Tuesday, January 06, 2009

The Capstone of His Career


(Image courtesy of reallyboring.net)

Without a doubt, the most entertaining political drama these days is the ongoing Blagojevich scandal. Also without a doubt, the most entertaining aspect of that scandal is the embattled governor's appointment of the wheezy old political hack Roland Burris to the Senate seat formerly occupied by President-Elect Obama; the same Senate seat the disgraced governor is accused of trying to sell to the highest bidder.

While Burris has not one distinguishing characteristic other than his color, and while the Democratic leadership is determined not to let him take Obama's old Senate seat, he is no dummy, certainly smart enough to know that procedure for his appointment was followed to the letter and that his record is clean: not a single conviction (which, I suppose, should be regarded as a major distinguishing characteristic for a Cook County pol), in fact, he even brags about it. He intends and expects to be called the Distinguished Gentleman from Illinois.

Just to make it all perfect, though, Burris is giving the finger to Harry Reid and his pals, playing the race card for their having the temerity to challenge his being seated. The charge of racism is an old tactical favorite of the Democrats and one they are finding, to their utter dismay, as difficult to defend as the Republicans do when similarly charged by the Democrats.

Roland Burris will sit in the Senate, we may be sure of it. The photo you see above is of his own tombstone, built in advance, even though he is the picture of health and should have no difficulty serving out one or several Senate terms. In the center of Burris' monument to himself, underneath the boldly chiseled words "Trail Blazer," (click on the image to enlarge) is a list of his achievements. At the top of that list there still is space for one final entry. The word "Senator" should fit in easily, with room to spare.

(Thanks to Captain Yips.)

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