Political scandals have a way of going from shocking, to trifling, to ridiculous to flat out laughable. Yesterday, the controversy surrounding Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich got to that point when he appointed former state attorney general Roland Burris to president-elect Barack Obama's U.S. Senate Seat.

I guess at this point, for ol' Blago, there's nothing left to do but try to get his picture next to the word 'sleaze' in the dictionary.

Some say it was actually a brilliant political stunt aimed at thumbing his nose at all of his accusers, and they may have a point. As governor, he still has the power to appoint someone to the position and he hasn't been found guilty of anything yet.

On the other hand, nobody would actually take this appointment seriously given the charges of trying to sell Obama's seat to the highest bidder. Even the Democratic Caucus said they would not seat Burris and Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White said he would NOT certify Burris under the law. ...



The press conference Tuesday to announce all this was a circus. In fact, it reminded me of the promo segments of early 80s World Wrestling Federation TV shows with Mean Gene Okerlund, Rowdy Roddy Piper and Mr. Fuji.

Yes, it was that funny and I was ROTFLMAO over the whole thing.

Check out the whole press conference below.


The funniest part, but unfortunately most degrading to black folk is when Burris called Rep. Bobby Rush up to the podium and he spent more time yapping than Blagojevich and Burris put together. Almost immediately, Rush utters the one thing that made this whole debacle more stupid then it has been the whole time: "I don't think that anyone, any U.S. senator who's sitting in the Senate right now wants to go on record to deny one African-American for being seated in the U.S. Senate." Then he called such a move "lynching." Wow.

I guess, Bobby may have seemed like the appropriate person to cosign this whole deal since he's the only one who ever actually defeated Obama in an election.

But damn it man, you just blew the whole game. Yeah, I'm all for having black U.S. Senators, because Obama's only the third one we've had since Reconstruction. But when we get a new one he comes as an appointee of a governor so corrupt he makes Richard Nixon look like Nelson Mandela. How is that supposed to help black people? Does he really think the Congressional Black Caucus would go for some B.S. like that?

If they do, you can best believe that I will be tearing them a new one on this blog, and I will be at their Annual Leadership Conference in September clowning like you wouldn't believe.

It is important that there is representation of African American interests in Congress, that much is clear. But those interests will not be represented at all if the representative is not ELECTED, or at least appointed in good faith. There is a reason we keep trying to achieve democracy in this Republic; it's because everyone needs to have their voice heard.

Burris' appointment is the political equivalent of having an apple shoved in the mouths of all Illinois folks ... black, white, Latino, native, Asian or whatever.

Now, with all this said, Blagojevich does have everyone by the balls. He is actually following the law and until he is either removed from office or resigns, he does have the power to put whomever he wants into that seat. But what he has done is for all intents and purposes, de facto racism.

He's using black people who invoke placing blacks in positions artificially in order to create more of a political maelstrom and that's f**ked up.

Obama himself was elected by a majority vote. On Jan 20th, he'll take office because the people chose him. Blagojevich, Rush and Buriss seem to be out to prove that black people should only be involved in politics as tokens.

Now roll that one up and smoke it, baby.

Blogger's Note: An original version of this post erroneously said Barack Obama is the first black U.S. Senator since Reconstruction. In actuality Edward R. Brooke (R-Massachusetts); Carol Mosely Braun (D-Illinois) had both served in the Senate before Obama. During the post-Civil War period Hiram R. Revels and Blanche K. Bruce, both Mississippi Republicans, were also U.S. Senators.