'I'm So Sick of Congress I Could Vomit'

Seriously, could they fail any harder?

Harry Reid has sworn to use his mastery of Senate procedure to block the Burris appointment and protect the integrity of that very exclusive club, which nonetheless warmly embraces Joe Lieberman.   

If only he had been so Johnny-on-the-spot when Bush was appointing Supreme Court Justices, ramming through telecom immunity, FISA and the Military Commissions Act, and otherwise trashing the country.

I think this may be my favorite part, however:

Should Roland Burris show up Tuesday for duty in the Senate, armed police officers stand ready to bar him from the floor.

This cinematic showdown is among an elaborate set of contingencies that Democratic leaders are planning if, as expected, the Illinoisan shows up with newly elected senators pressing his claim that he is the legitimate replacement for President-elect Barack Obama after the disputed appointment of Burris by Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich.

Would that by any chance be the Sergeant-at-Arms, who oversees the Capital police, who was never deployed to enforce congressional subpoenas when the Bush administration refused to comply?

So many powers at their disposal!  Who knew?

Blago could actually show up himself on Tuesday -- as a sitting governor he would have to be allowed on the Senate floor, even if they won't allow Burris.

It would be quite fitting.  Not that they needed any help, but Blago has done a damn good job of making the Democratic leadership look absolutely ridiculous.

I am really just about ... okay, I get that there are reasons we don't put me in charge of soothing tensions abroad and running the floor fight on FISA and whatnot, like my OH MY GOD FUCK YOU style of diplomacy isn't everybody's cup of scotch, but you can't tell me this is the right way to handle things. This is the fight you get up for, Harry? Seriously, this is the thing you can get out of bed with morning wood about? This. Roland Burris, who while he's always come off round these parts as kind of a self-aggrandizing douchebag, isn't even in the neighborhood of the list of Top Ten Senate Douchebags that includes not only ponces like Lieberman but people like Brownback, who think high school bathrooms are full of predatory lesbians, and Cornyn, who has impure thoughts regarding reptiles.

I don't even know what to do when Harry Reid wakes up from his two-year nap and discovers that THIS is a bridge too far.

Post title via The West Wing.

A.

Comments

[sp ocko]

Fail me. FAIL ME HARDER. Come on, FAIL ME!

Fail me in the ass. Again and again.

Oh you fail so goooood.

Failer.

[Serving Patriot]

Can we haz Russ Feingold fur Majority Leader now???

Plz????

SP

[Ray Ward]

I'm no fan of the current governor of Illinois. But if the law says that he appoints Obama's replacement in the Senate, then so be it. To deny the governor his lawful prerogative just because his ethics and his hair are unsavory is to declare that we are ruled not by laws, but by men.

If the governor makes a bad appointment, the people of Illinois can correct it at the next election. And if the governor violates the law in making the appointment (i.e. takes a bribe), then the U.S. attorney can investigate the deed and prosecute whatever crime is found.

[Gummo]

Reid's record is perfect:

he ALWAYS picks the wrong battles.

What was his record as a boxer, anyway?

[MapleStreet]

Right on the mark. While Blogovitch (?sp?) is still governor but under a huge cloud of suspicion, his ability to appoint and the wisdom of doing so are in question, but the 1st part is one to be solved in the courts and I don't see where Reid has the authority to bar Burris. Although the theatrics may possibly make a point that the dems are trying to clean up their own mess.

Of course, for the second part, when have we suspended govt for a lack of wisdom ?

OTOH - the authority of Congress to issue a subpoena isn't in question.

[pansypoo]

i'd like to see Byrd back. mr constitution.

[peanut]

i think all the hot air over IL gov a bit... something. here's a guy that is doing what everyone else seems to be doing. trouble is, he is blatant about it. i think you are supposed to keep this stuff on the QT...

so, now for you to point to the harry stand up routine. too much. just more show as the ship keeps going down.

shame on them. and us. happy new year. i am really still hopeful. really.

[e]

I just looked up feckless in the dictionary and guess whose picture I found there?

[Jack K., the Grumpy Forester]

...ok, so it took me a while to get to this comment, what with having to dry off after the cold shower I took after reading sp ocko's entry above, but this particular little bit of gameplaying by Reid and the rest of the Senate leadership (Good Lord, how hard it is to type that without quotation marks!) demonstrates the problems that are going to make single-party govermnent (even without the enthusiastic help of the MSM) a risky proposition at best and a pipe dream at worst...

Senate Democrats show every evidence of suffering from some sort of strange political PTSD from their decade or so in the wilderness. Allowing Lieberman to keep his chairmanship after the sort of rank perfidity that Republicans would never tolerate and Democrats once upon a time punished by abandonment on an iceberg told us all we need to know about the poltical courage of this current crop...

Picking the Burris nomination as a line-in-the-sand moment after the target-rich environment offered by the last eight years is the perfect example of the timorous nature of a clearly shell-shocked Democratic leadership afraid to make a misstep. Even for a dead-possum-in-the-middle-of-the-road moderate like me, this is a silly, unproductive fight for Harry Reid and the leadership to engage in. Blago flat out outmaneuvered them by cooking up a narrative that puts Harry and the gang in difficult position but favors Blago's personal defense. This was a no-win situation for Democrats from the outset, and it just slipped over the line to hopeless...

[Plwatcher]

This is hilarious! I am so sick of the democratic leadership. Grow two battles worth fighting...