Jack & Jill Politics

Yeah, I said it.

Indicted Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s appointment of former Illinois AG Roland Burris is compelling me to write a post on how we so hunger for Black Faces in High Places, that many of us will ignore a lot of questionable shyt just to see that the Black Face, or POC face get the high places.  Some times, they work out; many times, the Black Face/POC face in the High Place has to dance with those who brought them, and most of the time, ITS NOT US.

I’m just saying.  If Bobby Rush wanted to be more effective with his comments yesterday, he probably should have hollered “DOUBLE STANDARD” in addition to playing Race Cards.  Looks like the Senate is going to call his bluff, and as a result of them calling his bluff, this is swaying me towards supporting Burris’ appointment to the U. S. Senate, but not only because he’s a brotha – from what my colleague Rikyrah has pointed out in yesterday’s post, Burris has a clean record and is highly qualified to serve out Obama’s remaining terms because he’s served office as Illinois’ top law enforcement official. Hell, most of Congress consists of shysters (er, lawyers), or at least some who finished law school and have yet to pass their state bar exams (hello, Dark Sith).

And, I don’t get Rush turning back into a Black Panther, when, just over a year or so ago, he sold out the interests of Black people by essentially saying y’all didn’t need free internet access and taking major Payola from the Telecom industries; a fact which I reported on for Black Commentator and got called a “loud-mouth operative” by Rush when he was challenged on it.

Maybe the messenger should have been Rep. Danny Davis, but then someone would have dug up his Moonie Ties, and again the message gets lost in that Hollywood Shuffle done on Capitol Hill.

People, I’m going to say some things that you’re probably not going to agree with, but they need to be put on the table, because when you and I start celebrating the historic event of witnessing an African-American be sworn in as President of the United States, I don’t want you to forget that we need to be committed to holding Barack Obama accountable to the entire nation as well as POC; more than that, Mr. Obama KNOWS that 95% of African-Americans helped get him to the White House, and if he wants to take US and other POC, plus the honest progressive whites who helped get him there on a platform of “Change” and “Progressivism” (yeah, I know – he didn’t really run as a “progressive”), for GRANTED, we need to send the message that if he doesn’t take our concerns SERIOUSLY, he will get hoisted by his OWN PETARD.

Back to this Blagojevich appointment of Roland Burris.  My first response was that this appointment was tainted, but in all honesty, Obama and Harry Reid opened the door on the challenge to seat Burris because of his apparent connection to Blagojevich.  I’m sorry, but neither Blago, nor Reid or Obama have clean hands here.  Blago tried to shake down the President-Elect, which forced Jesse Jackson, Jr. to turn snitch to save his own political career.  No one should have been meeting with Blago regarding replacing Obama in the Senate, and anyone interested in the seat who met with the Governor, regardless of race or gender, have the appearance of being tainted.

Besides, Blago’s been under investigation for what, three or four years?  Anyone meeting with him needed to assume his office was wired by the Fibbies and if they met with him, it should have been in public park or some old lady’s apartment where the Mob would pay the old woman to go to Atlantic City for a day or two so they could use her apartment to make plans and strategy.

Yet, Harry Reid, as well as the President-Elect, needs to explain why Traitor Joe Lieberman was allowed to keep his Senate seat, his committee assignments and his privileges when the man all but joined the Republican Party by publicly dissing PE Obama, and actively campaigning for Obama’s opponent, Sen. John McCain – thereby signing off on all the race-baiting  inherently involved in McCain’s campaign, brought with an assist from the Moose Queen Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin. Reid needs to explain what the difference is in keeping Lieberman the Weasel vs. seating Roland Burris, the near-squeaky clean former AG from Illinois.  This is a no-brainer; I think Burris can be more counted on to caucus with the Democrats than a fake Independent like Lieberman.  And Lieberman has already shown them his ass to kiss; Reid and most of the Democrats in the Senate, including our PE, willingly applied the ChapStick and got to kissing Lieberman’s ass; thereby affording Lieberman more importance in the Senate than he should have.  When Lieberman resorts to shanking them, I don’t want to hear shyt from Reid or Obama except to say “We knew this could happen.”

In the end, it is a question of race, and it is also the DOUBLE STANDARD operating in full effect; but what is more worrisome to me is that our PE is siding with those engaging in the DOUBLE STANDARD through his public statements on the matter.  However, PE Obama will be reminded of the fact of his ethnicity soon enough and fast enough, the minute he makes an unfortunate decision, which we’ve already more or less accepted.  Yet, it would not be an excuse from calling the bullshyt DOUBLE STANDARD when it is presenting itself front and center, and especially when its coming from a man people worked too damned hard to get elected in the first place.

If Obama was given a pass for not using his considerable influence to kick Joe Lieberman out of the Democratic Caucus, he also needs to be confronted as to why he’s applying said influence to kick out another legit Democratic African-American from the Senate.

Forget about the fact Obama cussed out Lieberman on the Senate Floor or in the Senate Chambers – he didn’t take down Lieberman when he had the chance; Eff needing Lieberman to caucus with the Dems. You guys think Harry Reid isn’t versed in all kinds of parliamentary procedures that would have neutralized Lieberman?  I shyt you not; Reid’s a walking enclycopedia when it comes to Senate parliamentary rules and procedures.  He even used one to stop Bush from making Presidential appointments to government positions without Senate approval during the last recess.  Lieberman has already shown what a weasel he is and they allow him to continue being a weasel by not punishing him for his treachery.  Yet, Burris is appointed by a Federally indicted Governor, per the Constitution and any other applicable law,  and Obama and Reid now get their knickers in a twist?

Get.The.Hell.Out.Of.Here.With.That.Shyt. Keeping a weasel like Lieberman among them to further undermine and side with the Republicans; not to mention engaging in his own form of extortion when he doesn’t get his way – that’s far, far WORSE than seating Blagojevich’s appointment of Burris to the Senate.  For my money, I’m looking forward to Burris writing another book about how racism in the United States Senate kept him from being appointed and possibly implicating our PE, who didn’t need to be involved in this shyt AT ALL. Obama has been remarkably adept at keeping out of controversies he doesn’t need to be in, so somebody needs to ask him why he’s all in this Senate Appointment Kool-Aid now, when he really doesn’t need to be?  I mean, Pat Fitzgerald cleared him and his staffers from the very beginning and even looked like one of them dropped dime on Blago to the Feds to further keep him from soiling Obama’s ascendency to the White House.

One of our regulars, Town, already stated that at the end of the day, Burris will be seated in the Senate to finish out Obama’s term, but if people are THAT CONCERNED about the lack of POC in the United States Senate, they can change that by forming coalitions and grassroots organizations in making an outreach effort to recruit, groom and train ethnic candidates to run for Senate Seats in competitive states, such as Illinois. I’ve already signed on with a brotha from Texas whose job is a political campaign manager for Black candidates in the state of Texas, and I’m drafting the plan as I write this. It’s way past time for states like California, New York, Florida, Texas, to send more African-Americans, Latinos, Asians and Native Americans to the United States Senate.  The Political Capital needed to deal with the real issues our Nation is facing: War in the Middle East, Gaza/Palestine/Israel; the Effed-Up economy; the need for Universal Healthcare systems like those in Europe and Canada – the Wall Street Eff-Up and Bailout with no accountability, but they want to make the Auto Industry tap dance for their twos and fews – Obama needs to be spending his political capital on those issues; not worrying about and involving himself in the process of picking the person succeeding him in the Senate.

If it’s one thing the Democrats know how to do and do it well, they know how to engage in circular firing squads and squander what political capital they gain on shyt that doesn’t really matter in the end.  There is leadership and there is arrogance and hubris – if our PE is not careful, the smallest event not worth worrying about might be the one that tangles him up to the point he will not be an effective POTUS, and we don’t need to be so caught up in celebrating his entree into the White House that we miss keeping him on track to do what he was elected to do.

UPDATE: Poster Rob M pointed out some salient facts that I will discuss in their entirety.

Rob said I should have mentioned Hillary clinton and others whom Obama appears to be rewarding for foul behavior, but slinging POC under the bus, even those who have supported him.  On the whole, the PE needs to explain himself why he feels rewarding those who tried to TAKE HIM OUT is the thing to do under the guise of “reconciliation” when those who are ardent supporters are being spat upon and derided.  He is going to need those who have his back – either in his hubris he refuses to see that, or in his arrogance, he believes he can ignore it, just like the Clintons thought they could whip us and we’d come back to them with a few soft words like ol’ hound dogs.

Hound dogs bite when they get tired of shyt, and so will WE.