Senator Burris being sworn in at this moment!

[EconomicLiberal]

Congrats to the new Senator!

[mikelgb]

1. thanks tuned in

[Jennicut]

2. Hmmm. I won't congratulate the man for taking Blago's appt

when he knew he shouldn't have but I will concede that we should seat him and move on.

[tigereye]

3. hmm, why did they change their minds? It's kind of bizarre.

apologies if this has already been endlessly rehashed, but I've been busy with real world stuff. ;)

[Dennis Donovan]

4. They had no choice - Burris followed the law...

[tigereye]

7. his grandstanding was incredible - did you see his mausoleum on the Daily

Show?

[smalll]

10. Congrats to Burris, but yes, that mauso-resume is ridiculous! And he faces a new problem with it --

The central panel of the mauso-resume lists positions which the "Trailblazer" was the FIRST African-American from Illinois to hold.

Now his crowning achievement is becoming a U.S. Senator -- and he can't put that on the central panel! One might think he could finesse that one by arguing that Obama, while African-American, is really from Hawaii, not Illinois originally. That's arguable. However, unfortunately for Burris, Sen. Carol Mosely-Braun was clearly an African-American from Illinois!

I think he might have to have the whole thing sanded down and re-chiseled.

[MADem]

9. Because the rule of law trumps everything and the Democratic leadership overreached.

Blago was not convicted of anything (still isn't) when he made the appointment.

It was legal for him to make the appointment.

In America, we presume INNOCENCE, and the Senate leadership was, initially, doing the opposite.

Senator Feinstein, who initiallly protested the seating of Burris in a letter signed by a bunch of senators, reversed herself, as did others. They saw how poorly this whole mess was playing.

It was a very clever bit of business by Blago, I must say. He moved swiftly and took the sting out of any charges that he was "seat selling." It's not illegal to shoot your mouth off, to bullshit, to tell stories...it's actions that speak louder than words.

The appointment will be a key part of his defense.

[BlooInBloo]

12. It's funny watching DUers feel perfectly comfortable picking and choosing which laws they want...

followed, all the while criticizing the other side for EXACTLY that.

[MADem]

13. Yes, that's bothersome to me, actually. I fail at it sometimes, myself

when I'm being intellectually lazy or blindly partisan (happened not infrequently this past eight years).

I'd get a kick out of some GOP jerk getting "accused" when he hadn't been convicted, and think "Ah HA--where there's smoke, there's fire!"

Of course, if it happens to someone on our team, I'm quicker to insist that the jury isn't out yet.

It looks bad for Blago, but until the judge bangs the gavel, he's innocent until otherwise proven. We've gotta play it that way. It's hard to do because the guy is such a thug, and unlikeable, but it's probably more important to extend the presumption of innocence to the unlikeable.

I also wonder why the damned legislature dragged their feet for so long--it's not as though they didn't have a CLUE that there was something amiss there. They might have started impeachment after the Fitzgerald press conference, but instead, they sat on their well-fed asses and did nothing.

At the end of the day, though, Blago had the right, and Burris had the law on his side. I hope Burris does a good job for his constituents. I'm guessing he will.

[IsItJustMe]

15. Me thinks it's called hypocracy. But yes, been seeing a lot of it going on here lately.

[IsItJustMe]

14. Word!!!

[mikelgb]

5. missed it?

or are they lagging?

[BlooInBloo]

6. Reid = Epic Fail.

[Occam Bandage]

8. I will not congratulate Burris for accepting a Blagojevich appointment,

nor for placing his unslakeable thirst for extra lines for his ostentatious mausoleum above the good of both the IL and the national Democratic parties, and above the integrity of the Senate. However, I do congratulate Harry Reid for fully following the law, however distasteful and offensive it may be to do so.

[AngryAmish]

11. Suck it Reid: There is a black man in your precious Senate

You did everything you could to hold him back.