Political Update

Political Update, Episode 1

This is Political Update, episode 1.  Today is Wednesday, December 31, 2008.  I'm Jay Hutchinson, and this is what's been happening the political arena.
Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich yesterday appointed 71-year-old former Illinois Att. General Roland Burris to replace President-elect Barack Obama in the US Senate.  As Blagojevich is investigated on federal corruption charges related to a possibly trying to sell that Senate seat for his personal gain, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has vowed to refuse to seat any appointment made by Blagojevich in light of the alleged criminal conduct.  All 50 Senate Democrats have called for Blagojevich's resignation.  When Blagojevich attempted today to file his official proclamation to declare Burris the new Junior Senator, the office of the Illinois Secretary of State, Jesse White, refused to take it.  Burris has since filed a petiton with the Illinois Supreme Court asking it to force White to accept the appointment.  The argument put forth by Burris' lawyers is that state law, quote, "imposes an unconditional obligation on the Secretary of State", unquote, to accept such an appointment, leaving no discretion to the Secretary.  According to Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight.com, this petition is likely to work, and the appointment will go through.  The next barrier for Burris is Reid.  While Silver suggests that a refusal to seat Burris will entice Burris to sue under the 1969 US Supreme Court decision Powell v. McCormack. In this case, Adam Powell, a US Representative was embroiled in scandal.  When he was reelected in 1966, John McCormack, Speaker of the House, asked Powell to abstain from taking the oath of office.  When Powell took the oath, the house passed in March 1967 H.Res 278, which declared his seat vacant.  Powell sued for the seat and won the case, with the Court ruling that "excluding" a duly elected representative is not allowed, though expulsion by a two-thirds vote is.  The case was moot for Powell, as he was once again reelected in 1968 and seated with a fine of $25000.  However, as the case suggests, Reid will not have as hard a time in expelling Burris from the seat.  Reid's office said today that it believes that it is allowed to judge the appointment and whether or not it's tainted by fraud under Article 1, Section 5 of the Constitution.
In other news, Republican Senator Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken are still going at it in the Minnesota Senate Recount.  Franken leads right now by 49 votes pending the possible counting of 1346 rejected absentee ballots.  Today in St. Louis Cty, Minnesota, one of the most liberal areas of the state, 161 absentee ballots were under consideration for counting.  Per the Minnesota Supreme Court guidelines set forth, both campaigns must agree on a ballot for it to be counted.  Of the 161 ballots, 60 were rejected, all but one by Coleman.  The natural response for Franken would be to reject ballots in redder counties, but Nate Silver suggests that Franken may pocket such actions as an argument under the equal-protection clause should he lose the election.  Coleman has since asked the Minnesota Supreme Court to start over the counting of the rejected Absentee Ballots with hundreds of more ballots included in the count.  This filing was made on the grounds that wrongly rejected ballots and others excluded from review weren't being judged consistently.
This has been Political Update, episode 1 for Wednesday, December 31, 2008.  Questions and comments are greatly appreciated and can be sent to rslnerd@gmail.com.  Our website is politicalupdate.podbean.com.  I'm Jay Hutchinson; thanks for listening.