Nothing short of a circus in Harry's court....

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http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D95IKMDG1&show_article=1

Democrats misstepped in handling Burris matter  
 
Jan 7 08:34 PM US/Eastern
By CHARLES BABINGTON
Associated Press Writer 69 Comments          
 
 
  WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Democrats who thought they could push away 
Roland Burris misjudged the racial fallout, underestimated public 
reaction and wound up on shaky legal ground. 
The blunders began when the Democrats, including President-elect Barack 
Obama, insisted they would not seat Burris as the Senate's only black 
member because the appointment came from a governor accused of trying to 
sell Obama' former seat. 

On Wednesday, they all but admitted being outflanked by Illinois Gov. 
Rod Blagojevich, praising Burris and suggesting he soon will be a 
senator. 

Eight days ago, Obama and Senate Democratic leaders saw Blagojevich as 
so politically damaged that they announced they would reject anyone he 
appointed to finish Obama's term. Every Democratic senator signed a 
letter to the same effect. 

Privately, key Democrats now admit they miscalculated from the start. 
They spent this week trying to backtrack and save face. 

They had overstated their legal powers to block Burris's appointment, 
they said, and failed to foresee the ability of Burris—a little-known 
Democrat with no apparent ties to Blagojevich's misdeeds—to make himself 
a sympathetic figure in the national media. 

Race complicated the matter, with many people asking how Democrats could 
prevent Burris from replacing Obama as the only black senator. 

Underlying the Democrats' initial response to Blagojevich's appointment 
was a cold political calculation. Many felt that Burris, who 
unsuccessfully sought his party's nomination for governor three times, 
would be a weak nominee when the Senate seat comes up for election in 
2010. Knowing an incumbent senator can be hard to beat in a party 
primary, Senate Democrats had hoped to postpone acting on Blagojevich's 
choice until if and when the governor was replaced, making it possible 
to put a more potent campaigner in the Senate seat. 

Now, however, Democratic senators and strategists are reconciling 
themselves to the possibility of being stuck with Burris. 

When Blagojevich, himself a Democrat, announced his choice of Burris on 
Dec. 30, Obama and Senate Democrats were fixated on the lurid 
accusations against the governor, according to interviews with several 
Democratic aides and lawmakers. Federal officials had arrested 
Blagojevich on Dec. 9, saying wiretaps caught him talking crudely of 
trying to sell the Senate seat to the highest bidder. 

Top Democrats' response was quick and nearly unanimous: Burris would 
never be seated because of the governors' misdeeds. 

"Anyone appointed by Gov. Blagojevich cannot be an effective 
representative" and "will not be seated by the Democratic
caucus," said 
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and his top deputy, Sen. Dick 
Durbin, D-Ill. 

Obama said, "Senate Democrats made it clear weeks ago that they cannot 
accept an appointment made by a governor who is accused of selling this 
very Senate seat." 

Obama, Reid and Durbin are lawyers and among the nation's highest-
achieving politicians. Now, however, their initial comments seem 
unusually tone-deaf. 

The ground shifted quickly beneath the Democrats, in several ways. Most 
importantly, the public's focus moved from Blagojevich, who was easily 
vilified, to Burris, a likable if obscure politician whose highest 
office had been Illinois attorney general. 

The more people learned about Burris, the more they saw him not fitting 
the story line of sleazy Chicago politics. From the start, Obama, Reid 
and others acknowledged that he apparently played no role in the 
governor's bid for favors. As news accounts focused more on Burris than 
Blagojevich, the arguments against the appointment made less sense. 

Meanwhile, the legal basis for opposing Burris came under greater 
scrutiny. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., had signed the letter 
opposing Burris's appointment, but on Tuesday, the day Burris got turned 
away from the Capitol into a cold rain, she had a new view. 

"Does the governor have the power, under law, to make the appointment?" 
she asked rhetorically. Yes, she answered, no matter how many 
accusations are lodged against him. 

Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat who chairs the Senate Judiciary 
Committee, phoned Reid last week to express concerns about the legal 
basis for barring Burris, and warned that the Democratic solidarity was 
crumbling. 

On Monday, Obama and Reid spoke. Obama "conveyed the sense that if 
Burris has the legal standing to be seated, he should be, sooner rather 
than later," said a transition official who could speak only on 
background because the conversation was private. 

The Congressional Black Caucus was preparing to vote unanimously to 
support seating Burris. 

On Wednesday, everything seemed changed. Reid warmly received Burris in 
his Capitol office, then told reporters he was waiting for the Illinois 
Supreme Court to decide whether the Illinois secretary of state had to 
sign off on Blagojevich's appointment. 

"I think it's a pretty easy hurdle to get over," Reid said of the 
remaining impediments to seating Burris. 

A reporter asked whether Blagojevich had outmaneuvered him. 

No, Reid said, recounting the governor's arrest, vulgar language and 
wiretapped descriptions of the empty Senate seat as a gold mine to be 
sold. 

"How are we supposed to react?" Reid asked, a bit plaintively. "We've 
acted in a very reasonable way." 

CMPQwk 1.42-21 9999 
Democrats --  The party of trickle-up poverty ....

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