[sailaway21]

OK, slackers, here's the real deal. Post-coital depression from the sexual act performed upon us on November the fourth has blinded us to the real meat and potatoes of the political strife before us. We all see it but, it's not really what it seems. Of course I'm talking about the situation in Illinois.

Let's examine the "facts".

We have a federal prosecutor known for stretching the truth and prone to releasing edited portions of the truth that make the purported crimes look much more serious than they are in Patrick Fitzgerald. See the Scooter Libby case. That Fitzgerald is nominally a Republican is not a relevant as that he is apparently rapacious.

This prosecutor has released information, really snippets of information, from wiretapping tapes garnered by the FBI. No one outside of the FBI or the US Attorney's office has heard the tapes in full. We have no contextual framework within which to place the excerpts except what has been provided by the prosecutor. Caveat emptor seems to apply.

Governor Blagojevich is the sitting governor of the state of Illinois. He achieved that office through proper electoral means and there is absolutely no reason to suppose that the citizens of Illinois did not end up with the gubernatorial candidate they favoured most.

If the legislature of Illinois wishes to impeach and remove Governor Blagojevich from office there is no reason that they cannot do so although it is unlikely that they would be able to make a compelling case for doing so absent US Attorney Fitzpatrick's evidence. That evidence is unlikely to be forthcoming any time soon.

As sitting governor, Blagojevich is empowered to appoint President-elect Obama's senatorial replacement. All discussion of a special election, absent the governor ceding the power, is mere folly. Dangerous folly, I might add. Certainly state, and possibly federal, legislation would need to be enacted to allow such an election to go forward absent gubernatorial support in Illinois.

That Mr. Burris is unqualified to be Senator from Illinois is not an issue. His qualifications are irrelevant. We have ample evidence of unqualified Senators achieving long and distinguished, if cantankerous, careers in that august body. The junior senator from California comes to mind along with a certain octogenarian from New Jersey. Race is even less an issue unless you're of a stripe of individual more concerned with the proper outcome being achieved than the correct outcome.

For all the odor emanating from the political stockyards of Illinois, what we are really confronted here with is not political corruption but our willingness to stand by the rule of law, constitutional law at that.

Persons of good sense, and constitutional education, should insist that Governor Blagojevich's selection for the US Senate be seated forthwith. If the man proves to be a drunkard and a philanderer, ...oops, let me re-phrase that. If the man goes on to violate the standards for Senatorial conduct, or it emerges that he acquired the office through illegal means, there are procedures for his removal. That the sitting governor of Illinois would then appoint a successor is ironic to say the least. But that is the constitutional system in place.

It is revealing that so many are willing to jettison what has been codified for mere expediency in service to their perception of our greater good. This displays the heights of arrogance in that members of both parties are willing to jettison the constitutional process for either naked political gain or worse, their sense of fairness and right. Fairness and right have little to do with the law. We have hope that the law was drawn up with those worthies in mind but cannot rewrite the law on a whim to achieve individual results. The system is what it is and good citizens must have the fortitude to stand by the democratic process codified despite the wafting odor of rotting flesh from Illinois. One cannot, or certainly should not, attempt to make the law whatever they desire it to be in cases such as this. Therein lies a far greater harm to democratic governance than should the equivalent of Chicago Cubs management being placed in charge of appointing one US Senator. The Republic has survived far worse and we have more than enough massaging of the Constitution going on already in service of goals not foreseen, nor intended, by our Founders. We tread a slippery slope when we do so.

For those believers in a vision of pure democracy that calls for a special election to make the will of the people known I propose that the old nostrum that tough cases make for bad law. If it is desired to change the Constitution, there is a process for it. But it is a separate issue from what we now confront, aside from being a thoroughly bad idea. The will of the people was made known when they elected a governor complete with the power to appoint senatorial replacements. We cannot, nor should attempt, to limit those powers ex post facto. It should be borne in mind that, until the Seventeenth Amendment, ratified in 1913, Senators were appointed by the several state's legislatures. The popular election of Senators is less than 100 hundred years old.

Governor Blagojevich has been convicted of no crime and whether or not he ever is, he is the lawful governor of the state of Illinois. His senatorial appointee should be seated forthwith.