Forget what you hear on television; those idiots never get the story right (well, not completely right).

Governor Blagojevich has appointed Roland Burris to fill the empty Senate seat. He has the absolute right to do so. Harry Reid says he won't seat Burris, but he doesn't have that right.

In the late 1960s, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. was prevented by the House from taking his seat, because he was under suspicion of having committed crimes. He sued, and the Supreme Court ruled in Powell v. McCormack that the House overstepped its authority.

It appears that the Supreme Court ruled explicity that someone duly elected to Congress must be seated. In this case, Burris isn't elected, but is duly appointed under Amendment XVII and Illinois state law, so he must be seated.

But...

The Constitution (Article I, Section 5) states that either House of Congress may, "with the Concurrence of two-thirds, expel a Member." So it seems that if Harry Reid can get 2/3 of the Senate to vote to expel Burris, that would end Burris's tenure.

But (there's always more) ...  read more »

Today, I received a fundraising letter from the DSCC, signed by former President Bill Clinton. If they want my money, they're going to have to earn it, something the Democratic leadership in Congress has so far failed to do. Following up on Democracy for NYC's (www.dfnyc.org) letters to DCCC Chair Chris Van Hollen, I sent the following return:

Dear President Clinton:

Last November was the first election night on which I was able to cheer the results in 14 years. After spending the day in GOTV work, I had the pleasure of partying into the night with a large group of progressive political activists. The standard line that night was, “our long national nightmare is over.” Even though we understood that there was still much work to be done, and some things would get worse before they got better, we were (I felt) turning a very sharp corner.

Since then, the folly of the Senate in failing to stop the appointment of Justice Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court has begun to reap long-lasting, horrible results. Recently, in one day, that Court denied free speech to students but upheld them for big-money special interests.  read more »

Senator Craig Thomas (R-WY) died Monday. It was not unexpected, but it does open up some interesting possibilities.

Well, no it doesn't.

In most states, the governor gets to choose a new Senator who serves until the next election. Since Wyoming has a Democratic governor, this would result in Democrats picking up a seat in the Senate.

Except ... under Wyoming law, since Thomas was a Republican, the Republicans get to put together a list of three candidates, from which the governor has to choose one.

Oh well.