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On one hand, Blagojevich is the governor. Since the legislature did nothing, neither impeachment or rushing through legislation for a special election, to prevent Blago from making the appointment, it’s still his job and his right. And given that the subtext of the criminal complaint is that he’s crazier than a shithouse rat, he can’t be fairly expected to stop doing it. Generally speaking, I’m priggish about laws and rules and consider them higher than politicians, and think that sometimes you just have to suck it up and follow them even when it’s not convenient or even immediately a good idea.
Right now it’s just not clear whether the Senate can block Burris, and one way of clarifying that is to go ahead and do it and let the courts figure it out. Obviously this isn’t a failsafe manuever, as we learned in 2000 with Bush v. Gore, which the Supreme Court decided was “limited to the present circumstances, for the problem of equal protection in election processes generally presents many complexities.” Or, as The Poorman Institute calls it, “the legal principle of tap tap ne backsies infinitum.”
