Jack & Jill Politics

The word is that Rod Blagojevich is going to appoint Roland Burris to fill Obama’s Senate Seat.

Who is Roland Burris?

He’s the former Comptroller and former Attorney General of the State of Illinois.

Quite frankly, if White folks had been doing right, he’d be the Governor of Illinois.

For all the talk of the Bradley/Wilder effect, Burris is never mentioned, but should be.

Burris, an African-American, had held TWO statewide offices. He wasn’t born in Chicago. He was born and raised in downstate Illinois, so it’s not like the downstate folk didn’t know him.

But, when push came to shove, they didn’t vote for him in the Democratic Gubertorial Primary against the White nobody from Chicago with the odd name.

Burris is a standup man, and wouldn’t be a bad caretaker for the Senate seat. He was the first African-American to win statewide office. Character-wise, he’s sterling. He’s the Anti-Blago..LOL

PS- I told you so – that Blago wouldn’t resign…LOL

UPDATE:
Here is the video of the press conference.

I just watched the video. I thought it was pretty hilarious and straight up Chicago.

Let’s get this clear, for all of Harry Reid’s blustering, I don’t know if they have the law on their side. The closest Supreme Court precedent is Adam Clayton Powell’s case, and the House lost that one.

As for Jesse White (Secretary of State of Illinois) bullshitting that he won’t certify it, let’s just say he’s old and Black folk aren’t going to tolerate that BS from him. They won’t be forgiving.

LMAO at Bobby Rush. Absolutely hilarious.
I guess I take a different view of this because this is local to me. But, politics in Chicago hasn’t been this entertaining since the days of Council Wars.

UPDATE II: I was asked in the comments if I’m ok with this.

I am absolutely OK with this. I look at this through a local lens. Roland Burris is totally fine as a candidate. Black folk in Chicago want to put a Black person in the Senate. We see absolutely nothing wrong with Burris being the choice. Can he win in a Democratic Primary in 2010 – who knows. But, by 2010, Blago will probably be in an orange jumpsuit, and taken down several other folks with him. Burris will have the incumbency and his own voting record. At the very least, even if he doesn’t run for election, you would have given another Black candidate, the chance to begin from the starting line just like anyone else. This is about local politics, and we wish the President-Elect the best, but we have to take care of local Black folks. And, like I said, I wanna see Harry Reid take this to court.

And, as I pointed out, Black folk are ‘ suspect’ of the entire Blago takedown. Doesn’t sound right to us. Plus, if you’ve lived under King Richard Daley II, who has had pretty much EVERYONE around him arrested, indicted and convicted – it will take a lot to convince Black folks that Blago is the worst person, or even the worst Illinois crook. Blago’s only been around 7 years, and he’s been fighting with all the folks that have made Black folks’ lives miserable in Illinois for a long time before we heard his name. He probably is stupid. Crooked – yep. But, consider the crookdom that we’ve seen up close and personal, Blago just isn’t this scary bogeyman national media wants to make him out to be.

I forgot to add that another impetus for this is the LOSS of Emil Jones as the President of the Illinois Senate. Jones has been very good to the Black community, fighting for it, cause we know how we are NOT served by Massa Michael Madigan, Speaker of the Illinois House. That adds another level to this political drama.