris to be seated.
As time went on, Sen. Tough-guy started backing down. On Meet the Press last Sunday, there seemed to be less certainty in his statements. Well, we still won't seat him, but we might. Non-sense statements like that. By the time Mr. Burris showed up at the Capitol on Tuesday, Reid and his lapdog, Sen. Durbin, had said that they couldn't seat Burris because his paperwork didn't include the signature of the Illinois Secretary of State. This is the same ridiculous line that these two used after their meeting with Mr. Burris on Wednesday. Of course, the entire time, they must have been thinking that the Illinois Supreme Court would come to their rescue and order Jesse White to sign the paperwork. This would allow them to keep their tough-guy personas, but allow Roland to take his seat.
Now, the justices of the Illinois Supreme Court have thrown the Senate Democratic leadership a curve ball. I do not see any legal grounds by which they can continue to deny Roland Burris the Senate seat. The Illinois Supreme Court clearly said that Jesse White's signature is not required for there to be a valid appointment. Neither the Constitution nor the Illinois statues grant the Secretary of State a veto power over the Governor's appointments.
Harry Reid and Dick Durbin have once again shown how hapless they are. To suggest that they are the Senate "leadership" is laughable. Maybe Mr. Reid should start to think before he speaks. You know, like saying that the war in Iraq is lost, right before we win, or criticizing the writing ability of Justice Clarance Thomas by citing a case that was a one paragraph decision. The upshot of all of this is that Reid and Durbin have taken a two or three day news story and turned it into a month long soap opera. Even the President-elect has told them to get this resolved. The first rule of being stuck in a hole is to stop digging. Evidently, these two geniuses don't even know that they are in a hole.
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