2/3 of Illinois voters want a special election for senator. You know what Blago’s thinking:”Hey, this is golden — what could I get for it?”
And Lynn Sweet reports: “Emanuel privately urged Gov. Blagojevich’s administration to appoint Obama confidante Valerie Jarrett, and the Sun-Times learned Tuesday that he also pressed that it be done by a certain deadline.Jarrett was initially interested in the U.S. Senate post before Obama tapped her to be a White House senior adviser, sources say. The disclosure comes days after Obama’s camp downplayed Jarrett’s interest in the post.”
But many in the MSM are convinced there is nothing suspicious and there’s no doubt Emanuel will be one of the most powerful chiefs of staff, ever. He might be, and Emanuel’s behavior might be entirely exemplary. But the MSM’s degree of faith in Emanuel and others — based on nothing more than self-serving comments from the Obama camp — is startling. Well, if not startling, par for the course.
Illinois Democrats, the ball is in your court: “Chances that Illinois would swiftly oust its governor faded Wednesday.The combative new lawyer for Gov. Rod Blagojevich arrived at the state capitol with a host of objections to the impeachment process just getting under way. Committee members themselves at times seemed unsure about how to proceed. And the state Supreme Court declined to hear a motion by state Attorney General Lisa Madigan to rule that the governor was unfit to serve. ‘I don’t think it’s realistic that this is going to get done’ anytime soon, says Kent Redfield, professor of political science at the University of Illinois at Springfield.” How long will they insist Illinois go without a senator in order to avoid a special election?
“Card check” loses a Democratic Senator. Wait until the rest of them find out how unpopular it is.
Chrysler shuts down its plants for a month. Will they come back? I think we’ve gone from the “car bailout” to the “GM bailout,” which is progress of a sort.
Meanwhile Hank Paulson, that noted auto business expert, is now playing the role of Car Czar. If you think it’s not a good idea to let government bureaucrats with no business experience run “private” companies, too bad. There’s more where that came from.
Camelot gets poor reviews off Broadway.
Law professor Kenneth Scott: “Congress seems to be becoming more like the House of Lords — some seats are hereditary. Not merely for the Kennedy dukedom, but for Biden II (when he comes of age). We are copying the non-democratic part of parliamentary democracy.”
And it only adds to the merriment that the accidental New York Governor, who didn’t get his position on his own, is deciding between two dynastic progeny — Andrew Cuomo and Caroline Kennedy. But in fairness to Cuomo, he has run for office and done something in his career. He’s actually qualified. Which used to be important when considering the vice presidency, but isn’t anymore when you’re pondering a real job with actual power.
Karl Rove points out some legal traps for the Obama administration if it insists on running a grassroots, campaign-style organization out of the White House. But aside from the legal issues, is this what the voters want to be done out of the White House? Has it been that long since the public recoiled at the “sale” of nights in the Lincoln bedroom? It’s the White House, for goodness sakes, not some field office in Hyde Park.
President-elect Obama learns you can’t really please all of the people all of the time: “Barack Obama’s choice of a prominent evangelical minister to perform the invocation at his inauguration is a conciliatory gesture toward social conservatives who opposed him in November, but it is drawing fierce challenges from a gay rights movement that – in the wake of a gay marriage ban in California – is looking for a fight.”
Aside from the conflicting advice on this “to-do” list for Sarah Palin (“Be a good governor!” “No, develop a policy infrastructure!”) the reporter clearly has one thing wrong: it’s more a help than a hindrance that she isn’t John McCain’s declared pick.
Howard Fineman is backing Chris Matthews for senate. You get the feeling there should be a real media just to cover the pretend media’s political activities (e.g. running for office, snagging good jobs in the Obama administration, endorsing their colleagues).
