A Different View on Burris: Let Him Into the Senate

Posted by Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive at 3:34 PM on January 2, 2009.

Harry Reid and the Democrats in the Senate should go ahead and seat Roland Burris from Illinois.

Yes, Rod Blagojevich appears to be a deluded shakedown artist.

Yes, the wiretaps show him in about as unflattering a light as possible.

But he is still the governor of Illinois. And so, he was perfectly within his legal rights to appoint Burris.

And there’s no doubt that Burris meets the constitutional requirements, and his résumé’s not bad, either. The guy was a former state comptroller and attorney general of the state of Illinois.

It’s not like Blagojevich appointed a no-good in-law, or something.

Plus, Harry Reid doesn’t have a legal leg to stand on.

In 1969, the Supreme Court ruled in the Adam Clayton Powell case that the House of Representatives “is without power to exclude any member-elect who meets the Constitution’s requirements for membership.”

Surely, the same reasoning applies to the Senate.

And there’s a larger point here, too: A prosecutor, by accusation alone, should not be allowed to throw someone out of elective office.

Remember, Blagojevich hasn’t even been indicted yet, much less convicted.

To deny him his authority on the basis of a criminal complaint is to hand a prosecutor enormous power.

We saw how Ken Starr tried to exercise such power.

Overturning an election by prosecutorial accusation is profoundly anti-democratic.

Harry Reid shouldn’t let that happen.

Tagged as: senate, reid, powell, blagojevich, blago, burris

Matthew Rothschild is the editor of The Progressive.