When it comes to Governor Rod Blagojevich’s nomination of Roland Burris to the U.S. Senate, someone crucial is lying, substantial time. It’s either the governor or Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Last week, Reid said he would not allow Burris, an African-American elder statesman in Illinois politics, to take Obama’s place or even enter the Senate chamber, though no one suggested Burris was anything other than an honorable and capable public man.
Reid deemed Burris a “tainted nomination” not because of any ethical flaws he had, but because of the cloud around the governor who appointed him.
However, on Saturday, the Chicago Sun-Times reported in a story obtained from the governor’s office that on December 3, six days before the scandal broke, Reid personally called Blago, asking him not to name any of the three known candidates. to replace Obama.
According to the source, Reid’s blacklist included Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., Rep. Danny Davis and state Senate President Emil Jones.
What do these three have in common? They are all black.
Reid reportedly urged Blagojevich to choose state Veterans Affairs Director Tammy Duckworth or Attorney General Lisa Madigan.
What do these women have in common? None is black.
As Prince Riley, Burris’s senior consultant, told Politico: “It’s interesting that all the viable ones are white women and the unacceptable ones are black men.”
You certainly do, Prince, if this story is true.
In a confrontation with David Gregory on “Meet the Press,” Reid called Blago a liar and said he thought Jackson would make a good senator. Reid said:
“It’s part of the Blagojevich cloud. He made it all up. I talked to him. I don’t remember what was in that conversation, other than the generalities I just mentioned. I didn’t tell him who not to appoint. He made it all up…”
But that brings us back to the content of the conversation Obama’s chief of staff Rahm Emanuel reportedly had with Blago, including before U.S. Attorney Pat Fitzgerald busted the governor for allegedly selling Obama’s seat to the highest bidder.
Valerie Jarrett, Barack’s confidante, has already backed out.
Rahm reportedly told Blago he should choose one of three names: Duckworth, state Comptroller Dan Hynes and U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky. Rahm then reportedly called back and added Lisa Madigan.
All four are white. Conspicuously missing from Rahm’s list were all four black candidates: Jackson, Davis, Jones and Burris.
Are Blago and his men lying? The truth is in the Fitzgerald tapes.
While Gregory pressed Reid, whose 2010 re-election in Nevada is uncertain, the majority leader suggested that his feet were not yet firmly on the concrete and he might be open to a deal with Burris:
“I’m an old trial lawyer. There is always room for negotiation.”
The talk in question is that Reid may allow Burris to take the seat if he agrees not to run in 2010. Democrats fear that no black man in Illinois will certainly be able to take Barack’s place.
If Reid has any such deal in mind, one would hope Burris rejects it. He has as much right to a seat in the Senate as Harry Reid. And if Burris entered this body as a declared lame man, it would mean that not only would he be last in the hierarchy, but he would also be castrated. Reporters need to get to the bottom of this. Did Reid and Rahm convey to Blagojevich that Jackson, Davis, Jones and Burris were unacceptable? Or is the governor’s office publishing malicious lies against Rahm and Reid? The truth is on the tapes again. The ball is in Blago’s court because Reid almost openly called him a liar.
By the way, can you imagine the uproar if Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Republican Party, was reported to have called members of the Republican National Committee and told them that all of the candidates for party chairman were acceptable except for Ken Blackwell of Ohio and Michael Steele of Maryland , two African Americans?
McConnell would suffer the fate of Trent Lott, the leader of the Republican Party who had to resign from office in 2002 due to a toast to 100-year-old Strom Thurmond. Lott noted that Strom ran for president on the Dixiecrat ticket in 1948, that Mississippi voted for him, and that if Strom had been elected, we might not have had all these problems.
Lott was maliciously accused of supporting the segregationist position that Strom had espoused 54 years earlier, even though Lott had never voted for segregation and Strom’s voting record had been consistent with that of other Southern conservatives for decades.
Al Gore, whose father, Sen. Albert Gore Sr., stood with Strom and voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, called Lott’s remarks racist and pushed for a vote of no confidence in him by the Senate.
Let’s see if the media and his associates are as strenuous on Reid as they are on Lott.
